Rule #1 Set a monthly spending limit for all things "fun".

Ok, so we're going to cut back on spending, pay off debt and save. Great. Done.

Not exactly...

Like anything, there's got to be some rules to this. Husband and I need to discuss, but here's what I'm proposing in terms of some changes we can make. I'm going to tackle one at a time as I think it's important to understand where we are today, how we got here and what steps we can make to realize results.

Rule #1 Set a montly spending limit for all things "fun".

We're bringing in a good amount of money (we're not making chump change as husband likes to say), more than enough to live comfortably on, but at the end of the month, there's little left. This is because we don't limit our spending. Sounds totally stupid right, but after so many years of scraping by through college (I guess it was only really beer money we needed, but there never seemed to be enough), and then making really low salaries at our first few jobs, it feels good to now have money and not have to worry where every dollar is spent. So we've been fairly free with the cash. All good things must end. It's time to become more responsible adults. Don't get me wrong - we pay all of our bills, contribute to our 401ks, donate to charity, etc. - it's just the savings that suffer.

For the next 18 months, I want to dramatically cut down on "fun" spending. Set a monthly limit and stick to it. This "fun" category of spending is just that - spending on anything fun, i.e. clothes, books, house stuff, entertainment, dinners out, vacations. Anything you enjoy spending money on, i.e. everything but bills.

Areas for change:

My spending at the mall. I currently work across the street from a great mall. I literally park in the mall daily, which means that I'm guaranteed to be within the walls of the mall at least twice a day. Dangerous. Very dangerous. I am not a crazy shopper by any means. I know women who are much, much worse than me. But, I'll admit I can make changes. Mostly I can change my boredom spending, which is, "I'm here, I must need something." One big help is that my job is moving to a new location, hence, less frequent access to the mall. Out of sight, out of mind - I hope.

Challenge each purchase. I've gone through this exercise before and it worked remarkably well. Before I spend more than $2 on anything, I stop myself and require myself to self-discuss whether or not this is something I really need. How will my life be different with or without it? I've been able to stop myself from lots of unnecessary purchases by engaging in this little exercise.

Quality purchases, not quantity. No, or limited, trips to TJMaxx. I seem to have this mentality that if the item doesn't cost a lot, I can buy more of them. So I get into a vicious cycle of buying crap that needs to be replaced instead of good stuff that will last. Don't get me wrong, I love TJMaxx, but you have to be discerning, and lucky, to get good stuf there.

Joint decision making. We are actually better at this than most married people that I know. Neither of us will ever really spend more than $100 without first consulting the other. Under the new "regime", we're going to take it a step further and literally plan, on a monthly basis, how we're going to spend our "fun" money. For example, before something goes on the calendar, like a dinner out or theatre tickets, we both have to agree that this is going to be one of the things that we'll spend money on this month. We can also kind of slot in when we see ourselves as having some set "fun" expenses. School clothes in August. Anniversary night out in November. That kind of stuff.

I'm anxious to get started on all of this, and am definitely implementing some of these suggestions already, but I want to use the next week to get all of our guidelines/rules set-up and really begin on our plan on August 1.