Monthly "Budget Meeting"

When Andrew was deployed, a married friend of mine happened to mention that she and her husband had a "budget meeting" planned that night. I thought to myself, "Aw, I want to have a budget meeting with MY husband!" It was a silly/funny thought, but I always remember this fondly when Andrew and I have "budget meetings" now. I'm glad he's home!

Some background on how we handle finances:

With the coming of our first baby, I have just recently cut back to working one day a week. After maternity leave, I hope to go back to work on this same schedule. This means that our income is greatly reduced. We have been anticipating this, and have been working for months on cutting down our monthly expenses so that I can be at home as much as possible.

To do so, we have switched to using Dave Ramsey's cash envelopes for almost all of our expenses except set bills, gas, and health care expenses. I also began couponing sometime in May of this year, and we have been able to cut our grocery budget down to $200/month.

Soooo....October! Our first month with a reduced income. After our budget meeting, we discovered that we met our budget in every category except gas (we'll have to work on this)!!!! Very exciting! We were also able to buy a second car (we've been searching for months) and it's completely paid for.

It definitely helps you to stay within budget when you notice the amount of cash in your envelopes decreasing...!

Another month to be thankful for all our needs being met. Looking forward to seeing how November goes budget-wise. :)

Love, Alicia

Monthly "Budget Meeting"