Managing Money

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Managing your family finances is a personal topic.  Everyone has a different way that will work best for them.  Here's what we do.

We've always had 3 accounts - a yours, mine, and ours.  I don't understand how someone can buy a present, for example, with the joint account.  Plus having my own account means it's none of hubby's business what I'm charging on my credit cards (which is really kind of silly, because I am such a bargain hunter, I show him everything I buy anyway, even when he's bored out of his skull hearing about how much I saved! LOL)

We've also always had our own credit cards as well as joint cards.

Even though I left my job 15 months ago, we decided to keep the separate checking accounts that we've had for almost 10 years.  Why?  Because this way I can feel like my money is really my money.  I do make some money with the professional blogging I do, and I do consulting as well.

One thing we started doing in the last year has been to use an Excel spreadsheet to track everything we spend each month.  We started it to see if we could manage to live within our means, when we went down to one paycheck.  It's been interesting to see what we spend most on each month.  I keep track 2 ways - by entering in receipts for things, and then by checking it against our credit card statements each month (a good way to catch those things we didn't save the receipt for!). It's not so much a true "budget" as much as it just is a tracking device.  I'll admit, I usually am playing catch-up with it (hm, I think I need to get cracking on December and January, as a matter of fact...).

What works for you and your family?