Ok, this is going to be fun:

For the last six months, I've been tracking how much I spend on everything: food, utilities, clothes, entertainment, school stuff. I haven't been doing much, though, apart from entering numbers into an Excel sheet and clucking to myself about how I spend too much money. I've been calling this "my budget," even though I haven't really been limiting myself to any amount of money (within my own judgment, of course).

This month, though, is going to be different.

This month, I'm going to give myself a budget and make sure I stick to it. I've taken an average of how much I've spent over the last six months (minus outliers, like my computer, furniture, etc.) and deducted 10%, which is how I'm going to limit the amount I spend. I've divvied up this deduction to different areas listed above, although obviously I can't pay less than my fixed payment on my cellphone, which just means I'll have to cut something else down even further.

Think I can do it? I'm not so sure myself, but I'm going to try. I should have done this long ago, but I didn't, and that's no excuse not to start now. I'll keep you updated!