On our way to the store last night, R offered his hand in high-five as an acknowledgement of our budgetary success this month.  We managed to avoid overspending our entertainment budget, and we even had money left over in our grocery budget!  Miracle of miracles.  He was very excited by our accomplishment, and suggested we carve out a place in the budget to reward ourselves for a job well done.  When we stick to our budget, we can use this money for positive reinforcement to do it again the next month.

I will admit that I was taken aback when he suggested this.  Spend money as a reward for not spending money?  What school of logic are we from?  And then I began to think that maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea after all…

R and I have many struggles with budget management.  Frankly, he doesn’t like it. 

He understands the intrinsic benefit of having a budget.  He appreciates that our checking account maintains a decent balance.  Just this past weekend, when we purchased two airline tickets, we put the cost on our card with the intention of transferring the money back in from other accounts.  R commented on the convenience of having enough funds in our joint account to cover the cost of two plane tickets, without rushing to transfer the money back in.  But the restrictions of following a budget?  He hates them.  I really can’t say I blame him. 

I take comfort in the fact that we’re not living paycheck to paycheck.  But sometimes, after a long day at work, I want to go out  to dinner, instead of cooking whatever is on the menu that night.  Or maybe I want to go down the street and enjoy a nice, cold beer.  But unless we’ve “budgeted” for that, then I feel guilty.  Hell, sometimes I feel guilty even if we have budgeted for it. 

And this is why budgeting rewards is brilliant.  When we allocate money to specific categories in the budget, we are committing ourselves to spending that money in applicable ways.  So why is it all boring stuff, and necessities?  Why can’t we enjoy our income on occasion? 

That’s not to say our budget is strictly business.  We have a liquor budget, an entertainment budget, a movie budget….  But realistically, we don’t spend much on enjoying ourselves.  In total, our enjoyable expenditures amount to just above $300 a month – that includes money we put aside for celebration and travel.  And that’s for both of us – to go out to dinner on, to socialize with friends, to visit non-local family and friends.  That certainly fails to accommodate the lifestyles of two young professionals with a social life. 

So we’ve agreed to create a reward budget.  We will spend this money only if we manage to keep all of our budget categories at or under the monthly limit.  If we are able to do this, we have $10 to reward ourselves.  If we fail to stick to our budget, the reward will go directly into our savings account.  You see, this is truly a win-win.  Stick to the budget?  Get a reward.  Overspend?  Bulk up the savings account.  I even thought it might be fun to put a risk factor on it – we can decide to roll one successful month over into the next.  If we are successful for two consecutive months, we get to spend $20!  But if we roll the $10 into the next month, and fail to meet our goal that second month, then all $20 goes into savings – we don’t reward ourselves with the $10 from the previous success.

Since I imagine it will take us a while (and a few rewards) before we’re comfortable with the rollover, here’s the question of the day: How can we reward ourselves with $10 for two people?

A few ideas are listed after the jump:

1. Take in a flick at the b-run movie theater

2. Go out for ice cream

3. Take a cheap bottle of wine, some cheese, and crackers and have a picnic in the park

4. New, fun kitchen gadget

5. Fishies for our outdoor pond

6. Board game

7. Thrift-store treasure hunt

8. Tourist in our own town

9. Visit the nickel arcade

10. Put some gas in the car and drive to the beach (or mountain!) for a day trip

11. OMSI – $2 days are the first Sunday of the month (through March ‘09)

12. Go fishing!

13. Plants or Flowers for the garden

15. Mussel shooters at the Montage

16. Saturday market treasure

17. Go berry-picking

18. Enjoy a light breakfast out together

19. Happy hour!

20. Split a bucket of balls at the driving range

Others?  I’ve been thinking we should trade off months – R picks our reward one month, and I pick the next.  Any other “under 10″ ideas out there?