The Writer’s Coin

No no no, this is NOT about expecting a child! Although I’ve been getting asked about it recently. The news is that M and I went and got married…finally. As of last week we are officially husband and wife and that means a lot of things are supposed to change. For us though, not much actually does. We have rings on our fingers but we still live together and the only difference is that we have all this cool stuff people have given us for our wedding. So that’s nice.

But other than that the biggest change in our day-to-day activities (besides not having to do wedding stuff) is our budget. Instead of having our own, individual budgets, now we have one centralized budget and that makes things a lot more complicated.

First off, we’ll have to get used to the idea that it’s OUR money. This isn’t a big deal to us since we aren’t that fixated on it and plus we’re newlyweds so that kind of stuff isn’t important (I know I know, give it time). It’s tough because we can’t just do what we want to with Our money anymore. We’ve made it so we each still have our own accounts and our own money to handle as we see fit—no questions asked. But it’s still a little weird. Example:
“Gosh that video game looks awesome. I’m getting it.”
“But with your money, right?”
“Well, what if you play it too?”
“Ummm…”

Then we have to adjust for our different budgeting systems. I use my credit card for everything and M uses the Envelope System, so that makes it a little tougher. I would like to use the card for everything and get some major points back, but it wouldn’t work because, in the same way I can’t (or won’t) use her system, she shouldn’t have to use mine because it’s my system. One of the key points of a budget is finding one that fits your personality, and if you force someone into something that doesn’t fit, they won’t be able to stick to it. Then the whole thing becomes pointless.

Let’s not forget about those pesky fees. I hate fees. When my bank charges me a ticky-tack fee, I get angry and complain. Usually, there’s nothing that can be done—even for a long-time customer. This is how they make their money, these banks, and that may never change. Now we have two people handling money from one pot and that makes things a little more complicated. What if I need cash for X and M does too and a check hasn’t cleared? This is going to be tough but like anything we’ll get better the more we do it.

The biggest thing I’ve been stressing (to M and myself) is that we are like a brand-new person. We will make mistakes and we will learn. Neither of us has done this before so it’s like we’ve just had our financial awakening and are setting up a budget for the first time.

Why is the budget so important for us? Well, we want to buy a place to live in pretty soon (if we can) and we want to have as much flexibility as possible so our budget will help us stay on the right track and save as much as we can.

Any and all tips on making this a smooth transition are much appreciated.

Tags: Budgeting, joint account, joint budget, married