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Linds
I have to say, you're super brave for that blog post! I don't think that I could have the guts to admit that. Something that Drew and I do that really seems to help us is to have separate accounts. Drew is a spender and I'm a saver, so I knew that I had to reign him in when we got married and joined finances.
We have our joint account, a savings account, and we each have a personal account. Bills get paid from the joint account, and gas, and if we decide to go out to dinner together, we usually use the joint. We have a set amount that gets direct deposited into our personal accounts every pay period. I no longer have that since I don't work, but that's ok. Drew can do whatever he wants with that money and I can't say anything about it. Same went for me when I was getting money in my account. I mainly implemented this because I got sick of him spending so much money on chew. At first he ran through his money very quickly, but now he's got quite the stash in there.
Anyways, I just wanted to share what works for us.
Mrs. Little Drew 10/25/08
Blog
TTC since 1/2010 - Dx with Stage IV Endo
11/10 - 100mg Clomid + trigger + IUI + Estradiol + Progesterone = BFN
12/10 - Unmedicated cycle due to RE not doing treatments in December = BFN
1/11 - 100mg Clomid + trigger + IUI + Estradiol + Progesterone = BFN
2/11 - Same sh!t, different month = IUI cancelled due to no response = BFN
IVF #1 - Start stims (Follistim) 5/10, add in Ganirelix 5/14
ER 5/21 - 13 retrieved, 7 mature, 5 fertilized; ET 5/26 - transferred one perfect 1AA blast. 3 snowbabies.
Beta 6/3 - 15.8; Beta 6/7 - 21.8; Beta 6/10 - 7
FET - Transferred 1 AA blast 7/11. Beta 7/20 - 311! Beta 7/22 - 784!! First u/s 8/10
*~PAIFW/SAIFW~*
Re: Linds
Alexander David
11.25.09
my blog
I think Mint can be a great tool for people who want to track their spending. Lords knows HD/Lowes take all of ours.
I agree with Tania, we have a fun money system and it works well. It's not much a month, but it pays for the things that are more selfish in nature, like my starbucks and DH's golf team.
Wives Unscripted
Haven't read your blog post yet, but this is what DH and I do - a joint account for bills, vacation, cars, insurance, etc. Then we both have personal accounts to spend/save as we wish. We also use our personal accounts to pay our student loans and credit card bills. Makes things so much easier.
We are a joint checking and savings family and while our spending can get out of control a bit, we are trying to reign it in prebaby.
My suggestion to help out with the whole spending too much in one category, go with the cash system. You don't actually have to have cash in an envelope, you could always just get a Starbucks giftcard for yourself, put a set amount of money on it each month and then when the card runs out, so does the coffee. Could also work for eating out. Maybe get some other kind of gc that doesn't have a fee.
This doesn't work for us because my husband is like George Clooney from Up in the Air and doesn't like to use cash. It's all about the miles...
Thanks for all of the tips, girls!
I agree, it was a bit gutsy to throw some of our actual numbers out there on the blog for the entire world to see. A few weeks ago, TurboTax contacted me about blogging for them about family finances - all I had to do was put they're little badge at the top of the post and the rest was completely up to me - they said anything goes as long as it's a story about family finances (oh, and I wasn't allowed to bash to IRS, lol.) So, I took the opportunity to be real with it.
Of course, I talked to Thomas first and his only request was that I don't disclose what our actual income is... which I didn't plan on doing anyway. But, I wanted to "get naked" on the blog... meaning, actually talk openly about something that I KNOW we're not the only ones who can identify with it. A lot of the blogs that I read are very closed door and will make up hypothetical numbers when talking about their budgets (which I totally understand and respect.) So, I just wanted to try this approach with it and have been overwhelmed by the response. I'm getting so many people replying with great tips; people are leaving comments on the blog post, emailing me, tweeting me, etc. I'm glad it opened up discussion.
I think I'm actually going to do a follow up post compiling all of the great tips and advice in to one blog post.
BFP on 2.2.11
That's what we've been using since September and I LOVE it! Had it not been for Mint, I would have had NO idea how much of our money we were eating, lol.
BFP on 2.2.11
See, I thought the Starbucks card was a GREAT idea, too. I actually did that in the month of November! Put $20 on it and knew that it had to get me through a month.
Well, card ran out after just over 1 week, and that, somehow, didn't stop me. I lack control. :
BFP on 2.2.11
LOL Sounds like you need to develop some better self control
Try it again and see if you can stick to it. You already have reduced things since you got the Keuireg (sp?) You should be good to go.
Baby steps Linds, baby steps
LOL, baby stepping my way away from the Starbucks!
The Keurig really has made a HUGE difference. But, even though I'm spending less on coffee, I'm now drinking WAY more because it's here and way to easy to make.
BFP on 2.2.11
I think you need to start a Coffeeholics Anonymous group
You've been talking to Thomas, haven't you? LOL!!
BFP on 2.2.11
BFP on 2.2.11
Alexander David
11.25.09
my blog
BFP on 2.2.11
Alexander David
11.25.09
my blog
I honestly didn't either. I was even DRINKING a decaf when we went over that in class - I'll never forget because my professor looked at me and said "Drinking coffee?" to which I replied "Yes. Why?" and she asked it was regular and I told her that I avoid regular; I was drinking decaf. That's when she was like "Perfect - you'll learn something from tonight's lecture."
I poured my cup out. Starbucks does make their Sumatra decaf the natural way, though - so I can still drink it!
BFP on 2.2.11
I'd like to hear more about Mint....
We used to use Microsoft Money... but they stopped making it and it no longer is supported either.
Then we bought Quicken in 09. But our bank doesn't work with them so nothing gets imported we would have to manually input everything, which lets face is not going to happen.
But DH and I did really well when we were able to use software like that. So share with me about Mint..
My Knot Bio My Blog
We've been using Quicken too. It doesn't import our bank info either, so Drew manually inputs it. We try to stay on top of it so we don't have to do a month at a time or anything crazy like that. I haven't played with the program at all, but I want to know if it can do projections and things like that.
Mrs. Little Drew 10/25/08
Blog
TTC since 1/2010 - Dx with Stage IV Endo
11/10 - 100mg Clomid + trigger + IUI + Estradiol + Progesterone = BFN
12/10 - Unmedicated cycle due to RE not doing treatments in December = BFN
1/11 - 100mg Clomid + trigger + IUI + Estradiol + Progesterone = BFN
2/11 - Same sh!t, different month = IUI cancelled due to no response = BFN
IVF #1 - Start stims (Follistim) 5/10, add in Ganirelix 5/14
ER 5/21 - 13 retrieved, 7 mature, 5 fertilized; ET 5/26 - transferred one perfect 1AA blast. 3 snowbabies.
Beta 6/3 - 15.8; Beta 6/7 - 21.8; Beta 6/10 - 7
FET - Transferred 1 AA blast 7/11. Beta 7/20 - 311! Beta 7/22 - 784!! First u/s 8/10
*~PAIFW/SAIFW~*
Mint is AMAZING! It's completely free, syncs with your bank account, has an iphone app, and you can categorize EVERYTHING and see it all these amazing little charts.
BFP on 2.2.11