Budget. {keep reading, I’ll try to not make this too painful}

When I think of our budget, I try not to think of it as a negative thing. If you’re anything like me, when you don’t write something down, the chances of finding it again are pretty slim.

And who wants that to happen with the money you’ve worked hard for? Like John Maxwell says, “A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.”

Our budget isn’t that complicated and anyone could probably create one similar with pen and paper.

We first started out by writing out our earned income {because you shouldn’t spend more than you earn… am I right?}.

And then we subtracted all of our recurring items/bills like tithe, car loans, school loans, utilities, etc.

We then estimated things like groceries and gas, things that could be vary from month to month, but still needed a cap so we didn’t overspend and would help us stay on track. And we subtracted again.

After we did these steps and saw how much we had left over, we decided to put X amount in savings. We treat it like a bill/payment so we aren’t tempted to spend it.

Once all of those items were taken care of, we then added in fun categories for things like travel, date nights, spending money, etc. Note that we did this AFTER we decided how much we wanted to put towards savings.

And once we both looked it over and agreed, we put into action.

And our first month we only overspent $3000!

Just kidding. Because that would totally defeat our budgeting efforts.

I graduated college in May of 2008, started a full time job that June, and worked for the next five years. During that time, I did what I wanted to do with my money.

While I paid off more than scheduled of my school and car loans, looking back I know I could have been more responsible with my cash flow {eh-hem… Starbucks and Target}.

Now here we are five years and five months later, and I’m currently a stay at home wife and talk to my husband about our money.

Needless to say, things have changed a little bit {and definitely for the better}.

The first month and a half of our marriage, we settled into life together and didn’t have many conversations about money. We merged bank accounts, knew what bills we had, and that was that.

I think we both knew we could be more responsible with our money though.

One night after church, we were picking up dinner and were talking about our debt – how much we owed and how it was broken up. I don’t remember what was said but something clicked that night, and we decided to start working on being more responsible with our money.

That was about two months ago and since then we’ve talked more about our spending, established goals, and made a budget.

And to think, it all started over a conversation while waiting for a burrito and some tacos.

Do you have someone you talk to about money and goals?