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31 Days to a Better Budget
Managing Finances Together
Each day of the series offers new tips, ideas and a challenge to start the year with a solid financial plan.
Who manages the finances in your family? If the answer isn’t both of you, you’ll have some difficulty with maintaining an accurate budget. You may also find resistance when you try to implement money saving ideas. Go ahead—try turning off the cable without discussing it first! For a healthy budget and greater success sticking with it, you’ll need to be on the same page.
When we first got married, I managed the checkbook. After all, I was the one running errands, paying bills & buying necessities. It made sense, until I tried saving money, and the hubby was out spending it. I was a stressed out, disorganized mess and finally turned the checkbook over to him. Which didn’t work out any better.
He was trying to pay bills he knew nothing about and attempting to budget spending categories he didn’t use. It didn’t take long for us to figure out that this wasn’t going to work either. There may have been a lot of yelling involved. It wasn’t until we started discussing our budget and planning our spending together that we finally found a balance.
Both in our marriage, and our budget. The two of us sat down and went through our finances—step by step, just like in 31 Days to a Better Budget. Working together, we were able to understand which spending categories were important to the other, mesh our viewpoints on expenses we could/should eliminate and avoid putting all the stress on one person. The system we have now is working pretty well.
I withdrawal cash for our spending categories each month. He pays the regular bills. Then, we look at where we are make decisions for what debt to attack or where we need to cut costs to have more money left. Plus, sometimes you need someone to call you out on little expenses you probably don’t notice. Like the fact that you bought 3 pair of shoes in one month, or spent $20 on eggnog milkshakes—go ahead, guess who’s who there!
If you are in a relationship, spend some time today discussing your budget. Let your partner know what you you’re trying to do as you work through the 31 Day Budget. Share your priorities, hopes & dreams and begin to make decisions together.
I’m not a financial planner or a budget expert. I’ll just be walking you through the steps I take each time my budget needs an adjustment. In fact, I’ll be participating myself!
