OK, fine, you all talked me into it! Bah!

I'm gonna do the $20 challenge. To make it interesting, I'm actually going to do two: one for me and one for the house. The rules for both of my challenges will be basically the same.

1. I will have not one but TWO Change and Buck Buckets, one for me and one for the house. Since the house pays for its groceries in cash, it can play along!

2. Any extra income I bring in will be split between my bucket and the house's bucket. For instance, my checks are $2692 each month, but I only budget $2600. Therefore, I'm bringing in an extra 92 per month, and I will split that with the house. Before, the house got it all which is decidedly unfair IMO! On the other hand, if my checks go below $2600 when my insurance kicks in, the house will eat that amount because we consider insurance a household expense. Make sense?

3. Any extra income DH brings in that somehow makes it to the house will only go into the house's bucket. Chances of this happening are slim to none

4. For both the house and myself: if monies alloted are underspent by the end of the month, that money is put into the challenge. Similarly, categories that are overspent or splurges can come out of the challenge money at will, but they will be deducted off the total. It should go without saying my bucket would pay for me only splurges, whereas the house bucket would pay for house/couple splurges.

As a note, my fiscal calendar runs a bit odd, so there's a chance I'll be reporting actual updates monthly. See, there's the inflow of cash (which runs the last day of month 1 to the next to last day of month 2), the outflow (which includes bills due from the 6th of month 2 to the 5th of month 3), and actual calendar days.



For instance: I got paid the last day in December (actually the first business day before, but that's whatever). Money from my 12/31/06 paycheck pays bills due 1/6/07 - 1/20/07. Money from the check dated 1/15/07 will pay bills due 1/20/07 - 2/5/07. Money from DH's checks that come in between sits there earning interest.