dougunderscorenelson

1) Post a giant list of things you’d like to lose on a blog, and invite people to claim what they want providing they pick it up or pay for shipping (I did this twice, and it was great).

2) Give “things that are neat but I don’t need” to people who might appreciate them (but probably eventually throw them out)

3) Just toss stuff.

I basically added up all of my bills, annual expenses, potential plane tickets, and took them out of my yearly income. Then, I decided how much I should be able to save per month, and took that out. The remainder was divided by 12, and I came up with a monthly allowance.

This sounds lame, but, I keep a card with me that has the remaining allowance on it at all times. Whenever I spend, I subtract a rounded-to-the-dollar amount fron that allowance. This makes me think more about spending, realize what I’m spending on, and prioritize a little bit. I’ve been slipping recently, but I’m planning on subtracting a little from next month’s budget to make up for it.