Budgets

I am fortunate that DH is very financially astute, and he generally organises the budget.  Over a cup of coffee this morning, I asked him to go through our revised budget for this year with me, not because I had any doubts about it, I just felt it made sense for me to have a good understanding of the figures, too.

We live in a small flat.  The overheads (council tax, utilities, insurance etc) that are paid out monthly or annually are relatively small, and we work hard to keep the water, gas and electric low.  That accounts for one part of our monthly budget.  The other part is for shopping, petrol and other household expenses.  DH and I both operate separate bank accounts, and make quarterly contributions towards a joint account, from which payments and direct debits are paid monthly for our overheads.  Every month we also withdraw an amount of cash  which we allow ourselves for shopping etc.  DH is in receipt of a work pension, and makes a higher contribution to the joint account than I do, as I have no income at present.  

On the right is the purse I use for my personal spending, and the little notebook in which I keep a record of exactly how much I spend.  The joint housekeeping money is rationed out of the cash tin into the other purse each month.  We aim to have a little left in the tin at the end of each month.

We shop carefully, and since we have started cooking from scratch, we have noticed that our food bills are lower.  We are thoughtful about using the car, and will shop locally (and therefore walk) if possible.  I am conscious that any 'extras' not covered by our monthly cash budget are often paid for by DH (he does this more than willingly), and during our discussion this morning, we agreed to look at what we spend each month, where the money actually goes, to try to reduce the extra he puts in.  I think it will just be a case of keeping shop receipts, and being honest about where and how we spend our money.  We are not reckless at all, and can afford to buy things if we need to, but we have both worked long and hard to be in the financial situation we are in, and neither of us believes that means we should be irresponsible with our hard-earned cash.

Interestingly, I have just been reading archives from the Down to Earth blog that Rhonda writes (I know it is polite to do a link here, and when I have found out how to do that, I will!), and she has written at length on budgeting.  As I have mentioned, DH is very savvy with our money, and we both understand the importance of honest budgeting, having both previously been in severe financial straits at various times in our lives.  I related very much to Rhonda's post about allocating money to little plastic bags - when I was a lone parent, I did exactly that.  It was the only way I could make my very small income stretch to cover everything, and remain solvent.  I managed, but it was hard work.  However, DH and I both agree that having been really hard-up in our separate past lives, means we are much more aware of the importance of financial budgeting together.  I am very thankful we think the same on this subject; I think it's just one more reason we're such good friends!