My husband and I are in our mid-20s, just beginning our careers in the city. We've decided to pool our income more recently because that's what works for our relationship. Admittedly we haven't been great about keeping to a strict budget but upon pooling finances in addition to moving to a slightly bigger, slightly more expensive place, we want to keep on top of everything, in the present, and for the future.
I'm just trying to figure out where to begin calculating, what is the appropriate percentage to spend in different areas of life, how much should we be saving, etc.
To remedy the issue of nit-picking personal purchases, we've also decided to skim an appropriate percentage off of the pooled income to put into our personal accounts for our own use... like if he wants to buy games, or wants to save it over several months to buy something bigger, or if I want to buy clothes, it isn't questioned, because it's already been budgeted for. As our income grows, so can the play-money amount, accordingly.
I want to get down into the fine details of knowing exactly what we can, and can't spend in order to reach our goals. Where we can allow ourselves a bit more freedom, and where we can tighten the budget. What months do we have to save more for - preparing for the inevitable Christmas bankruptcy long before December so that we already have that money put away and don't feel it come out of our pockets when it finally does. Which months can we handle tightening the budget and cutting out a few pleasures in order to benefit later on (ex, hunkering down Feb - April and not eating out much so that we can put that money into a summer budget).
I feel like all too often we just have a general idea of the money we have, the money we're making, and our general goals. Whereas if we actually had a prescribed method (budget and saving plan) of how to get from point a to point b, there's no reason for us to be blindsided or left wondering why we don't have as much money as we expected to by x life checkpoint.
Can anyone recommend a budget worksheet that goes this far in depth? Like all the way down to saving for Christmas gifts in advance, possibly meal prepping, and considering pooled finances?
March 15, 2021 at 06:11AM
