I started my first salary job in January 2009.  A few months later, the company I work for was having budget problems and had to lay off a few people and cut salaries.  As of today, we still have not gotten any of our salary back and for the past 14 months I've been bringing home about $450 less than what I started at.  Knowing I'm out that money sucks, but I always remind myself that I am lucky to be employed and I've made it work.  With that being said, I am still able to make ends meet and since I've had to be so careful with my money, I've probably actually saved more. 

This is how I do it:

I get paid weekly and my paycheck is direct deposited into two different checking accounts.  Most of it goes into my Bank of America account, which is for my monthly bills.  The other $100 goes into my Chase account, which I use for things such as groceries, clothes, and entertainment.  Once that $100 runs out each week, I'm done spending until Friday when I get paid again.  I pay my rent, car payment, credit card, and student loan from my other account each month and anything that is leftover goes directly into my savings.  By allocating my paychecks in this way, I can rest assured that I will always have enough money to pay my bills and I still have some extra money that I can use for fun things.  As I've said before, I try not to use credit cards unless I'm buying something expensive or in the case of an emergency.

Before the salary cuts, I probably spent that extra $450 each month on things I didn't need instead of saving it.  So as soon as we do get that money put back into our paychecks, I will have to set up an automated transfer into my savings each week and try to continue living off the lesser amount.  While having your salary cut is no fun at all, it has actually been good for me because I've learned that I can live off less.  Hopefully I will continue that no matter how much money I make in the future.

Thoughts?
 

Today is Cinco de Mayo, a holiday celebrated by drinking lots of margaritas, Corona, and tequila.  I'm sure it's also a day that people drop a lot of money out at the bar no matter how good the drink specials!  I'm not much for bars anymore, but I used to go every Friday and Saturday night and I remember it always taking a big hit on my finances.  While I fell out of the bar scene early, a lot of twenty-somethings are still going out regularly and that leads me to the question... how does going out to the bar affect your budget?  To you set aside extra money for drinking and cabs?  Do you set an amount that you're allowed to spend each night before you go out?  How do you avoid putting too many rounds on your credit card?

When I used to go out, I would take between $20 and $30 of cash with me, as well as my debit card in case of emergencies.  I tried not to spend more than I had in cash, but sometimes it was unavoidable.  But by not taking my credit card with me, I was never able to start buying shots and rounds for everyone I met out... and ultimately, that saved me a lot of money.  Even so, I've been able to save a lot more money since I stopped going out on a regular basis.  And I don't feel so guilty now when I go out for a nice dinner that costs me $30... because I could have easily dropped that much on 3 or 4 drinks.

It's your turn to weigh in... how does the bar affect your budget?