So I’m going to try a new money-saving experiment. This one involves budgeting my meals, entertainment, and splurges heavily. Before I would make my own meals, but I also ate out quite a bit. I also went to the occasional movie with popcorn. So now I’m going to see how much I save by not eating out and not having entertainment-related expenses (as well as other expenses). The way I’m going to do this will be after the cut.

For the first two weeks of the month of January I will go about as  I do normally. I will eat out occasionally, but also make my own meals. I am going to keep all my receipts in a little box and then calculate the total that I spent those two weeks.

The second two weeks of January I will start budgeting heavily, giving myself a max of only $3 everyday ($42 for 2 weeks). I will withdraw $42 in cash at the beginning and keep my cards at home. For emergencies I will be allowed to go home and get my credit card (for example, if I got towed).

So my final amount I could be saving will be (the first two weeks) – $42 + how much cash I have left – (how much I had to use on my credit card because I HAD to).

This will let me know whether my budgeting is actually effective in saving me money.

I am hoping to learn a few things from this experiment.

1) Is it viable to live on $3 a day? – Do I need more than $3 a day or is it enough for me?

2) Does it drastically lower my happiness levels? – Is this kind of budgeting going to start making me unhappy in any way?

3) Will it decrease my productivity and health? – If I’m ending up the week eating only ramen, then it’s not worth it to budget because ramen is very bad for the health.

4) Is it putting a strain on my relationship? – Does my girl think I’m a complete bum?

5) Perhaps I need to raise my daily budget to make these saving experiments viable?