One important factor in helping you to stick to your budget is that it allows for some wiggle room or fun spending. This is an area that really can make a difference. In many ways a budget is like a diet for your money. If you set yourself up with too many restrictions you are setting yourself up for failure. It is important that you realize this and you may want to make the changes more slowly, so that you do not fail.
One important thing to include in your budget is a fun money category. This should be spending money that you have to spend on whatever you want. It is an allowance for each spouse. You may also want to include a category for the family and it could cover a trip to the movies or some other fun activity each month.
This category works the best if you deal with it as a cash only category. You can pull that amount of money at the beginning of the month, distribute it, and then you do not need to worry about it for the rest of the month. The cash system is nice, because one point of the money is that you are not accountable to anyone on how you spend it. It is yours to spend or save as you see fit.
You may want to set up guidelines as to what would fit into this category, and what would be covered by different categories. For example some couples would include haircuts in this category, while other couples would not. Other times one person might want the budget to cover something that is solely for the benefit of that person. This might be a gym membership, a CD or DVD club, a magazine subscription or video rental. You should set up before hand what expenses you will cover in your normal budget, and what you think is fair to have come out of fun money. This will depend on you and your family.
It is important to stick to the fun money category even when things are tight. Often people will skip this category, but then end up spending more on small things throughout the month, because they do not have a specific amount set aside for the month. If you are using cash for this category, it also helps to limit overspending.
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