to overshoot the budget

4.3

Spend more money than planned for a project

phrasal verb
/ˈoʊvərˌʃut ðə ˈbʌdʒɪt/

: exceder el presupuesto

After realizing they had overshot the budget, the team had to cut back on other planned expenses.

Examples

Tesla overshot his monetary budget for the tower project he was constructing in an attempt to give the world free energy, but as we know, it never came to fruition (due to money problems), and Tesla couldn't finish it.

Blog text (17)
Built for a group of cane farmers, the mill overshot its budget, never yielded the profit Odom projected, and has been idle for several years.

Blog text (4)
The company overshot the budget for the new marketing campaign, leading to financial difficulties.
Due to unexpected expenses, they were forced to admit that they had overshot the budget for the renovation.

Synonyms

to overspend

vsto overshoot the budget

7 4.4

To use more money than you can afford or planned to use

is about exceeding an allocated amount set for a project or purpose

Antonyms

to underspend

5.7

To use less money than planned or expected

How Much

to overshoot the budget

4.3

to overspend

7 4.4

Surface Forms

overshoot the budget infinitive

overshooting the budget present participle

overshoots the budget third person singular

overshot the budget past

overshot the budget past participle

Morphology

overshoot + the + budget

The meaning 'to spend more than was planned' is directly and compositionally derived from 'overshoot' (to pass or exceed a target) combined with 'budget' (a planned amount of money). This follows a straightforward verb + object pattern common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would be able to infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Overshoot the budget comes from the image of aiming at a target and going past it. The planned money is the 'target', so to overshoot the budget means 'to spend more than planned'.