If you’re anything like me, most of your money goes to necessities like student loans, credit card, mobile phone, rent, utilities, and groceries. Perhaps even a car or mortgage payment. Planning to do something like this for a month and pretending that it won’t have an impact on your budget is akin to sticking your head in the sand.

Here are a few extra costs to consider for the upcoming month:
• Donating to NaNoWriMo (local chapter or parent organization)
• Coffee shop visits (for when you can’t be in the house)
• Take out (for when you need to eat and have procrastinated yourself out of time to cook)
• Extra snacks (I reward myself with food. Anyone making a dog comment can go stuff themselves.)
• NaNoWriMo swag (for when you win)

This may not break the bank, but planning for such expenses can do wonders for your stress level. I’d rather save the money that would go to area restaurants and coffee shops to put toward my student loan and credit card payments until I no longer have those bills. This requires a budget, help from roommates or friends, and a plan for your month-long writing diet.

I’m not a financial professional, so you’ll want to look elsewhere for actual financial advice. (I like DailyWorth and Society of Grownups.) The method that works best for me to create a financial story (a budget) is cataloging my expenses (much like cataloging my time) for a month (or looking back over my bank account for the past month) and seeing where adjustments can be made. Then I write it down somewhere I’m not likely to lose it (like Evernote).

Budgeting in general may not sound super fun, and I’ve tricked myself into keeping a budget or at least a log of my spending by calling it fiscal storytelling. I love telling stories and budgeting is telling the financial story of my life in numbers.

Once you have an idea about how you’re spending your money and time (How much do you currently spend on groceries, take out, and coffee shops? How long do chores like grocery shopping, cooking, and dish washing take you?), you can figure out a comfortable budget for food and food related activities in November.