Travel almost exhausted my savings this summer.

When I ___ I had gone through all my credit card points, and my financial goal of saving 30% of my income wasn't ___, with so much of my money being spent on plane tickets, hotels, and food, I said no to a ___ who asked me to join him in Germany.

But my friend ___ my tendency to say yes and asked me if I was sure I couldn't make it work. ___, I thought about my priorities (优先的事项) and gave myself a daily allowance.

___ to live up to my self-made promise, I sat down to run the numbers. To make it through the rest of the month without breaking into my savings, I ___ the maximum ( 最多的) amount I could spend. The ___ was $30 a day, for about three weeks.

Competing with myself to ___ the numbers turned out to be a surprisingly satisfying ____. In the end, I stuck to my goal and finished the month with my ____ on track. And I realized that a ____ amount keeps me much closer to hitting my target budget (预算); the big monthly pot of money I used to imagine made it too ___ to overspend, with the idea I'd make it up by ____ less later in the month. By sticking to a day at a time, I was free from the ____ that I would be out of cash at the end of the month.

And arriving in Berlin, free from a financial black cloud back home, made every apple pie even sweeter.