Greg's and my Sunday afternoons are normally the same each weekend. We go to Safeway after church to pick up a Sunday Oregonian and relax on the couch together while I cut coupons and Greg does the crossword. Today as I was cutting coupons (over $530 in savings by the way!) it occurred to me that we had dropped the ball on our budget this past month. I got out our receipts and Greg helped me add everything up. As we compared our bank account to our spending and looked at previous months we were disappointed with ourselves.
How did we spend that much on eating out? Why did we buy that item that we thought we needed at the time? Why are school loans so expensive? And where can we possibly cut our spending?
To be proactive after our budget shock this afternoon we went to the gym and canceled our membership. We will be moving in a few months and would have canceled then anyhow. Also, with the "warmer" weather I can start running outside again.
We also plan on carpooling to work together. Greg has been working longer/and earlier hours in preparation for his new position at the end of May. Since he leaves about a half an hour earlier than I do, I am going to get up a bit earlier so that he can take me in to work early. I will either catch a ride home with a coworker, walk home, or take my running stuff and run home.
We attended a Dave Ramsey seminar about two years ago with my family. Some people are HUGE Dave Ramsey fans and some people can't stand him. I think Greg and I are in the middle. We find his teaching applicable, but also fudge on some of it a bit. One suggestion we are going to try this month is taking out a predetermined amount of cash to use for groceries, gas, eating out, etc. and once that the money for each item is gone it's gone and we cannot spend anymore.
Keep your eyes out for an update on how our budgeting for the month of May goes.
We are going to have a movie night tonight and watch a Dave Ramsey dvd that we got as a gift... we feel pretty dorky about it, but it should be fun :)
Good for you two! It sounds like you're doing a good job of getting on the "same page" w/ each other, which is so important! I think its great that you are trying to be so proactive at an early stage!
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