Philip Brewer over at the Wise Bread blog has written an interesting post called A better way to create a budget. In the post he looks at a budgeting technique called "zero-based budgeting," which is actually something Jimmy Carter used during his term in office. Basically, the concept is that you don't use your spending history to determine your budget, instead you use $0.00 as the starting point, and then add only the minimum needed to maintain a certain lifestyle. So instead of just putting down $200/month for groceries, you actually think about how you are eating, what you are buying, and how much value you are getting for each dollar. You might discover you waste a ton, and that you should only be spending $150/month. Very interesting approach.