P.S. If there were an easy way for me to pay a nickel per article I read (or however much), instead of having ads all over the internet, I would jump at that in an instant.
flatter [1] is basically exactly that. You said an amount of money aside you want to spend each month and can then flattr either individual articles/postings or projects. The amount each project receives from you depends now on your monthly account / number of flatters.