Penny For Your Thoughts?

(Disclaimer: The title of this post both refers to the subject of the text and references the amazing song from the film "Waiting For Guffman")
Ok, so for the past two and a half years I have been at a job that has afforded me to live rather comfortably. Not quite "Downtown is a great place to buy right now" comfortable, but more like "Oh, I would love to meet you for drinks at Crustacean after work" comfortable. So, after a series of very large, unexpected expenses this month, I have been forced into something of which the mere mention makes me shudder...a BUDGET! I know, I can just feel the earth move under my ruby-encrusted loafers as we speak.

So, for the first time in a while I'm really having to watch those dollars. In a sense, it's kind of fun. It makes me feel so "early 20s" having to say things like "I can't dude, I'm broke" and "do the 99 cent pupusas come with meat or is that extra?". It's also sort of a fun little mission. I'm always furiously trying to undercut my daily allotment so I can have that $10 cushion at the end of the week for a bowl of Pad Thai or something (that sounded way more bleak when I typed it out than in my head). It is sort of funny how quickly you lose momentum to save money as the month goes on, though. I mean, the first 5 days it was: "Instant brown rice with hot sauce for dinner?? Hell yes let's do this!". At this point, if I have one more bowl of rice/grains for dinner I think my stomach and lower intestines are going to collapse in on themselves. And not in a good way.
I do find myself totally overspending on a whim and vehemently defending myself to some imaginary parent figure that hangs over me. "What!? It's the weekend! And these 4 whiskey sours certainly aren't going to enjoy themselves now are they!?". I mean, let's get real, we ALL know that a budget doesn't apply on Saturdays. So what I find myself doing is diligently undercutting my budget during the week, getting to Friday and completely exceeding the margin by which I saved, and then recalculating my finances every Sunday, and having less and less to spend each day. I'm currently at a $6 daily max. Needless to say I'm white-knuckling it until April 1st.
However, it is also very encouraging to know that I CAN live on a really tight budget (albeit barely). I mean, I may have to skip paying my electric bill this month but what am I, some kind of fanatic?? So now this opens up a whole new world for saving money! I mean, if I can drop nearly $1,000 on miscellaneous expenses and still survive, then I can put away cash like nobody's beeswax right into the ol' savings account. Who knows, at this rate, I could be spending my next summer sipping chocolate martinis at the London W. Or, more likely, I could be the proud owner of a new humidifier.
So here's to trying something new and acting like an adult-ish!