Minneapolis/St. Paul Nesties
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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/finance discuss...
I have been busy redoing our budget this morning, and I am wondering...
1. How often you do your budget/household expenses?
2. Who is in charge of your finances in your house?
3. Are there things you have cut out or cut back on in your budget?
4. Do you feel like you are getting ahead, falling behind, or staying the same?
5. Where are your biggest regrets in regards to money?
6. Do you have any successes in regards to money?
7. Do you have any tips to share with others?
7. Any other thoughts in regards to this topic?
Re: Money/finance discuss...
1. How often you do your budget/household expenses?
About 3 times a week, I make sure the account is balanced and all current Bill Pays are ready.
2. Who is in charge of your finances in your house?
Me. DH isn't interested. He just likes to know that there is money, but he will freak when there isn't.
3. Are there things you have cut out or cut back on in your budget?
We have cut back on going out, out to eat, out for drinks. We buy what we need to do it at home. I have also cut my clothing budget down to almost nothing, unless I find something on super clearance.
4. Do you feel like you are getting ahead, falling behind, or staying the same?
This month I am falling behind. I have quite a stockpile in savings, but we dished out 4k for the honeymoon, another 2k today for a sump installation, and the water bill, trash bill, credit card all hit too. We are buckeling down this month.
5. Where are your biggest regrets in regards to money?
None really.
6. Do you have any successes in regards to money?
We have a weekly amount that goes in to the savings account. I give myself an internal high five each week I get the transfer notice. And we pay our credit cards off monthly. Our goal is to be non-reliant on them by the end of the year.
7. Do you have any tips to share with others?
Don't go for the hype when stores offer you a savings to use their credit card. We only opened a Menards card to take advantage of no interest for 12 months when we installed a new patio. And always pay things off early!
1. How often you do your budget/household expenses? 2x/week
2. Who is in charge of your finances in your house? Me
3. Are there things you have cut out or cut back on in your budget? We went to an all cash budget for things like groceries, eating out, personal 'allowance', clothing...basically anything discretionary and it has helped cut us back in all of the areas since it was so easy to simply use the bank card whenever we had a whim to eat out or buy clothing
4. Do you feel like you are getting ahead, falling behind, or staying the same? We are slowly getting ahead...very slowly. We hope to be debt free (minus the mortgage) by next spring.
5. Where are your biggest regrets in regards to money? We should have waiting one more year before buying a house to give us additional time to sock away savings for unexpected housing things. I also wish we would have bought a junkier car (in cash) and saved up to get a better car without having to finance it.
6. Do you have any successes in regards to money? We put away money into savings, a Roth IRA, and company retirement accounts so I'm feeling pretty good about that.
7. Do you have any tips to share with others? For us, going all cash was key for us to start getting ahead and saving more. We also automate savings so we treat it like a bill that needs to be paid.
7. Any other thoughts in regards to this topic?
1. How often you do your budget/household expenses? I, as a matter of fact, amd doing ours right now...putting it all on paper and seeing where we can be better at budgeting and moving more towards a cash system.
2. Who is in charge of your finances in your house? That'd be me...not sure my hubby even knows how to write a check anymore (although most of our stuff is done online).
3. Are there things you have cut out or cut back on in your budget? We've cut back a lot on going out to eat...that was our downfall, we never grocery shopped just went out, we've started eating at home more.
4. Do you feel like you are getting ahead, falling behind, or staying the same? Staying the same mostly because we drive two SUV's (even though mine takes e85) and we go through gas like there's no tomorrow. Unfortunately my e85 is worthless because I have to fill up more often and the fuel efficiency goes down enough to not make the price difference worth it.
5. Where are your biggest regrets in regards to money? Well for a long time we lived right at or just above our means and we've stopped doing that. I think my biggest regret was not doing that sooner. Its so much better now to know that at the end of the month we still have a fairly large slush fund.
6. Do you have any successes in regards to money? My hubby's overtime...that is our success because when he has overtime or I have a RE closing all that money goes to savings!
7. Do you have any tips to share with others? Go to a cash only system, and live below your means if at all possible. We sold a lot of our toys to get there but are happy that we have some money left over at the end of the month.
7. Any other thoughts in regards to this topic?
1. How often you do your budget/household expenses?
I check things out weekly, but I have our budget written out for the next few months.
2. Who is in charge of your finances in your house?
I am.
3. Are there things you have cut out or cut back on in your budget?
We don't eat out as much. We stick to our budget and do not overspend.
4. Do you feel like you are getting ahead, falling behind, or staying the same?
I feel like we are getting ahead. We save and invest a decent amount every month.
5. Where are your biggest regrets in regards to money?
I don't really have any.
6. Do you have any successes in regards to money?
We have zero debt besides our mortgage and my student loan. Due to this fact we have been able to grow our savings, investments, and vacation fund.
7. Do you have any tips to share with others?
When it comes to vacations save up and pay for them in cash before you even go. We plan vacation a year or more in advance and save up prior to going. Also save and invest on a consistent basis. It truly adds up over time.
7. Any other thoughts in regards to this topic?
1. How often you do your budget/household expenses?
We sit down together once a month before the next month begins and we write down on paper all of our expenses, all of our budgeted items we feel we'll need or any extras we have going on for the next month. If in the middle of the month or at any time we need to adjust something we come together and discuss it and decide where we're going to get the money, from which category we had it budgeted for.
2. Who is in charge of your finances in your house?
We work on it together as a team so neither of us feels like we don't have a say or know where our money is going. After we determine our budget I do the actual bill paying and transferring of money to our savings and running to the bank to get our cash for our envelope system we use. I also keep the checkbook balanced throughout the week as we use our check cards for gas.
3. Are there things you have cut out or cut back on in your budget?
When we went to budgeting on a monthly basis vs. an every 2 weeks it cut down on a lot of what I felt like was frivolous spending in our entertainment category. My DH has a hard time thinking so far in advance but seems to be getting better.
4. Do you feel like you are getting ahead, falling behind, or staying the same?
We are definitely getting ahead. I read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover almost a year ago now and we've paid off 47% of our debt so far, and cash flowed a new furnace and replacement vehicle. We're currently on hold and just stockpiling cash now though because we have our first child (together) due in February. I am really hoping that most of the money we save up during this time will eventually be dumped onto our debt and we'll be debt free except the house or almost there after our baby is born as long as all goes well.
5. Where are your biggest regrets in regards to money?
Not discovering DR sooner, letting my money tell me where it went instead of me telling it where to go. I used to shop at Target daily and really nickel and dimed us for the first 6 months of our marriage.
6. Do you have any successes in regards to money?
Kind of already covered this above. It was hard to get my husband on board fully until I finally got him to read the book and for our 1 year anniversary he took Financial Peace University with me at a local church and now I am going to be facilitating a class this fall.
7. Do you have any tips to share with others?
Educate yourself, learn those common sense things to do with money and really how to implement them. Live below your means, pay cash for things and never borrow money and get out of debt as fast as you possibly can.
7. Any other thoughts in regards to this topic?
I am a HUGE fan of Dave Ramsey, look him up, lots of free information on his website, books available at the library, or classes you can take. He teaches a common sense approach to being smart with money. His teachings have forever changed my life and my family tree in the best possible way.
I'm curious why people still keep their finances separate after getting married.