This is a guest post by Dani Parnass. She is a freelance writer living in New York City. If you enjoy this post, please follow her on twitter.

On a recent Sunday, as I was scrutinizing my leftover situation in the fridge, I had something along the lines of an epiphany. What if, with some cooking and creativity, I could cut out all eating out food expenses for an entire week? It’s not exactly a groundbreaking idea to some, but I’m used to eating out somewhere for either lunch of dinner about 5 times a week, so it’s a big deal to me.

The challenge was on.

Yup, I decided to see if I could go a full business week without spending a dime. So I went to the grocery store on Sunday to pick up the essentials and then locked up my wallet for good. Here’s what I accomplished:

Monday

There’s nothing like the first day of a challenge that deludes you into declaring “mission accomplished” before you even crack open your tupperware. I headed into morning rush hour with an oversized bag full of breakfast, lunch, and snack with unparalleled determination. Everything was fine until around 4 pm, when my co-workers started making their afternoon coffee runs and ransacking the vending machine. I have a jar with some loose change for such occasions, but I stayed strong. When I got home, I went for a run, made some stir fry, and went to bed with the quiet sense of satisfaction that comes from a full day of free activities.

Tuesday

I decided early on in the week that consistency would be the best strategy for making sure I didn’t spend money on food during the day. In general, the days I don’t bring a lunch are the ones during which I get sick of the same veggie burger and try to expand my culinary horizons. When I have to make that decision at 8:15 in the morning, I have little chance of sticking to my plan and I end up giving in to lunch at the local deli. Cheap, but still an expense. So on this bright Tuesday morning, I reached for the sandwich, yogurt and granola, and headed off to work. Dinner was easy enough and I was almost halfway to my goal.

Wednesday

Major curveball. My friend decided to turn 24 during my self-imposed week of lent. We went out to celebrate, but the bouncer didn’t exactly care about my resolve not to spend any money, and apparently cover charge is non-negotiable. I had a dilemma. I could have left, but felt that the purpose of this challenge was not to avoid life at all costs but to see how I could integrate a budget into my lifestyle. Avoiding the problem wouldn’t have solved anything. On the other hand, the only other way to get in was to borrow from my friends. After some cajoling and enduring a little ridicule, my roommate agreed to spot me in exchange for lunch one day the following week. I felt it was a nice compromise. Once I was in, drinks weren’t a problem ;)

Thursday

Home stretch, I can do this! But, man veggie patties are boring. And dinner of brussel sprouts, although delicious, wasn’t so filling. I was so close my goal, I couldn’t cave in now! I went out that night, but this time had the prescience to avoid bars with cover charges.

Friday

I finally made it to Friday. I woke up a little early that morning and made a tuna wrap for lunch, because I felt it would be nice to round out the challenge with a little variety. By the end of the day, I was finally able to say “mission accomplished” and mean it! Props to me. Thank you.

Success?

So was this challenge a success or just a waste of time? Did I go through unnecessary lengths just to be cheap for a week? Did I learn anything at all?

The whole spend-no-money-for-a-week thing isn’t a great long-term strategy for budgeting. But living on zero dollars a day does teach a lot about being resourceful and not excessive in your spending. It’s a fun exercise, if you have the time and patience.

Image from alexmuse

What happens when our carefully crafted plans get changed by someone else?

Next week I’ll be taking a vacation out to California. We’ll be going to a resort, and our group was to split the bill. I had budgeted for this trip and was careful to set aside the right amount of money. To me, it was reasonable to spend money on vacation, so I had no problem throwing down for our room.

The only problem is that I got an email on Monday saying that since one person couldn’t make it, the price of the room was going up for everyone else. It’s not a huge dollar amount, but it is a 33% increase over the original cost of the room.

This isn’t enough to make a significant difference in my plans, but let’s pretend it were. Let’s act like this is a $300 increase and suddenly this whole trip is getting expensive. What would be the best way to handle the situation?

I could cancel my trip because the added cost makes it not worth it. But I would also have to lose the money I spent on airfare, which is half the original cost. That doesn’t make sense. I want to go on this trip!

I could argue to my friends that since I carefully budgeted, I shouldn’t be held responsible for the additional costs. Do you think that will win me friends with the rest of the people going? Plus, it’s not fair to the rest of the group: they also planned for the trip and the extra money has to come from somewhere.

I could put it all on my credit card and worry about it later. Not a great plan because that’s how a lot of people get into debt. I want to be proactive, but how?

The only real solution is to plan for extra expenses when traveling. Last summer I traveled to Guatemala and Honduras. Airfare was just $300 and we spent about $3 a meal on food. I knew coming in it would be cheap, and I thought $200 for two weeks of vacation would great! What I didn’t account for was the cost of traveling. We tried to see a lot of cities so we spent about $150 just on traveling, so things got slightly more expensive. Since I was prepared to spend more, it wasn’t a big deal.

My rule of thumb is:

Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst.

Readers, how do you account for unexpected expenses?

Image from Joe Schlabotnik

I’m pretty sure Bank of America hates me. And I’m pretty sure Mint loves me. When one gives me lemons…the other one alerts me and reminds me to nag the first one for my money back.

Each morning, I log into Mint and get the latest transactions from my bank account. I like keeping track of my spending and renaming and organizing my finances. The faster I do this, the better success I have at remembering why there is a $20 charge from “Buff Bill” (that would be a local bar, Buffalo Billiards). My budget is always in sync and I can clearly see how I’m doing for the month and which areas to watch.

On Wednesday, I logged in as usual and I had an alert! I was charged a $5 maintenance fee by guess who – Bank of America! Of course it was them. I called up and found out that my one year grace period had expired on my savings account (that gives a whopping 0.10% interest!) I now had to either keep a $300 average daily balance in my saving account or set up recurring transfers of $25 per month. Plus, I have no idea why they didn’t give me a warning.

They refunded the fee, and my solution for the future is to set up a $25/month transfer in, followed by a $25/month transfer out a few days later. It’s a silly system, but if this is what they want, that’s fine with me. This will only last until November when I earn my Keep the Change bonus, at which point I’ll probably close the savings account (and leave the bank completely? I wish!).

So Bank of America, no matter how many times you try and steal my money, I won’t let you. Mint will keep reminding me, and I’ll keep fighting. Plus, you still haven’t given me my $25 bonus for using bill-pay, and I’m coming for that, too.

Daily Yakezie Short Carnival:

Garbage and excessive spending @ Early Retirement Extreme

Spending Money Wisely @ Canadian Finance Blog