The Teddy Budget

http://imgur.com/gallery/EGTVK

I've tried many methods but I've found one that works for me.


I get $1100 a month.
It goes into my bank account.
Of that, $535 is taken off automatically for rent. This number will increase 2% a year or so without any input from me.

Beyond this, $80 is paid towards an old debt (in short, I went a few months without paying rent and didn't end up homeless, so, I'm repaying that)
Beyond this, $60 is paid towards my internet.

My heating, electricity, water, etc, is all included within my rent. Before you think that's an amazing deal, keep in mind that my apartment is roughly 11 square meters in size. This compares to a city bus which is 30 square meters in size.

Anyway

After that I leave $10 in. Some of that is for bank fees. Some of that is for my Skype which I use as my phone. Some of that is for my Patreon donations to people who create hours of content I enjoy.

this leaves me with $415 "cash"

This "cash" goes on "everything else"

The ideal breakdown is as follows:

$10 a day for food, and $115 for whatever else.

The functional breakdown in terms of how it actually works, is as follows.


I put a $5 bill into about 30 envelopes/pouches. Each of these 30 pouches has a number written on it corresponding to a day of the month. On that day, I take out the money that's in the pouch and that's the money for the day.

Normally I don't take out future day monies, but I can if, for example, I'm going shopping for a weeks worth of food, or, an unexpected emergency hit.

The remaining $265 is spend in various ways.

Most of it simply gets held back and carried over. I'll frequently shove a $10 in every second pouch, or even throw a $20 into every sunday pouch. Normally though I use it to boost my food spending for foods that cost more than $5 a day to eat.

Of this $415 I'd estimate, in an average month...


$20 gets spent on video games
$10 gets spent on medicine
$15 gets spent on alcohol
$15 on care supplies (mouthwash, toilet paper, and so on)

which only totals $60


There's always some rounding

So that means outside of the $5 pouches, for food, the above noted items, and the stuff at the top of this post, that I have about $200 in cash to spend on "whatever"


At this time, that entire $200 goes towards food, which I view as a combo of food and entertainment. This means I can get some fast food, or some more expensive junk food, or items at the store that are not on sale.