May 2009 Weddings
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Discussion Topic of the Day
Aravis hasn't been around for a couple days, so I thought I would step in and help keep this going.
I spend a lot of time on the MM board, so I looked over on The Nest Money section for help on a topic.
How do you and H handle your finances? Do you both work? Joint checking - if so who manages the household (paying bills, budgeting, etc)?
Do you have common practices on when to consult before purchasing? What is it based on?
Anything you want to throw out there. Feel free to ask questions as well.
Re: Discussion Topic of the Day
We have a team outlook when it comes to finances. I made a lot more than H for awhile, and now some months he makes more than me. It all goes in one pot though.
I manage our finances. We have had joint checking and savings accounts since we purchased our house in April 2008. It's just easier for us. I take care of paying all of the bills and budgeting for everything else.
We were so aggressively saving for the wedding last year, once it was over we had to decide what to do with the money we had been saving and where to go from here.
We have a debt free goal, so we took our wedding money and paid off my car, we have just a little CC left, and hope to have H's car paid off by the end of next year. After that we will be in a really good position with just our home and some student loans.
As for as consulting, neither of us are bigger shoppers. I buy things for the house when I know we have the money for it. We have been savings for new king mattress we are getting next week-can't wait! If H is going to buy some supplements or gear for work, etc he will call and make sure it's okay or if he needs to wait till our next pay, which I love about him.
Our current methods are products of our situation. I graduated, got a job, and moved first so the lease and all bills are in my name. Once MH moved to join me he didn't have a job for awhile, so I covered all expenses.
Due to this, once we got married we have separate savings and checking accounts and our salaries go into our individual accounts. All monthly expenses, joint CC, rent, utilities, etc. are paid out of my account and groceries come out of his account. Then anything left goes into his savings account. Not ideal or what we planned, but so far so good.
As for purchases, we will let each other know nearly everything we purchase no matter the value. It is how we have always made money decisions, by bouncing ideas off the other person.
How do you and H handle your finances? Do you both work? Joint checking - if so who manages the household (paying bills, budgeting, etc)? We both have incomes (though DH's is a severance, right now). We still have separate accounts, but only because we both have high-interest checking accounts that have a maximum amount that you can earn the high interest rate on, so we're keeping them separate to get the most interest possible without maxing out.
We both pay bills. If a bill comes in, we just decide who wants to write the check. We both manage our finances together - we're both aware of all of our money and no money between us is separate - everything coming in is OUR money. We both manage the budget, too. It's a spreadsheet on a flash drive that we both access regularly to input charges, check, etc.
We're huge Dave Ramsey fans and we've both read his books and listen to his radio show. Even though we don't have any debt, we love his 'baby steps' and advice on all money-related matters.
Do you have common practices on when to consult before purchasing? What is it based on? We just discuss it.... If someone wants to purchase something, we just consult each other by asking about it or bringing it up and we decide together whether it's smart, feasible, etc. On normal months (not right now because of DH's job situation), we have "fun money" that we each get to spend at our own discretion, so things purchased with that money are never disputed/questioned.
We've never had a fight about money, so we must be doing it right.
This is the topic on the Nest on FB as well
We have a joint checking and then I still have my checking as an emergency, so to speak. We do have an e-fund though as well. I have 2 spreadsheets for bills, his and mine and then they get paid depending on due dates and what not. I do it all because, while I love him, he is awful at paying bills :P I balance the checkbook, I'm very OCD about it as well.
To save money, I'm a coupon freak. I love them. We go "major shopping" once a month, where we stock up on stuff. We get milk, bread & veggies once a week as a rule. He works in a cheese manufacuting place, so we rarely have to buy cheese, since it gets it free, which rocks! I make a menu for 2 weeks of what we eat, based on what we have and that has save so much money, it's unreal what we were spending when we'd go out to eat. Now we go out once a month, so we appricate it more.
[ETA]
We both work full time. However, he makes twice as much a month as I do. Creep :P
On major purchases, we discuss if we can afford it and how it'll fit in the budget. Keep in mind our only "big" purchase was the house :P And it was only $100 more than his rent was, so it wasn't a huge deal really. I didn't live with him prior to the wedding, so I'd never paid rent or anything, woo hoo!
Trials & Adventures in Baby Making
Stuck in counting limbo.
SAIF always welcome!!
Fortune from UnderwaterRhymes: A new outlook brightens your image and brings new friends.
Yes, we both work. I've always made less than he does, though I've been on a steady climb since we met nearly 4 years ago. When my next raise kicks in in 3 weeks, we'll be within ~$1k of each other. Woohoo!
I pay all bills - he lets things sit around forever and we incur late fees, so screw that. I have our mortgage on an auto-pay, and everything else I pay when it comes in. We have a joint checking account into which we each put about half of our income, and all joint expenses come out of there. The rest of our income goes into our individual checking accounts.
However, we'll be changing our system shortly, as soon as H pays off the last of his CC debt. ALL income will be deposited into the joint account, except for a certain amount that will get siphoned to our individual accounts every payday for fun money. That way we're each on a spending budget and it'll be a lot easier to get the savings going better. I can't wait to get the new system going, since H is a very loose spender!
TTC #1 since January 2013
All of our money has been in a joint account since we bought our house about 3 years ago. DH pays all the bills and handles the finances for us, just because he enjoys it and I don't. We always consult each other before major purchases, too.
Our spending/saving method just changed a bunch recently since we found out I'm expecting. Our entertainment spending has gone so far down, and our savings have close to doubled. We now have different priorities than we did just a few months ago. Although our food budget is going way up
H has a full-time job and I only have a part-time job (still looking for that FT position).
Our money goes into a joint account and then we take a little bit and put it into our separate accounts. As of right now, there isn't really any extra to put in savings unfortunately (those unexpected bills like medical charges, etc. suck). I manage all the bills and keep up with the finances because it is easier that way since I would be asking him about it if he did it
.
We don't really buy anything unless it is for the house. If we are going to purchase something big, we will consult each other and have done that even before we were married and had a joint account.
How do you and H handle your finances? Do you both work? Joint checking - if so who manages the household (paying bills, budgeting, etc)?
We both have full time jobs. We both have seperate checking accounts and then a joint savings account. I manage all the bills. I am more organized and keep up with when things are due. He gives me a certain amount of money each week for certain bills and I pay the rest. The money he has left over goes into his account, which he keeps track of. He'll also give me money throughout the month for groceries or other things as I need it. He actually also pays everytime we go out to dinner or when we do things together like that, so not all his "extra" money goes to just his stuff.
He doesn't keep track of his money as well as he should. I'm very precise about balancing my check book and keeping track of what's coming in/going out.
Right now, I wish we could put money into savings. We used to, but since the wedding we just haven't had the extra money to do so. Of course, I guess we could cut out buying anything extra or doing anything out, but as it is, we don't even do a whole lot of that. After bills we don't have a whole lot extra to spread out anywhere.
Do you have common practices on when to consult before purchasing? What is it based on?
For little things that we want or need we just buy it out of our own accounts or sometimes he'll give me money for certain things. We obviously consult each other for big purchases - tv, furniture, etc... but for the occassional mall trip or if he goes to the fishing store or something - we don't care.
Eventually I'd like to get our system a little bit more joined - sometimes I feel like I pay a lot more things - bills, grocery than he does, but in the end it always works out. For now we'll just keep it as is. We never fight about money, so I'd rather not mess with it even though it's not perfect.
How do you and H handle your finances? Do you both work? Joint checking - if so who manages the household (paying bills, budgeting, etc)? We both work, though DH makes more than I do and always will (the joys of teaching
). We have joint checking and savings----we are very much in the "our" mindset, our money, our debt, our bills, our house, etc. I manage all the bills, budgeting, etc. I am much more organized than DH and I don't mind handling all that so it works well for us.
Do you have common practices on when to consult before purchasing? What is it based on? We don't do the "fun money" thing that a lot of couples do, our only $$ spent during the week individually is for lunch (DH--accounted for in our budget) and the occassional stop at the grocery store on my way home for bread, milk, etc. As far as consulting each other, if there's something bigger (or just something that's different from our normal daily/weekly expenses) that one of us wants/needs, we let the other know and determine whether or not it's in our budget at the time.
Anything you want to throw out there. Feel free to ask questions as well.
We're slowly but surely working on getting rid of our cc debt. We paid of one of DH's in August, and one of mine is in the works. Hopefully, before too long, our only debt will be the mortgage and my student loans, and possibly DH's truck--that would make me very happy. I try to very cost-conscious and I try/want to do a good job at managing our finances and things. I always use coupons, pay more than the minimums on cc's, I cook most every night (we eat out about once a month), etc. and I think we've both become more conscious of where our money is going.
We both work. We have 2 separate checking accounts but they're both joint accounts. I manage one and he manages the other. We have a joint credit card.
We each pay certain bills and whatever we charge to the credit card out of our paychecks. The rest is transferred to savings or sometimes to the other person if the other one needs extra $ that month. It works pretty well for us because we balance the checkbooks differently so it's easier to each handle certain bills than to try to figure out what the other one has paid already. We can both access both accounts but it's nice because I can buy him Christmas and birthday gifts and he doesn't see the charge. I mean he can look at the account I manage if he wanted to, but he doesn't, so his gifts are still surprises.
How do you and H handle your finances? Do you both work? Joint checking - if so who manages the household (paying bills, budgeting, etc)? We both work, although I make a little more than he does. I've also tended to be more responsible with money, so he freely said I was in charge of our finances, which I'm completely ok with. We have a joint checking and savings account, but I also have a separate checking account that I put money in purely for the mortgage, so I always know there's enough there and don't even have to think about it. I have most of the bills on auto-pay too, so that's super handy.
I just recently started 'budgeting'...ore more like taking a monthly look at what we spend and categorize it out. It was a HUGE eye opener as to what we spend on. DH was shocked to learn how much he spent a month on eating out for lunch. He's been doing great trying to cut that back as much as he can now.
Do you have common practices on when to consult before purchasing? What is it based on? We agreed that any 'frivolous' purchase over $50 should be consulted first (i.e. DVDs/electroncis for him, shoes/shopping for me). So far we've been pretty good about agreeing to each other's wants.
We both work full time. After we were married my name was added to his checking and savings accounts, he manages them still and I maintain my own accounts as well. We each have our own CCs. Eventually we'll probably consolidate some more. He pays the majority of bills, though I typically pick up groceries and other expenses when we are out.
We are both incredibly cheap and neither of us buys a lot of things that aren't necessary. When there is something small that one of us really wants there's no need to ask the other. When there are big things we always discuss them first.
This is how we are. We have a good grasp on our "typically monthly buy" including lunches, H's supplements, my Target pick ups : ), etc and beyond that we consult.
We both work. DH makes more than I do and always will. I have all the bills set up to automatically withdraw from our account and I monitor them.
We have a joint checking and savings. DH has a checking account because he wasn't thinking and set up his paycheck to deposit into that account so that will eventually be changed or I'll be added.
After all the house purchases, we'll be budgeting to be living entirely off his income and using my income to pay off debt (his car, my school loans, and our house) and beef up our savings.
We are really honest with purchases. We do most of our shopping together and know enough about what is going on with each other to have an idea of what will be spent when we aren't together.
TTC #1 since 08/11 IUI#2 = BFP!
We both work. We have a joint checking account and I have my own checking account, but we both use my account.
We budget everything except about $20 each per week that we do not account for. We budget seperate "fun money" that we also use how we wish. It has worked out really well for us. It is getting harder now, because we are trying to budget a newer car into the mix, but it will all work out.