2/19/08-DB

Breakfast: ($0)
Lunch: ($0)
Dinner: ($0) =)
Total: $0...$32 ahead of budget for the day.

Lacey and I are housesitting for her parents this week. Lacey thought it would be a hassle and I would be crabby but I love it! It's like a mini-vacation. Plus Lacey's mom has left us dinner for the week and I am eating oatmeal every morning instead of my Clifs so I am saving a little bit extra this week as well. I am two days into the week and I have only spent $1, lol.

On top of my usual frugal lunacy, I am playing a game with myself over the next ten days. In ten days I will receive my next paycheck deposit. Presently, if I stick to $32 a day for food and misc. budget and make my anticipated house payment, cell phone payment and keep gas under $40, I will have a residual ~$500 for this pay period. Now the game is, everything over that $500 I can squirell away, I will possibly use as a bankroll to treat myself to the casino to play cards. This is obviously not the best place to transfer my money. However, this is a game I am playing for money over and above the budgetary goals I have already reached. I think it is a good idea to treat oneself. Also, my goal here is to parlay my savings into my live poker bankroll. Then I can keep that separate and focus my game savings on other more important savings issues. It makes sense to me.

I think one way to make saving easier to swallow is to always try and keep in mind why it is you are saving. I think if you are just aimlessly saving because you know you should its a much less palatable task. I save because I have dreams for my family's future and I set goals to achieve those dreams. When I stop and think that I am accumulating wealth so that one day Lacey and I can be financially independent then it really becomes easy to save and scrimp and live below my means. On top of that, I think another way to make saving fun is to plan and budget to save money for incidental shorter-term things in your life that you will be able to enjoy more in the "now." Treat yourself, but treat yourself intelligently. As I poorly tried to explain above, I love to play poker. I especially enjoy going to the casino to play. This hobby however does not really fit into my day to day budget because right now I do not really have the disposable income to risk (sometimes) hundreds of dollars on a game that is based, at least in part, on short-term variation i.e. luck. What I can do is take a couple weeks and spend even less than I normally do and save, in addition to everything else, for a bankroll. It's easy when I realize that my savings will allow me to head up to the casino. This is an isolated example. This idea applies to lots of things. For instance Lacey enjoys buying and wearing nice clothes, some people have a gadget addiction, others enjoy eating fine cuisine. Whatever it is, you can have it and you can have it the right way and enjoy the fruits of your saving that much more because there will be no debt associated with your indulgence.