One of my goals for October was to do weekly budget check-in, both with the Big Guy and here on the blog. The hope is that this will allow us to drill down on our budgeting goals – like I discussed in 3 Things Our Budget Failure Taught us:
What do you and your spouse fight about?
Experts say that couples fight about three things: money, kids & sex. We fight about all 3 at times, but our budget is definitely the point of most contention. He wants gas to go places during the day in our SUV, but I want him to only go places 2x per week to save gas. He wants to grab subway on the way home, and because I’m hungry, I agree.
But even though I’m the saver and he’s the spender, It’s not his fault.
It’s mine.
Today is our second budget check-in, both here on the blog and at home with The Big Guy (You can read the first one here)
Groceries
Budget: $300
Spent: $306
Gas
Budget: $400
Spent: $282
Eating Out
Budget: $40
Spent: $37
Income:
Budget: $4,630
Actual: $8,550
Overall Thoughts:
I am NOT happy with groceries, but we had to buy some printer ink (which = expensive) that I wasn’t anticipating this month. Still, it’s the 18th, and we can definitely eat from out pantry for the next 2 weeks without a problem. The only thing we should have to buy is milk :-)
When I told the Big Guy we had no more money to spend on groceries, he looked at me, and then checked his calendar. “You know we have 12 more days left in the month, right?” I just laughed and said yes….and then told him that we would definitely not starve eating from the pantry :-) It took him a minute to process that, but then it dawned on him that we have so. much. food. We just need to get creative!
Gas I am perfectly happy with, and we might actually come in below budget! We do have to drive 1.5 hours north next Thursday, so I expect another jump, but looking at it percentage-wise, we’re 71% of the way through our gas budget and we’re 58% of the way through the month.
Eating out, we spent $3.00 over last week’s spending which I am perfectly ok with. Sometimes, you just need coffee….
Income is what I want to hit on. We are trying desperately to pay off our personal loan, and as of my Q3 Net Worth Update, the balance on it was $6,604. We have been socking money away in savings (minus a couple of setbacks) and really hoping that The Big Guy would get his bonus this month to get us the extra mile and pay off the personal loan by the end of November.
I am happy to announce that between his $3,500 bonus and October being a 3-paycheck month, we will be completely paid off by the end of November! Whoop, Whoop! That also puts us on track to pay off $15,304 in 2014!
……So that’s it, our second budget check-in! How is your budget looking 18 days into the month??
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Aw, this was a very nice post. Finding the time and actual effort to
create a very good article… but what can I say…
I put things off a lot and never seem to get nearly anything done.
Congratulations on making so much progress on that personal loan!
I think these budget check-ins are a great idea. I can tell they are prompting useful discussion between you and the Big Guy. I might need to try that with my husband and I.
Congrats on paying off your personal loan!
Thank you! – We still have a long way to go, though
Congrats on paying off the personal loan!! What a great accomplishment!! The check-ins seems like a great way to lessen the fights and be able to tell where you’re at as you go. Great idea!!
Thank you! It feels to good to have it gone! While the check-ins are hard to make a priority, both my husband and I have been happier with each other (and the budget) since we started doing them!