Introducing Strip Budgeting

(Guest post by Jeff Kosola)

Budgeting is something that financial savvy people do every month. The problem with budgeting is that is can become mechanical and/or boring.

We understand that living beneath our means is the best way to become financial independent. We understand that without accounting for every dollar before it’s spent will result in squandering money on useless items. We also understand that budgeting is completely boring and something not many people look forward to doing each month (unless you are like me or J. Money).

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a way to make budgeting fun and exciting each month? Wouldn’t it be great if you could really make “Budgets Sexy”? Well now you can.

Introducing Strip Budgeting

Strip budgeting is the best way to take one of the more boring chores in life and kick it up a notch. The rules are simple and anyone looking for a little twist on saving money will love it.

Required equipment

  • The prior month’s budget
  • A sexy partner (sorry had to add sexy so J. would publish this)
  • A private location (Your parent’s basement might not be the best place for this)

The Rules (copied from Fight Club)

  • The 1st rule of Strip budgeting is you don’t talk about strip budgeting
  • The 2nd rule of Strip Budgeting is you don’t talk about strip budgeting
  • The 3rd rule of Strip Budgeting is you can’t wear multiple layers of clothing. Unlike strip poker, the point is not to see how long you can budget for :) Pants and shirts will work best.

Game Play

Upon meeting in a private location with your previous month’s budget, the budgeting nerd in the family will bring a new budget form to begin filling out. The two of you will review the current budget and discuss any problems that may have occurred. Now remove your shirt, blouse, tank top, or whatever is covering the upper half of your body. This is your reward for establishing dialogue between each other and performing a great budgeting review.

Use the data/info from your review to balance the coming month’s budget to zero. This time you need to each remove your pants, shorts, skirt, kilt, or anything that is covering the lower half of your body. Again there is nothing like using the reward system to achieve great benefits for a job well done.

The next part of the budgeting game is to update your net worth. There is nothing like seeing a positive change in your financial position and of course you need to be rewarded for the awesome progress you are making. Remove your bra (for the ladies) or your bro (for the men).

The final part of any good budget is refilling the cash envelopes you use for your daily expenses. At this point we need to copy Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson from Indecent Proposal. I can’t go into details here, but you get the point.

Strip Budgeting is a great way to take the boredom out of the budgeting process and a great way to connect with your mate. I hope you’ll excuse me because I need to try and sell this method to my wife right now.

Good luck everyone :)

————-
Written by Jeff Kosola who blogs at DeliverAwayDebt.com and tweets under the handle @DeliverAwayDebt. If I’ve made you laugh, then please head on over to my site and/or Twitter and give me a try – you just never know what is going to come out of a Pizza Dude’s mouth. If you happen to live in the Detroit area, you just might see me standing at your door with a piping hot pizza made with a like extra love from DeliverAwayDebt.

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24 Comments

  1. Brandi July 27, 2010 at 12:35 PM

    Love this :)

    NOW…if only I could find a decent partner…hmmm…

  2. Veronica July 27, 2010 at 1:44 PM

    I’m surprised this post doesn’t have more comments yet. Where are all the sexy people at? Anyways, I am surely going to give this a shot. I’m sure the Mr. won’t mind.

  3. Young Mogul July 27, 2010 at 2:13 PM

    LUVS it!!!! Now, if I could only get a husband to do this with!

  4. Kerry July 27, 2010 at 2:44 PM

    This might actually work for the hubby! AWESOME!

  5. the Dad, Climbing Out July 27, 2010 at 3:24 PM

    Pfffft!!!! I am literally laughing out loud. Jeff, you’re a nut, and so are you, J. Thanks cracking me up — wonder what The Wife will think; August’s budget is due…

  6. Wojo July 27, 2010 at 4:29 PM

    Wow…felt like I was reading a dirty novel there for a while. :)

    Awesome idea, now if I could only convince my wife to play along…

  7. Jeff @DeliverAwayDebt July 27, 2010 at 5:21 PM

    Hi All, sounds like J. and I need to talk with some husbands out there to help push them along.

    My Wife thought I was nuts for writing it, “you’re not really going to send that, are you???” I guess we see who doesn’t wear the pants in this household (haha). Good luck with it everyone.

  8. leslie July 27, 2010 at 5:40 PM

    This is adorable! The actual content (ie. budgeting method) is awful but the jokes had me cracking up. Very cute!

  9. michelle July 27, 2010 at 5:43 PM

    i’m totally pitching this to my boyfriend!

  10. finallygettingtoeven.com July 27, 2010 at 9:07 PM

    ok got it- now where’s the instructions for ‘spin the bottle’?

  11. Molly On Money July 28, 2010 at 10:54 AM

    I LOVE IT!
    I’m one step ahead – I make my husband change into a wife beater the moment he walks in the door from work…..I now need to eat pizza.

  12. Matt Jabs July 28, 2010 at 3:08 PM

    Way to think outside the box Jeff… how have the results been thus far? ;)

  13. J. Money July 28, 2010 at 3:22 PM

    Now who’s going to be the first to try it?? We want to know!! Pictures too, please! haha…..just kidding. Sort of.

  14. Peter July 28, 2010 at 4:51 PM

    i have a feeling the budgeting may suffer because of other *ahem “activities” going on. :)

  15. J. Money July 28, 2010 at 5:45 PM

    A few seconds wouldn’t do much harm ;)

  16. Francois Bondiguel July 28, 2010 at 7:45 PM

    ahahaha this is awesome – keep up the good work Mr. J.!!! Sexy is the way to go :)

  17. Glass Is Half July 30, 2010 at 6:17 AM

    Great idea and post! Definitely think this might make the spouse more interested in budgeting! :) At the very least will get us talking about something else aside from money.

  18. Finance Guy August 17, 2010 at 11:33 PM

    I really like this concept and am curious how sexy budgets can get.

    – Finance Guy

  19. jen September 7, 2010 at 4:22 PM

    Finally a way to get my husband to willingly sit down and go over the budget!

  20. J. Money September 7, 2010 at 4:56 PM

    haha… us guys are funny like that ;)

  21. Nala March 19, 2012 at 10:50 AM

    I fear by the time we get to the final part of the strip budgeting game, my husband will forget everything about budgeting and computations, and we’ll have to start all over again :)

  22. J. Money March 19, 2012 at 1:13 PM

    Hah! Nothing wrong with that ;)

  23. David@SkepticFinance November 19, 2012 at 5:34 PM

    Try suggesting this at a Dave Ramsey FPU class…

  24. J. Money November 19, 2012 at 5:40 PM

    OMG that would be awesome…