BUDGETING AS A MARRIED COUPLE

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So remember when we talked about budgeting a couple of months ago? I shared why I started budgeting and how I got out of debt and today I'm sharing all about budgeting as a married couple. I'd love to say that budgeting is simply a THRILLING topic to talk about in your marriage but you all would know that I'd be straight up LYING. It can be fun at times, but at other times it can be just dreadful...because no one wants to be the one crushing the dreams and talking about money (or lack of) all the time. Money is a funny thing that can be used to make people distracted/angry/greedy/etc or it can be something that is used to glorify God. We try to make it the latter.

As I wrote before, it is very important to me to be accountable to every dollar I make. This was very easy for me as a single person with one debit card BUT add another person and another debit card and this can get a little bit tricky. This is where something like MINT sets you up for a win.

Before we got married, we sat down on mint and created a budget that we thought would work for us. With mint, you connect all your accounts and credit cards and then all your transactions start appearing. You can then organize those onto different budgets. Mint shows you where all your money is going.

I'd love to say every month, we're under or on budget but nope we're still learning. Some weeks I'm so busy I barely go on Mint and then all of a sudden I check and I'm all like OH MY GOSH WE HAVE $20 IN THE GROCERY BUDGET TO LAST US UNTIL THE END OF THE MONTH. Food is the #1 budget we go over in...ha.

We're not experts but here's the advice I have for you on budgeting as a married couple.

1. SET YOUR BUDGET ACCORDING TO YOUR PRIORITIES/GOALS

It's good to get on the same page as a married couple on where you want to spend your money. Is saving up for a house a priority? Do you tithe? And how much? (Ps. I'll be talking about tithing next week!) For us, tithing is a HUGE priority so we make sure it's clearly in our budget. Do you have a clothing allowance? Set the budget and be willing to compromise.

2. LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS

Be wise. Budgeting is all about living with in (and under) your means. But as a married couple sometimes you can get carried away with things (travelling, new cars, buying expensive clothes, house renovations). For us it's real hard to not dive into renos...our bathroom doesn't even have baseboards BUT we know right now we're not financially set up for that so we make do with what we have. 

3. DON'T LET MONEY COME BETWEEN YOU

It's real easy to fight about money. Those fights are never worth it. Money comes and goes. Your relationship happiness should not depend on what is in the bank. Stressed about money? Make a plan, set a budget and stick to it. Determine to not let money come between your relationship.

above image taken by Amy Gary Photography

I'd love to hear your tips for budgeting as a married couple! Please share them in the comments :)

xo,

s.s.♥︎.

BUDGETING 101 + DEBT ATTACK PLAN

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So on Monday I shared with you why I started budgeting and how it got me outta debt and today I will share with you how exactly I got started on that budgeting. But I just wanted to give you a little disclaimer...I'm NO financial expert. I'm just a girl who was in a fickle and instead of continuing to bury my head in the sand, I surrendered my finances to Jesus, stopped overspending, worked my butt off and got out of debt.

I came across this verse a couple weeks back and it so has to do with my one word for the year (which I'm going to be sharing next week!!!) but this is why I'm being so open about my financial history.....

"He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us." -2 Corinthians 1 MSG

God set me free from financial stress and shame and I want to do what I can to come alongside you! 

So now on to the practical...

As I mentioned on Monday, my friend pointed me to Dave Ramsey. I heavily creeped his website and made a plan from his tips and wealth of knowledge. Here was what I took to heart.

•  Be accountable to every single dollar you make AKA you should know where every single dollar of your income goes to.
• Make a budget and stick to it no matter what!

• When it comes to paying off debt on credit cards, attack the card with the lowest balance first and pay the minimum payment on the higher one. Once your lower balance card is paid off, put all efforts into paying off the other one.

The thing I really loved about Dave Ramsey's advice is the whole being accountable to every dollar that you make. How often is it that we get our monthly statement and we're all like ughhhh, where did my money go??!!?

He has a free budget calculator that helps you work out your budget. Below is a screenshot of an example of someone who makes 3000/month.

James and I use a different budgeting system which I will share on the next budgeting post but this one definitely helped me out as a single girl.

Every time I got paid I would enter it into this budget calculator and then adjust the tabs as to what were my expenses for the next two weeks. I recorded how much I had allotted for each category into a mini moleskine and I carried that moleskine everywhere with me.

If I had any left over dollars, I would use it to pay off the credit card that I was attacking (ie. if I only used $80 for food and had allotted $100, I would make an extra credit card payment of $20). The whole point was to know where every single dollar was going. If I wanted to buy something but I didn't have enough in the category, I would figure out if I could move the money over from a different category (ie. say I wanted 10 more dollars for personal spending...I'd look through my categories and see if I could take it from something like gas $).

It was an intense method but it worked for me! What I like about budgeting is, it sets boundaries on where you're spending your money. It doesn't mean you can never buy shoes again, it means you can if you properly plan. If I wanted to buy something more expensive I would withdrawal my clothing money for that period and put it aside until the next period when I could combine it with my next month's clothing budget.

I followed this rigidly for 10 months and after the 10 months I was completely DEBT FREE! If you have any questions, let me know! Again, I'm no financial expert but I will try my best to answer your questions!

And for those of you who are asleep....tomorrow I'm sharing the plans for my dining room so get pumped!!!

stay gold,

s.s.♥︎.

WHY I STARTED BUDGETING AND HOW IT GOT ME OUTTA DEBT

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image via teen vogue

So I'm going to be all real talk with ya. It's time we talk about money on this blog. Money is an awkward subject but it doesn't have to be awkward. When I sent out my reader surveys one of you said they would love to see me talk about money/budgeting on here and I was like boooyah!

See I haven't always been good with money. There were times in my life when I was really, really bad with money.

I got a job at a young age (hello times colonist paper route!) and learned what it was to be making money. As soon as I was 16, I got a day job and soon after that I got another. I loved working and making money...what I didn't love was saving money. When I had money, I spent it because, duh, that's what money is for...right? (that's my 17 year old self speaking!)

I got my first credit card when I was 19....at first I was very good with it. But then I wanted to go to Europe and then Europe again and then New York and then many, many concerts and then many, many shopping trips to Vancouver...oh and I got a car loan somewhere in there. 

Let's just say I went on a five year shopping spree....it was bad, very bad. In those times I didn't like to think of my financial situation. It was just something that I would sweep under the rug and hope that one day in the distant future, I'd get my stuff together.

And then one day, I had a conversation. Don't you love it when conversations can change your life??? And I don't want to hype this at all...I didn't go to some seminar to learn how to get out of debt...and no offence to people who go to those seminars, but you really don't need to go to those seminars....actually you probably shouldn't pay for a course to get out of debt...you should just GET OUTTA DEBT...ok rant over....

Back to the conversation....

I had a friend over for dinner and she told me about budgeting. She shared with me how she wanted to get out of debt and how she needed to make some changes to her spending. She gave me the name of this Christian finance dude (Dave Ramsey). I looked at his site online and figured out his budgeting system (you don't need to pay for a program, it's pretty self explanatory).

And then I started budgeting (and working my butt off!!) and 10 months later I was OUT OF DEBT. Now that was a good feeling.

So I wanted to encourage you....if you are in debt, there is a way out!! But it's not some quick and easy solution. If you're serious about getting out, let me tell you, it's going to be hard BUT you got this. You so got this.

 In the next few posts I'm going to be talking about budgeting, breaking it down, showing you how to make a budget, and how James and I make a budget as a married couple. Yeeeehaw.

Happy Monday friends!

s.s.♥︎.