It's Money, Honey



Photo found here

I can’t decide if my frugalness is a positive or negative flaw in my life.  I began saving my money at a very young age.  I was never a “spender”.  Any extra money (birthdays, Easter egg hunts, 1^st communions, etc) that came my way was put into savings.  When I was fourteen I impulsively decided to buy a (huge) five-disc CD stereo at BJ’s Warehouse.  I still regret that purchase.  To this day, I refuse to get rid of this massive stereo, and I still think of all the better ways I could have spent $300.  I also have a large, plastic Coke-a-Cola bottle bank that I received as a Christmas present when I was about twelve.  I decided then that I would save any “found” money in this bank and buy a couch for my first house (such a responsible twelve-year-old, wasn’t I?).  Needless to say, when the time came for my first couch, I couldn’t part with the money that I’d been saving for so many years. 

When I met my husband, he was a spender.  He was responsible (or as responsible as a nineteen-year-old male ever is), but he loved spending money.  This characteristic balanced with my frugalness very nicely…until we got married.  All of the sudden he was spending our money on Ravens paraphernalia, expensive lunches, and video games he played with for (and got bored with after) two months.  All the while, I felt guilty spending our money on clothes, or pedicures or weekend trips with my girlfriends (which I did infrequently as described above!).  That’s when we decided to implement a weekly allowance for each of us.  I’ve heard many-a-critic’s opinions on this technique.  But, it works for us.  It keeps our marriage in bliss. 

Here’s how it work:  My husband and I decide on a weekly allowance amount (varies from year to year depending on income, expenses, etc).  Each week, we withdrawal our allowances from the bank and can spend it ANY WAY WE CHOOSE!  For me that means I save it!  It also means that my husband can join fantasy football leagues or buy an oh-too-expensive DC lunch without having to hear me lecture him on the value of money. 

There are many more aspects of our money management that I have yet to explain (company money, petty cash and my husband’s recent proposal to increase our weekly allowance).  I’ll save that for another blog post.

Hugs to all of our followers,

LC