How my wife and I cut 30% out of our budget, and survived! + Free Download

12.09.10

How my wife and I cut 30% out of our budget, and survived!

+ Our Budget Form free download

In a previous post, I discussed the key importance of partnership in fiscal matters within a marriage.  It's common to find marriages where one spouse micro manages all the bills, budgets, and money... leading to some VERY VERY heated fights when it comes time for a reality check.  

So, while I have assumed the leadership mantle of CFO in our household, my wife and I take a team approach to teaching our money how to behave!  (parenting is such sweet sorrow!!!) 

Special thanks to Pike for asking a critical question on this post:  "what did you cut?"

Here it goes...

Starting shortly after WE (and I do emphasize WE) discovered that we were over budget, we combed back through the budget a second, third, and fourth time.  Each time, shaving away dollar after dollar to reduce our spending projections (and allowances) as much as we could.

Undoubtedly, we got down as far as we were comfortable... and soon realized we were STILL over spending!  So, we started taking lump sum items out.  We have several income streams, some of which are irregular but reliable (commission quarterly).  By separating the "knock down expenses" to a separate sheet, we essentially pre-spent the irregular income before we received it.

I love my wife dearly.  She's made a LOT of financial compromise in partnering with me recently.  We've gone from using credit cards for everything we could (travel points), to debit card on a budget (no travel points),... to ......  CASH ENVELOPES!

Oy, how painful this final transition was!  Having the "plastic" near by was a security blanket while grocery shopping or at restaurants.  Like a "metered" drug overdose, even on a budget we'd consistently overspend in the grocery store and in the restaurants when using our debit card... 

So there was no other option but to convert those two categories to cash envelopes.  In doing so, we've given our adolescent budget a "spanking" and are parenting our money to behave.

My wife was the biggest skeptic of the cash envelope migration... and is now our biggest advocate!  You should see all the coupons and discount deals my wife "magically" finds... it's weird...   (Maybe it helps we chose to incentivize her to manage the Grocery cash envelope well by allowing her to keep any money left over as her own "whatever" cash... She LOVES it!)

Today, we aren't perfect, but we are living well below our means.  We are that couple that brings a cash envelope AND a coupon envelope to the grocery store.  We shop at several grocery stores in town, including a bakery thrift store, Aldi's discount grocer, Costco and Meijer (all depending on what sales and coupons we have available.)

Also remember this:  Money is just money.  It can't buy happiness.  If nothing else, this entire experience serves as a great reminder that love, communication, mutual submission, and self discipline are far more important than owning flashy things and driving nice cars.  We've come to realize that our money isn't even really ours to decide where it goes, anyway!  It's God's money... He's just given it to us to manage for Him while we are here...

How we trimmed 30% out of our budget:

1.  Join together to prayerfully develop initial budget

2.  Recognize overage, go back and trim budget

3.  Separated the "Knock Down Expenses" in order of priority

4.  Converted the Grocery and Restaurant budgets to cash envelopes

5.  Incentivized the wife to manage the cash envelopes well = new found "whatever" money
for her.  (creates a "win win"--> "Happy Wife, Happy Life... {{insert nervous laughter}}")

6.  Remember, the budget is our strategy for managing God's money (not ours!)

Here's the budget form we've found & adapted for our personal budget.  Click HERE for my download-able Google Docs Budget form (Microsoft Excel)

Matthew 25:14-30 (New International Version, ©2010)

The Parable of the Bags of Gold

    ¹⁴ “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. ¹⁵ To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,^[a] each according to his ability....  Click HERE for the full story...