Personal 'Per-Diem'

[xepo]

I just finished the book (Loved it!), and got my accounts setup with automatic transfers. ING's pretty awesome.

But I needed a way to keep track of my guilt-free spending money. Stuff for like eating out, going out, and the small purchases I might make. And especially needed a way to encourage myself not to eat out as much (for health as much as for my budget, but the budget is easier to monitor). So I took the amount I budgeted for guilt-free, divided it by 31, and that's the amount I can spend per-day monthly. My "per-diem", so to say. I figure, whenever I wanna buy a new video game or a movie or something as small as that, I can cut back on my daily expenses for a few days to let my per-diem allocation rise until I have enough money for it.

I didn't see anything about this in the book (or somehow skipped over it if it was mentioned), so I was wondering if anyone had any tips for managing this type of setup. I'd obviously like my per-diem allocation to rollover from day to day, and month to month. But credit card transactions don't really update as often enough as would be needed. I considered using my cell phone for it, but mine's cheap and very slow. I ordered some PicoPad Wallet Notes (small post-it's with a tiny pen that fit in a credit card holder in your wallet), which seems like a good solution, but I thought you all might have some good ideas!

Thanks!
-Isaiah

[ekrabs]

Welcome xepo!

Budgeting is actually a two-parter. The first is to set up your budget. The second is to keep track of your budget.

The second part, once you work out a system that suits you, should help you keep track of your fun money spending.

The easiest way to start out, if I may suggest, is to cash out the portion set aside for your fun money. So, whenever you are doing something fun, you simply pay it with cash. When you run out of cash, they you'll know you can do it anymore. Easy peasy. May not help you keep track of it, but at least it will help you not over-spend.

[xepo]

Yeah, the cash idea would be easier. I'd like to keep using my card though, for the cash-back and for the tracking. Also I expect to be spending at least some of my fun money online, so I'd need to use a card for those transactions. Thanks for the suggestion though!

[ekrabs]

Find a budge tracking system that will work for you. Some will use something like Mint, which will automatically download all of your transactions for you. The down side is that it may not be in categories that you would like to use (such as it was in my case).

Alternatively, you can use something like an Excel spreadsheet, where the format and categorization can be in any form you like. The downside is that you will have to do it manually.

There are several other methods I'm sure. Good luck!