So Curtis and I pride ourselves on staying completely within budget... most months. And our trick to doing so is cash. All of our spending we do with cash only. We pay most of our bills online, but spending we do with cash.
I spend $50 a week on groceries. I go to the grocery store with only a 50 dollar bill, so I have no choice but to stay under budget. I always make a list first, of the dinners I plan to make for the week, the things I need to buy, and the things I want to buy if I have enough money for them. As I shop, I am adding everything up in my head the entire time, and often go put things back when I realize I'm out of money for essentials like bread and milk.
The other week I did my weekly grocery shopping and, like always, was just under the week's grocery budget. I went home and put everything away and got started on dinner. But then I realized we were out of jam! I didn't realize it before so it didn't make the list and therefore didn't buy any. We really couldn't live without jam because PB&Js are about the only food Curtis will make for himself when I'm not around and he eats them quite frequently. So I looked through what I bought and decided what we could live without: cooking spray.
So the next day Zander and I made the trip back to the store with our receipt and our cooking spray. We made the return and walked down the isle with the $2.75 we got back. We found the absolute cheapest strawberry jam, which was on sale for $2.49. Thank goodness! So we had our jam for the week, and since then we've been able to buy our cooking spray. :)
I guess that's essentially what budget living is: deciding what is the priority and only buying what you need.
A little side story... I like raspberry jam and Curtis likes strawberry jam. Since we've been married I always just buy strawberry jam because I know that's his favorite. The other day Curtis turned to me and said, "You know how I know that you love me? Because you always buy strawberry jam."
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