And thinking further

After doing some hypothetical calculations and looking hard at the numbers:

Okay, yeah. I can probably afford about $200 a month in "money to blow" which includes stuff like restaurant meals, the Doki Doki box (that is $30), maybe the occasional book or milkshake....


I don't know how much I've blown yet this month (the big blow out for my birthday was last month, but it was more than $200, because quilt fabric and yarn and a mug and a meal out and an apple pendant), but maybe for this month....because I have a bigger cushion than some times....I just call a "reset" and say, "okay, from here on out you can blow $200 on fun things* until payday"

$30 of that will be April's Doki Doki crate, which is charged in March, so that leaves $170.

(*And also things that are rare and not 100% necessary expenses like clothes, shoes, and gifts to people)

I suppose what I do is get the money, put it in an envelope or a special place in my wallet and only spend from that for fun stuff, and when I'm out, I'm out. (This means no ordering online for a while, but that's okay.)

Yeah, that would not be a lot of meals out but that's not what really makes me happy (if I have the time and energy to cook at home, that actually makes me happier than going to a restaurant does) but the occasional small treat makes me happy, whether it's a rare milkshake (I don't get them often because of caloric reasons) or some kind of small toy or a magazine I want to read.

But gah. The small part of me that has an entitlement-mindset is going, "you work HARD. You spent a lot of time delaying gratification of money when you were in grad school. You should not have to do things like give yourself a restricted allowance now*" but I suppose it's good training for my eventual retirement, where I will have to take care not to outlive my money. (And people in my family tend to be fairly long-lived, so....)

(*Because honestly? I know of teenaged kids who get a higher allowance than what I am now giving myself....and they don't have to work for it.)