Woohoo! I got paid Friday - it had been 3 weeks since my last paycheck from my old job. I put some time into thinking why the budget wasn't really working out. Yes, I put together a budget. So a took a new approach. It's probably more psychological than anything but I'm calling it a Projected Cash Flow rather than a budget. Anyway, I worked it through the end of the year.

DH is out of town until Wed so I'll let him look it over then. I have it worked so we each get an allowance on payday that we can spend on whatever we want. He will have to manage it to make it to the next payday and if he wants something more costly he'll have to save for it. Gee, I feel like I'm dealing with a child! One incentive for him will be that whatever 'extra' money we have leftover in certain categories (groceries, household, misc) we will split between reg savings and his boat fund. Right now we are projected to have an 'extra' $1200 not including any savings along the way. So even if we didn't go over projected savings he will get $600 for his boat fund. If he helps drive that number up he will get more. The rest will go to funding our Roth IRAs.

I also moved to the envelope system. I took out the cash I needed and set everything up. I did some shopping over the weekend and it worked fine. DH may have a harder time with it because he seems to be a debit card addict. I did not pull out cash for gas, but for pretty much everything else.

I did some good shopping and didn't go over in any of the categories. But because of some stocking up I will need to watch any spending until it's replenishment. I got some great deals at Walgreens and Schnucks. Pasta waws BOGO at Schnucks for $1.09 and I had a $1 coupon. I didn't read the fine print though and you could only get one BOGO deal. BUT I still got 4 bags of pasta for 1.27 because I had 2 coupons. THe coupon expired that day and I had extra coupons so I left them with the product so someone else could benefit from it.

SOme decent yard sales. I got a turtle sandbox with lid for $5. Then I bought $10 worth of clothes and toys in an affluent neighborhood. It was more than an average yard sale would be but I don't think they really knew how much yard sale stuff goes for. I still got a lot of stuff for $10 but they weren't willing to bargain.