The Dreaded “B” Word

I am sure this has happened to a number of individuals and couple’s when it comes to discussing or reviewing the “B” word.  BUDGET!  Depending on the individual, budgets can be extremely useful.  For my wife and I the monthly budget review and finances update can be a point of contention.  Without a doubt the following statements/questions are made when reviewing budget and monthly spending with my wife:

• “Did we really spend that much on coffee?”
  
• “Man we ate out a lot!”
  
• “You spent $300 at target last month!  What did you need?” 
  
• “We are not putting enough away to savings.”
  
• “Do we really need to be spending money every month on this?”
  

Note: The third bullet point doesn’t normally go down well :)   

Almost straight after we do our review we always say we will do better.  And in certain areas we definitely do make the adjustment.  In an effort to do better it almost ALWAYS comes down to discretionary spending between my wife and I.  Our main areas we look at are:

1. Coffee Charges
   
2. Fast Food Charges
   
3. Restaurant Charges - Date Nights
   
4. Beauty Charges - Hair & Nails
   
5. Sports - My Golfing Addiction
   
6. Clothes - Work or Personal
   
7. Misc Purchases - Usually from Target
   

In any given month we probably spend anywhere from $500-$600 between these 7 categories.  As of late, we are trying to commit to ourselves to try to cut $100 per month from our average spend in these categories.  That is $1200 per year!  We realize that we will never cut back hard and become complete minimalists.  We want to have date nights and spend money on things that make us feel good, which is even healthy.  With two toddlers my wife and I need to have our own one-on-one time every month to just catch up and continue to work on our relationship in the midst of our hectic lives.  In my view, the big question is what is a “need” vs. “want” when it comes to discretionary spending?  

I would love to hear from you all regarding your experiences when it comes to budgeting whether you are single or in a relationship with a joint bank account.  I have met married couples that have been together for decades that still have separate bank accounts.  Does that work?  One thing my wife and I have found is we have multiple accounts that we transfer money to every month that makes money out of sight out of mind.  We don’t have debit cards for these accounts so we are not tempted to withdraw the money.     

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