Purposeful Spending and Saving - One budgeting change I intend to make in 2014 to save more $$

Every month, I set aside $250 as "extra" money for anything extra that comes up that isn't in our normal budget.  But then I usually end up fudging the numbers some.  For example, I have a dentist bill for $24.20.  I always round up, so that would be $25.  That is a perfect example of an expense that should come out of our "extra" money.  But I'll usually add it to the budget and on pay day, instead of using the "extra" money, I pay for the bill with any extra income that Mr. R received for over time or left over gas or electric money, something like that. The problem with this is, there's always something we need/want for the kids, house, or ourselves that we still end up using the full $250 if its there.

So one of the ways I plan on saving $12,000 this year is to really account for each expense and use the "extra" money the way it should be used.  Then when its gone, its gone for the month and we'll just have to make due with what we have and wait til the following month to purchase anything we really need. Hopefully this will help stop impulse purchases. Any other budgeted money that isn't used or extra income received should be moved to savings instead of covering extra bills that pop up.