Jaunted

We had a great time playing around with the drop-down options, even when they didn't apply directly to our situations (sure, if we could just stop buying Christian Louboutin shoes for a few months, we could go anywhere!) But we found a few things missing from the 20 categories given to catalog your spending, so here are our suggestions. Not paying taxes not included, tea partiers:

Gifts -- No one's saying you have to become Scrooge McDuck to get ahead financially, but we can all think of times when, lacking a cheap and creative idea for a present, we opted for the boring, last-minute, over-budget option. If we could just stick to a budget, instead of giving up generosity altogether, we and our loved ones would be more happy. In a perfect world, this would be available in work-party, family-birthday and wedding-gift levels.

Better money management. -- Need a motivator to ditch that fee-happy checking account, moving your small saving to a high-interest online account or dialing down on that subscription plan you never use? We just read this great personal finance book called I Will Teach You To Be Rich which advocated these moves over dropping lattes and buying produce on sale. Call it a big-picture method! Just put the money you're not spending on a cell phone data plan or Citibank's bottom line into its own account so it doesn't disappear into something else.

Meta-travel. -- For advanced users only. What if, instead of squeezing the rest of our lives for cash, if we just plundered other trips instead? Packing lighter instead of paying a checked-bag fee, downgrading in hotel or taking public transit instead of a cab could add up to another trip sooner, but only if you have money to take that trip in the first place. We're still working out the kinks on that.

Related Stories:
· Yaycations Calculator [TravelMuse]
· Staycations, Naycations, Yaycations and now Kidcations [HC]
· Are You Still Going to Europe This Summer? [Jaunted]