The $250 Challenge

In an effort to save $$ for house stuff, a new car and other big expenses, I put myself on a budget. In the 7+ years of marriage Jon and I have never really had to budget even though we carefully track all of our expenses in Quicken. But now with the down payment gone, a kid and one less income we are starting to the feel the need to tighten the purse strings a smidge. So late one night we discussed a little experiment. Could I limit my weekly spending to $250? Once upon a time $25o seemed like a ton of money. Not so much now when gas is hovering around $3.50 a gallon and other expenses always seem to pop up. This $250 does not cover utilities, mortgage, or other prescheduled expenses like our lawn care and gym membership. But it does cover gas, food and other random things I buy during any given week.

So, week 1 I went $100 over. In my defense, my lovely friend Kristan was in town and we did fun stuff with her and ate good food. The money spent was well worth it. But I was super strict with myself and cut my budget to $150 for Week 2, which was this week. And after filling up the tank of gas on Monday, I was down to about $100. Now it's Friday night and we have $5 left for tomorrow. We have a Groupon for a free large Dominos pizza so we will use that tomorrow. And our pantry is definitely stocked so we will not go hungry. But it has been interesting in how much I question what we really need.

Plus, I really needed those $50 shoes (in porcini). . . they were worth it.

How do you budget?



(No, we did not buy goats as a way to save $$. This is at a petting zoo.)