No matter who you are there will come a time when you make a money mistake that comes back to haunt you. This is true even if you have a detailed budget that you follow down to every last letter. Personally, I try to follow my budget day in and day out to ensure that I never make any big mistakes. But a couple years ago I got a bit off track, made a bad decision, and played catch-up for quite some time.

Everybody loves the look and smell of a new car, right? I was the same way, and was determined to buy a new vehicle even if it meant stretching my resources. And of course, I didn’t want just any new car. I wanted a fully loaded Jeep Grand Cherokee with a sticker price of roughly $32k

After looking over my budget I came to the conclusion that I could afford the monthly payment as long as I cut out some other expenses. And for a new car that looked so good I was willing to do so. Unfortunately, my excitement got the best of me and I did not take the time to consider every expense related to my purchase.

What did I forget? For one, my new Jeep had a bigger gas tank than my previous compact car. To go along with this, my past car got 27 miles per gallon whereas the Jeep was lucky to get 17. Do you see where this is going? I forgot to budget for the fact that the Jeep was going to cost me $100 more each month in fuel expenses.

Then came the talk with my insurance company. Once again, I made a mistake. Since the Jeep was so expensive, and obviously newer than my past car, my car insurance premium increased by $35/month. This was not a huge hit, but over the course of the year it worked out to more than $400.

Would a more detailed budget have helped me to avoid this problem? Probably. But more importantly, I needed to take my time and do my homework. Gasoline and insurance costs were present on my budget, but I was in such a hurry that I overlooked these details and moved forward with the purchase anyway.

You want to know if I still have the Jeep, right? Well, after about 18 months of ownership I was lucky enough to trade it in for the amount that I owed on the loan. This allowed me to buy another new car. But this time one that was more suited to my budget.