Companies with high variable costs need to produce less to break even but they also have lower profit margins than companies with high fixed costs, according to Business Dictionary. In this case, suppose Company ABC has a fixed cost of $10,000 per month to rent the machine it uses to produce mugs. If the company does not produce any mugs for the month, it still needs to pay $10,000 to rent the machine. But even if it produces one million mugs, its fixed cost remains the same.

Variable expenses are costs that change over time, such as groceries or movie tickets. Because these costs might fluctuate over a week, month or year, it can be challenging to pinpoint what you’ll spend. Some variable expenses are vital, like groceries, and others, like movie tickets, are optional.

  • However, variable expenses can fluctuate and impact your budget significantly.
  • Commission is also a variable cost as salespeople only get paid if they sell a product or service.
  • With proper planning, even very volatile expenses won’t have to derail your business plans.
  • As with all expenses, find out how variable expenses affect your overall financial health.

If a business increased production or decreased production, rent will stay exactly the same. Although fixed costs can change over a period of time, the change will not be related to production, and as such, fixed costs are viewed as long-term costs. Understanding the difference between the role that fixed and variable expenses play in your life can help you create a budget that prevents you from overspending. It can also help you prepare for other monthly expenditures, such as debt repayment or saving for future expenses. Your health insurance, car insurance, life insurance, and homeowners or renters insurance are also examples of fixed costs.

The Importance of Tracking Your Variable Expenses

This may hold true for tangible products going into a good as well as labor costs (i.e. it may cost overtime rates if a certain amount of hours are worked). Consider wholesale bulk pricing that prices goods by tiers based on quantity ordered. There is also a category of costs that falls between fixed and variable costs, known as semi-variable costs (also known as semi-fixed costs or mixed costs). These are costs composed of a mixture of both fixed and variable components.

These kinds of payments can be the same each month for the entire period of time in which you’re obligated to pay them. While they may not be necessary for basic needs, certain recurring subscriptions could also be included as fixed expenses in your budget. If you pay for a gym membership or streaming services, for example, those costs might stay the same month to month. Aside from being roughly the same amount each month, fixed expenses may also be paid on or around the same date each month. Again, the advantage here is that planning out your budget may be easier to do with recurring bill payments.

  • Other expenses may change once every year or two (like rent), but these would still be considered fixed expenses since they’re the same every month.
  • We excluded payments made to cover minimum payments to cards with a lower APR than Tally or to cards that were in a grace period at the time of payment.
  • Examples of variable expenses include groceries, utility bills, entertainment, and clothing.
  • This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page.

While you could theoretically change your monthly mortgage payment by refinancing your loan or by appealing your property tax assessment, this is not an easy switch. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. For example, raw materials may cost $0.50 per pound for the first 1,000 pounds. However, orders of greater than 1,000 pounds of raw material are charged $0.48. In either situation, the variable cost is the charge for the raw materials (either $0.50 per pound or $0.48 per pound).

This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. Try a 30-day free trial with YNAB and take control of your financial life. Unless you’re moonlighting as the Hulk, you probably chose the 20-pounder and ate your Wheaties for breakfast.

A Variable & Non-Monthly Expense List for Your Budget

Electricity varies each month, depending on the amount used in the household. Since fixed costs are more challenging to bring down (for example, reducing rent may entail the company moving to a cheaper location), most businesses seek to reduce their variable costs. Unlike fixed expenses, which remain constant, variable expenses can change depending on a variety of factors, such as usage or consumption. Examples of variable expenses include groceries, utility bills, entertainment, and clothing. Small businesses with higher variable costs are not like those with high fixed costs—costs that don’t change with revenue and output, such as rent and insurance.

For example, the direct materials expense increases as sales increase. Other variable expenses are commissions, billable labor, piece rate labor, and credit card fees. Many other expenses, such as rent expense, are fixed within a certain activity range. Variable costs are directly related to the cost of production of goods or services, while fixed costs do not vary with the level of production. Variable costs are commonly designated as COGS, whereas fixed costs are not usually included in COGS.

Saving on Variable Expenses

This is something you can easily do with a budgeting app, however, which can minimize the odds of variable expenses sideswiping your spending plan. When making a budget, it’s important to know how to separate fixed expenses from variable expenses. That’s because as the number of sales increases, so too does the variable costs it incurs.

Personal Finance Defined: The Guide to Maximizing Your Money

Marginal costs can include variable costs because they are part of the production process and expense. Variable costs change based on the level of production, which means there is also a marginal cost in the total cost of production. The term cost refers to any expense that a business incurs during the manufacturing or production process for its goods and services. Put simply, it is the value of money companies spend on purchasing and selling items. Businesses incur two main types of costs when they produce their goods—variable and fixed costs. If you can cut back on some variable costs in addition to your fixed monthly bills, you’ll free up more money to save for retirement, build an emergency fund, pay off debt, or invest.

Perhaps a company will allow you to bundle them and save a chunk of cash versus your current providers. Some expenses fluctuate from month to month, while others remain the same. Your payment for rent typically remains the same monthly, but how much you spend on groceries or your monthly utility bill changes constantly. Monthly expenditures that generally bank reconciliation statement definition remain the same are known as fixed expenses, while variable expenses are those that change constantly. While variable costs tend to remain flat, the impact of fixed costs on a company’s bottom line can change based on the number of products it produces. The price of a greater amount of goods can be spread over the same amount of a fixed cost.

Fixed expenses are always easier to account for because they don’t fluctuate as variable expenses do. This means that you can easily plan for them by setting aside money each month to cover the cost. Other ways of budgeting for unreliable variable expenses could include zero-based budgeting where you assign every dollar from your income toward expenses and savings. Or you could rely on the good old envelope budgeting method, creating different envelopes for income and expenses.

Tips for Saving Money on Fixed and Variable Expenses

These costs vary depending on your usage of products or services, and they can change depending on any number of factors. For example, increased use of your car produces a corresponding increase in your variable expenses for fuel and car maintenance. Likewise, if you have guests staying over for an extended time, your variable expense for food might increase.

For example, saving money on renter’s insurance, homeowner’s insurance or car insurance may be as simple as shopping around for a better deal with a different insurer. Saving money on housing, on the other hand, might require you to move or refinance your mortgage. Budgeting for variable expenses can be more challenging, as you may not be able to pinpoint exactly how much they’ll add up to from one month to another. If you’re not tracking variable expenses regularly, it could be very easy to under- or overestimate how much of your budget you should allocate to them.

In addition, variable costs are necessary to determine sale targets for a specific profit target. If this list of true expenses puts your usual monthly budget into the negative, pull out that red pen and do some slashing. If you already have high-interest debt, you can check out our blog post on how to pay off credit card debt. For instance, the annual fee on your credit card or a gym subscription, which you pay for every quarter, might be considered periodic expenses. You can also look back at your bank or credit card statements and add up everything you’ve spent on that expense category, then calculate the average.

Unlike fixed expenses, variable expenses can change significantly over the course of a week, a month, or a year. It’s hard to feel in control of your finances when many costs are out of your hands. Fixed expenses such as car payments generally stay the same, but variable expenses change over time.