Here is a budgeting idea that I’ve used from time-to-time for short or extended periods. The basic concept is similar to golf. In golf a hole is classified according to “par” or the number of strokes a golfer should take before sinking the ball. Each day can be classified according to a monetary “par” or the number of dollars a budgeter should spend before the end of the day but still afford all of the day’s necessities.

Say Sunday-Thursday are $25 dollar-par days. The budgeter should be able to buy gas, lunch, road tolls, bus tickets, cab fees, groceries, magazines, newspapers, snacks, a spare pen, etc for less than $25. Then, consider Friday and Saturday that tend to be more social and may require additional funds. Days that require additional funds would be higher dollar par.

When the budgeter only spends $20 on Monday he’ll be $5 under par. On Tuesday the budgeter only spent $15 because he had leftovers for lunch; for the day he was $10 under par. The $5 under from Monday plus the $10 under from Tuesday puts him at $15 under par. Then on Wednesday the budgeter surprises a friend for her birthday with lunch and ends up spending $40 for the day; for Wednesday he is $15 over par. For the week he is now at par.

Keeping track of a personal score for extended periods this can be difficult especially if different days of the week have different par values. A spreadsheet such as the one I use for my personal budgeting system might help keep track.

Another recommendation is to consider using the golf budget during periods when your regular budget system, whatever it may be, is less convenient. The golf budget is perfect for a vacation for example. Consider dividing the amount of spending money you plan for the vacation by the number of days in the vacation. The result is each day’s dollar-par. If you are traveling with a partner or friends you can have a friendly competition. The person who is the most under (or the least over) par at the end of the vacation earns a free dinner paid for by the others on the vacation. To make the competition mutually supportive you could say nobody wins the free dinner if anybody goes over her or his vacation’s dollar-par.

I got to wondering what Tiger Woods’ daily dollar-par might be. His $112 million earnings, according to Sports Illustrated and CNN, might equate to just over a third of a million dollar-par days!

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Adam Nelson, based in Wisconsin, is a motivational speaker and a personal coach. He founded Treading Together LLC in 2007 to help others become successful speakers and coaches. He also writes a bi-weekly series called Weekend Entrepreneur.