This entire article just shows how completely out of touch Californian's are with reality and why their state is so deeply in debt and can't fix itself. The attempts at "saving" money and "reducing" spending with all of the little interjected excuses for random expenses Ms. Graves mentions are a paltry attempt at actually creating a reasonable budget and adhering to it. For individuals like myself where a REAL budget and strict adherence have always been a requirement, seeing the kinds of worthless expenses Ginny used to have and still has after "trimming" her budget isn't only ridiculous, it's insulting.

It's not hard to save $10,000 in just one year when were wasting $50,000 plus!

Thanks for the article.  I think it is important to remember that no matter what suggestions you are reading for making a budget, you still have to make it work for you.  Sure it may be easy for her to save $10k on her income, and while "wasting" $50k, but that does not mean that you cannot still make cuts in your life.  In our quest for a budget, and our hope to eventually live on a sailboat, we downsized from a three bedroom house, to a one bedroom apartment and saved a ton of money in rent and utilities.  We did a number of other things that worked for us.  Make sure to find your balance.  It is all about being cognizant of spending.  Anyway, we featured your article on our Weekly Round-up and also on our article titled Planning and How to Make a Home, Household or Family Budget Plan at our website www.sailingonthechea​p.com.