Let me start here by saying my wife and I don’t have a budget.
When we were engaged we had a budget and savings plan and saved up the considerable amount of money to pay cash for our wedding and honeymoon. It was great that the wedding didn’t put us into debt.
During our first year of marriage we continued saving for a down-payment on our house.
Once we bought the house, our budgeting days were over. I’m not sure why, but my theory is that we didn’t have one major goal or event to work toward.
Over the past few years we’ve used our credit card more than we would have liked. Luckily we both get good annual bonuses and we’re able to pay off our debt every year, but it’s not the ideal situation. We make enough money where we should be saving more money than we do.
The problem is we’re both spenders, me probably moreso than her. I’m a gadget freak, and it’s very hard to resist when I have my eye on something. As an example, here’s what I’ve bought in the past year; an iMac, a Canon Rebel xTi, a Wii, two iPhones (you’d have to tear these from our cold dead hands to take these away!), a Kindle 2, and Apple TV. I am addicted to tech gadgets. My wife, to a lesser extent, has a slight Coach addiction, which I’m not going to talk about here!
Lately we’ve talked about setting a budget. I’m sure we can find areas where we can cut back on our spending. We’re also going to start doing the bills together (I handle all of that now) so we’re both aware of our financial situation.
Most importantly, we have a major goal to work toward. We both want my wife to become a SAHM. She feels like she’s missing out on Babito’s most important years, and we both aren’t 100% comfortable taking Babito to child care every day. Also, we’re starting to try for a second baby, and then we definitely want my wife to stay home with the kids.
I know we can afford this financially, we just have to get a handle on our spending, so that’s what we plan on working toward in the coming months.
I’ll keep you informed of our progress, methods, and ideas as we move along, but I’d love to hear what’s worked for you. Please share your stories and ideas in the comments. You won’t only be helping us. You’ll be helping everyone that reads this blog.
One idea we plan on implementing is setting aside a discretionary monthly budget for each of us. If we want to make a major purchase, we’ll be saving for it and paying for it in cash.
Let’s hear some more budgeting ideas!
