How I budget in "weeks"

As I mentioned earlier, I budget in weeks and months.  Yesterday we saw a look at my monthly budget for April.  So why do I then also budget in weeks?

I have a really hard time sticking to a budget over the entire month.  If I budget a specific amount for food, I’ll easily go through it in the first two weeks of the month.  To avoid these issues, I give myself a weekly “allowance” that goes towards everything I need to pay for during that week (Monday – Sunday).

At the end of the weekend I build my weekly budget.  This week I have money budgeted to pay for food and for my climbing gym membership.  I’m not expecting to have any other expenses this week as this weekend will be fairly low key since my parents will be visiting.

This allows me to force my food spending to be spread out throughout the month.  This while process also forces me to look at what needs to get paid.  If something unexpected comes up I take money from my slush fund.   Right now my slush fund is at an uncomfortable low amount, which has me motivated to stick to a stricter budget.

Breaking down my budget into weeks also allows me to reset more quickly if I’ve had an especially expensive week and blown my budget.  The main reason I do it his way is that helps me with my motivation to stick to my budget.

That said, I’ll probably continue to share my monthly budget each month but I won’t bore you with the details.  The important part is that I’ve found a method of budgeting that works for me.  I’m making a plan for where my money should go and I try to stick to it as much as possible.