3/2/2011

The thought of having a meeting about a budget may send some folks running for the hills. That'd be my husband. On the other hand, I am a numbers nerd who actually enjoys balancing income and expenses, creating Excel spreadsheets and knowing exactly where our money will (and does) go. One of my household duties is to track our expenses and to create a budget draft for us to discuss. At the start of each new month, we sit down together and have a Budget Committee Meeting. :-)

My hubby's job is to be a part of the discussion. He doesn't have to do anything but be present and participate with me in a discussion about how to spend our money. We look over the budget draft I created based on this month's expenses. Although I do the prep work, my husband is a vital part of the discussion. "We" does not mean "me" when it comes to our money. We talk about it. We decide together how much money we could spend this month on any negotiable areas (such as home improvement projects). In the past, we have actually both signed the budget as a way to say "we agree" to carry out the plans we established here on paper.

Here are some benefits of holding a monthly Budget Committee Meeting:
1) Accountability - we both look together at the previous month and see where we stayed on track and where we overspent. The numbers speak for themselves - no hiding anything here!
2) Just in Case - since we discuss our financial situation monthly, if anything ever happened to me, my husband would be fairly current on our financial status. There would be no surprise bills showing up. And he knows where to find our financial documents, just in case.
3) Shared Goals - there is power in working together to make shared dreams a reality. We discuss our goals together and then come up with a game plan to baby-step our way to them. When we aim for a goal and reinforce that importance of that goal each month at our meeting, we are both more likely to do our part to curb spending in other areas and to do our part to help accomplish our shared goal.
4) Celebrate Financial Victories - to be on the same page, working together financially, makes each financial victory so much sweeter! To see how far we've come in paying down debt, to celebrate together as a credit card is paid off and cut up, to take a vacation together after saving our pennies for months and months, to save up to give extra to a special missions project... all of these are sweeter because we can celebrate together. We each did our part and can see the fruit of our labors.

It works for me! Visit "We Are That Family" for other Works-for-Me-Wednesday posts.