First Friday Financial with Emily Carnes

Hello, Charming readers! I'm WAY too excited to be here today.  Amy and I were paired up for a swap  a while ago, and I've been wanting to meet her ever since!   Amy, thanks for letting me take over Financial Friday today.  Let's get to it---

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  As I "grow up," I'm realizing more and more how different life is when you're an adult, compared to when you're a child. Now, don't get me wrong.  Mom and Dad did a wonderful job preparing me for the real world, and I am so thankful for everything they have taught me!  But, one of the struggles I've had being an adult...and really, being a married adult...is budget.  How do you work together on a budget?  When we first got married, Andrew and I combined our two bank accounts into one joint account.  We discussed our options-keeping separate accounts, having a joint account AND keeping separate accounts, and making one joint account.  We both agreed when we married that "his money" and "my money" was now OUR money...so why not share? I gave ALL account control to him, and relied on him to tell me what I could and could not buy.  To be honest, I rarely looked at our account.  Don't take this the wrong way, but I wish that I had kept myself in the "budgeting process" the whole time, because I would see our {combined} money in the account and immediately think, "Wow, I can go shopping today!!" So not true!!  haha! Now that we sit down together at the beginning of each month pay period, and budget together...I feel like we both are in control of OUR money, and it feels good.   Here's how we break it down: Make a two column "list" of payments that are are set-in-stone in terms of amount due, and bills that may fluctuate a bit..

We go ahead and subtract those totals from our beginning total.  For the payments that could fluctuate--we use the previous month as an estimate, and then subtract those from the beginning total as well.   The money that is left over is used for: TITHING FUN EMERGENCY SAVINGS This helps us know what our "left over budget" is for...and allows up to give each dollar a job.   So, how do we stay organized? I create a Budget Binder that we will use yearly.  To do so, I used Muh Bill Book {thanks, Pinterest} as a guide, and used these calendar printables.

You can check out the full post highlighting the binder on my blog.  I would LOVE to have you stop by and say hello!