Averaging projected monthly expenses across annual budget spreadsheet
I created a budget spreadsheet in Google Sheets that includes separate sheets for each month as well as sheets for projected annual income/expenses and actual annual income/expenses.
There are several expense categories on the annual sheet I don't expect to recur every month e.g. car repairs, concerts etc. I can think of two options to project these:
Randomly insert numbers in a few of the months based on how many times I imagine that expense occurring e.g. If I expect to spend $1200/yr. in car repairs and expect my car to be repaired twice, choosing $600 for June and December.
Averaging out what I expect to spend over all months e.g. $1200/yr. in car repairs is entered as $100/mo.
The problem I see with option 1 is that it throws off projected vs actual comparisons on a month to month basis. If I expect a $600 car repair in June, but it actually happens in July, it looks like I saved money in June and overspent in July.
The problem I see with option 2 is my projected budget will always be higher than the actual budget in all of the months I don't have a car repair.
Is there a common method for handling this, or a method you prefer? Thanks for everyone's help, and sorry if this is an obvious question - I'm terrible and budgeting and spreadsheets!