As I have been growing up I have noticed that my weekly schedule seems very busy.  Mondays I catch up with Monica, Wednesdays I have date night with my husband, and Fridays I watch the Nimbasa City Strikers.  Every week, I have the same routine scatterbugged with meetings and social gathering here and there.
 
My personal finances also have a weekly routine that lock-on to four different weekly events.  Each week I schedule payments, check my checking account, purchase date night’s dinner and buy groceries.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we are officially in the holiday season.  Tis the season for joyous times with family and friends, an abundance of delicious and fattening foods, and extra reasons to spend money.  In my experience, this is the most challenging time for a lot of people to not cheat on their diets and budgets.
 
Diets and budgets are a bit like the attacks ice ball and rollout.  They may be different types, but they basically do the same thing.  The more times the user hit’s their target, the stronger the attack grows.  If the user misses, just once, it feels like they are starting over from the very beginning.  Unlike the attacks, the goal of my diet and budget are to make them a part of my permanent lifestyle, so if I do mess up I don’t have to start all the way back at the beginning.
 
However, there is long battle ahead of me before I reach that goal.  Whenever I cheat, it lowers my attack’s power and makes the battle longer.  There are three ways that I typically cheat on my budget, planned cheating, spontaneous cheating and last-minute cheating.

​When I started my budget, it gave me a weekly $20 food allowance.  This is cash that I can only use for food and groceries.  Once it is gone, it is gone.  If I run out but have other money available I can use that, but I have to decide whether or not I want to use that money on more food or save it to use on something else.  Over the years my food allowance has fluctuated as high as $30/ week.  Currently, it is sitting at $25/week.  I have developed a bunch of strategies and tips that help me stay within budget each week.

Hello there!  I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving and don’t have to do too much work this weekend.

I had a lovely Thanksgiving and am so grateful for friends, family and Pokémon Sun and Moon.  I may have even seen a shaymin on the way home Thursday night. ;)

I am also really grateful that I didn’t have to use a separate Thanksgiving budget this year.  That’s right; I was able to buy everything I needed for Thanksgiving this year using my regular food budget.

Let me give you some background.  My daily life budget breaks down each week’s paycheck to tell me where that money will go.  Each week I give myself $30 for groceries and food.

During past Thanksgivings I had a "special budget" for the holiday, but only in my mind.  In reality, I just used my credit cards to pay for whatever food I wanted to prepare.  "It’s a holiday and I should be able to spend whatever I want to in order to enjoy it."

However this year it was different!  I used actual cash money! (well, cash on a debit card)  And I was able to purchase all of my supplies while buying my regular groceries.  Here are the three Pokémon abilities that helped me successfully not need a "Thanksgiving budget."