The only system that has worked me this far is this: I calculate my income for a few months in advance. (I can only do this a few months at a time because my income is very irregular.) Then I write down how much money I should have at the end of each week, based on my income, big expenses like mortgage, and a daily sum from which I must pay for food, other everyday items and smaller bills. So on any given day I try not to buy anything that costs over my daily budget if I haven't gone under the budget yesterday - no advances! And every Monday I check whether I have any extra money, and if I do, I can buy something nice for myself.
This is maybe a kind of a weird and control-freakish system, but I've found that now that I have very little money at this point of my life, keeping a very tight short-term budget is the only thing that keeps me from spending everything at once. It forces me to prioritize the bills and food and only then think about clothes and CD's.
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Date: 2008-05-02 10:25 am (UTC)This is maybe a kind of a weird and control-freakish system, but I've found that now that I have very little money at this point of my life, keeping a very tight short-term budget is the only thing that keeps me from spending everything at once. It forces me to prioritize the bills and food and only then think about clothes and CD's.