So far in our Build a Better Budget series, we’ve talked a little bit about why we even bother creating a budget and about how the budget is more of a seat belt than a shackle. I hope that our conversations have gotten you thinking about the possibility of creating your family budget. Be sure to sign up for my free email updates or for my RSS feed so that you don’t miss out on any of the conversation.
When my husband and I started into the Financial Peace University class that we’re taking, I was a little bit nervous. Sure, I was excited about the prospect of learning to save even more money and become debt-free. But I also wondered about how bringing my husband deeper into the handling of our finances would impact us. I’ve always been the one who handled the checkbook, paid the bills, and mentally budgeted for our family. I’ve updated him from time to time, sharing how much was in the checking account and letting him know if we did or didn’t have enough for a purchase he was considering.
But we’ve never really sat down and hashed out the finances together. It was just easier to have me handle things and check in with him occasionally.
As we started talking about our budget, it was interesting to hear Jason’s take on things. I may have had a better understanding of how much we needed for Emma’s clothes, but he suggested some possible car upkeep and repair expenses that I hadn’t thought of. Putting our head together gave us a much more well-rounded snapshot of our finances.
Let me be the first to say that it takes a HUGE amount of pressure off when both spouses are working on the finances together. Now we both know how much money we’re spending each month, and we both know where that money is going. We have a plan for the money that’s left after we pay the bills. We agreed on that plan together.
We also communicate more about what’s happening with our family. If there are school pictures coming up, we both know about it. We’ve already talked about it and included it in the monthly budget. If we have gifts to buy, we’ve already talked about who they’re for and maybe even tossed around some ideas of what to buy. This all happens because we’re budgeting for the coming month.
Please don’t think that we sit down and write out the budget together. That would take forever! Instead, I (the spreadsheet-loving nerd of our family) outline a general idea of what I think will work for the coming month. Then we take 5 to 10 minutes to look it over together, making adjustments along the way. While I still do the bulk of the prep work, it’s a relief to work with my husband to finalize the plan.
How about you? Do you have a plan for your finances? Do you work on it together? Or does one member of your family carry a heavier burden when it comes to finances?
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This week, we are honored to hear a little bit about the importance of budgeting from Rose from Adventures in Savings.
When my husband and I first got married nearly 14 years ago, he was in the Air Force and our income was…ahem, not much. Growing up I was taught to not get into debt and to live on less than you earn – but I was never taught about actual budgeting. So, for the first 5 years of our marriage, we lived paycheck to paycheck, making some not so smart decisions (like borrowing to buy a car that we couldn’t afford) and getting a credit card. We’d use it for needs and well, things that wanted too. Then we’d feel guilty and see all that interest piling up and we’d scramble to pay it off in a few months. It was a cycle that we repeated over and over again.
A few years later, we moved (for the 3rd time) and our new pastor asked us if we’d be willing to take, then teach, the Crown Financial Class. Because we were tired of the endless cycle of paycheck to paycheck and panicking during an emergency, we jumped at an opportunity to learn about budgeting and learn how God wanted us to handle our money!
By taking the class, we learned about monitoring our spending and actually setting limits on specific categories of spending. We created our first budget and we’ve never looked back! It made a world of difference in our life. Before, we would simply pay our bills, then spend until we didn’t have any more (or past not having anymore, into debt). After learning about budgeting, categories of spending and dividing our income based on percentages and need, we started really saving, paying off our automobile payments, and living on less than we earned!
We’ve had our ups and downs since then, but we’ve never carried credit card debt again. We did borrow money to buy a vehicle (after an accident), but instead of paying for it for the 5 years that we financed it, we doubled and tripled payments and paid it off in 18 months. Our budget allowed us to know exactly how much we needed for each category (groceries, entertainment, bills, medical/dental, etc.) and it gave us the discipline and motivation to put every extra penny toward debt and then savings.
Now, 9 years later, I can say with pride that we are DEBT-FREE (except our mortgage) and we have an emergency fund of $10,000. We no longer have to run to a credit card in an emergency, but rather we can be at ease knowing that we can rely on our budget and our savings to get us through. It hasn’t always been easy, and our emergency fund has been down to zero and back a couple of times when things got hard, but having a budget has always helped us get back on track, start saving again, and know that with discipline and sacrifice, we can live on less than we earn and depend on God (not a credit card) to get us through! We’ve also become Crown Small Group leaders and are currently teaching our 4th small group class –sharing this knowledge with others and loving it!
My name is Rose Atwater, author of Adventures in Savings. I’m a Mississippi girl – working hard to live debt-free and stretch our income as much as possible! I’ve been married to my college sweetheart, Richard, for 13 years and we have 5 very busy kids, ages 3-12. I have a degree in Mathematics, but my JOB is Christian, wife, homeschool Mommy, daughter, sister, cake-baker, home manager, babysitter, bill payer, laundry folder, dish washer, and the list goes on and on! In my ‘spare time’ (is there such a thing?) I work hard to stretch our budget using coupons, rebates, sales, and deals! Over the last 8 years, I’ve saved thousands of dollars and I love showing others how to do the same!
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Do you have a budgeting story to tell? If you’re a blogger and would like to share a story about how budgeting (or not budgeting) has impacted your life, please link up your post below. Just be sure to link directly to your post, not to your home page. If you’re not a blogger, we would love to hear your story too! Just click the comments link and share your story there.
This post is linked to:
:: Frugal Friday hosted by Life As MOM
:: Works for Me Wednesday hosted by We Are THAT Family
The Budget is the thron in my side! I am working on getting my husband to really look at it closer and to be more a part fo things. I am the one who handles all the bills, etc. He just doesn’t seem to want to be involved. I’ve started posting the budget and lists for things to pay off on our bulletin board just to get him used to seeing it! It is tremendous pressure to do it alone! Not to mention that since I have always ben the one to handle things, um, I would be the one who got us into this mess! I would think he’d want to get more onvolved, but it’s taking me a long time to get him there!
My husband isn’t always excited about the budget, but he’s excited about where it’s taking us. If you have any possible way to take Financial Peace University together, it’s worth the $100 investment. It not only got us both on the same page financially, we’ve more than recovered our $100 investment!
I know exactly what you mean though about feeling like you’re the one who got the family into this mess. I know that both of us spent money, but I felt the huge burden of carrying the responsibility myself. I’ve found that a quick run-through of the budget (once I’ve prepped it) seems to work best. It might also help to have a serious conversation and explain that you feel this is a burden. Maybe he doesn’t even realize how much stress it’s heaping on you. Guys like to rescue their ladies, so maybe that can be the case here. 🙂
I struggle to budget, my husband is not on board. He likes to be debt free he just doesn’t want to know the particulars. Someday. Great post.
That’s a tough one, because the particulars are what get you to debt-free. Hopefully you can both get on the same page so that you can work toward your goal hand-in-hand.