March 2009 Weddings
Amelia is going to be a big sister!
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.
Money budgeting
I know this has been discussed previously, but to be honest I didn't pay attention at the time. Last night while paying bills I got a very rude money awakening. I don't know where our heads have been lately, but our spending has gotten more then a little out of control so far this year. We absolutely can't keep it up especially with baby #2 on the way. So how do you ladies go about keeping a budget?
Amelia is going to be a big sister!
Re: Money budgeting
Face Painting Blog | Body Art Blog
Legal Blog
The Sand in My Snow Boots
This is one thing that I feel is something that DH & I are pretty good at. This is how it works for us, though it definitely wouldn't work for everyone.
We have 1 checking account/1 savings account & our credit cards are all joint accounts (meaning we both have access to see each others spending). I feel that this really helps with us keeping on top of spending getting out of control. (Meaning I can say-Woah-CC is pretty high this month-calm down..he can also say the same to me).
We both pay bills together every single month.
We have a monthly budget. We are very realistic with our budget. We have it separated by the following:
Mortgage (includes insurance & taxes)
Food (includes dining out)
Gas (cars)
Electric
Heating Oil
Cell phones
Cable/Phone/Internet
Misc. (includes clothing, house stuff, car maint., etc)
Savings
IMHO the best way to get realistic amounts of what you are spending each month is to charge everything. This definitely doesn't work for a lot of people, but it does for us. Then you can check the balance throughout the month to see where you stand. For instance, we used to not really know exactly what we spent on food, but were able to track it with our credit card (even those $4 little charges that add up stopping for a coffee).
We have a solid goal of paying cash for Robert's college education and we are a single income family. We also put a lot of money into renovating our home so we have cut back in a lot of areas over the past few years (we don't eat out much because we found we got more annoyed with restaurants and their poor service). We also luck out because we don't have commuting costs since I SAH & DH works from home.
Trust me, I used to be a huge spender on "stuff", but now its quite the opposite. We definitely have nice things (DH just bought a new truck & we gutted our kitchen), but paid cash for everything. Once you get a handle on your goals it is much easier than you think. And you will sleep much better at night too knowing exactly where your money is going.
If you want a real kick in the butt to get your finances in order, you can post your budget on the Money Matters board. (You can post under an AE if you don't want people knowing who you are-lots of people do this). Those ladies over there are excellent in helping trim the excess on your buget!
GL!
I totally agree with Alyssa to post your budget on MM. Those girls are awesome and budgets.
I don't agree with putting everything on your CC, even if you're going to pay it all off at the end of the month. That may work for some, but I think it's a slippery slope. It's way to easy to use the CC and your debit card/cash directly from your checking account and then just saying "oh well I'll just pay the rest off next month". I think paying off the CC every month is something that works better once you have an established budget and you know you're not overspending by what you're making every month. Personally I'd recommend not using the CC's at all.
The Sand in My Snow Boots
WAIT. Hold.the.phone.....
Baby #2 on the way? Where the hell have I been?
We do the exact same things, I really wish we could get more into savings though.
We use the CC to pay for groceries, so we can keep track of what we're spending and pay that in full everymonth, but that's the only thing we do it with. Everything else gets paid with the debit card, otherwise we try to stay away from the CC just use it for emergencies.
Planning and Married Bio
My Randomness Blog!!
I definitely agree that it works better once you're on an established budget plan. We use our CC often for the rewards as well, and then pay it off at the end of the month. But I'm diligent about not overspending in one category just because I used my CC and still technically have money in the bank for the same category. Again, I think it's just a better system for a more "advanced" budget-er, you know?
The Sand in My Snow Boots