Dolla, Dolla Bills, Yo!

 Money.  It shouldn't matter, but it does.  It's also one of the most popular reasons couples fight.

Seriously, I can see why.  Nothing is more stressful than not having enough money, not knowing if you have enough money and then compounding those concerns with someone else's spending habits and fiscal woes.

Luckily, I'm totally OCD and had an iron fist on my finances before Ox and I got together.  Ha. Iron fist, my bottom.  But at least I was tracking my budget pretty steadily and had implemented a hard-core get out of debt plan.

I started the whole get out of debt plan back when I lived in Nashville and listened to a lot of Dave Ramsey.  This guy's intense and brilliant.  Take sometime, listen to just ONE of his broadcasts - you'll be forever changed.  Also, his site has some fun tools to get you started on a budget.

So, I had this crazy little spreadsheet and this crazy little budget, but what do you do when you suddenly have a plus-one to work into all this!? 

Ox and I decided to take the matter by the horns.  We got a joint-account from which we pay all joint bills -- this includes utilities, rent, joint-fun, food, etc.  All the rest of our spending is done from our personal accounts.  This has helped tremendously.  But, the whole joint account situation only works if both people respect the use of the account.  To assist us in that matter, I decided that it was time for a Joint Budget Spreadsheet in addition to my personal spreadsheet.

So, I built a sheet that tracks our budget for the joint account in Google Documents - so we can access it at work or home!  It lists all our expenses, the amount budgeted for each, how much each of us owe for each, then most importantly - how much we've deposited toward each line item.  That's right folks, I allocate our deposits to specific expenses when they go in.

Then I built a sort of check register that connects into the budget part of our spreadsheet.  When we enter certain line items the cells change color - making them easy to enter into the budget part as credits or debits. As a whole we track total spent, total deposited (both items by whom) and then the variance to original budget on a month to month basis (so we can adjust accordingly).

It's all a bit complex to write out, but I must say being able to look and see, "I need to deposit $100 into our joint account to cover laundry, fun and phone bill still," when contemplating a less than needed purchase is pretty effective in the curbing of the spending.

So, make a plan.  Stick to the plan.  You don't have to totally geek out like me and spend years building a personal spreadsheet.  Google some budget tools, take a look at where you're at and what you both need to do and you'll save yourself fighting over something that is always going to be a pressure.  Then instead you can relax and focus on fighting to make your relationship more fun!!