Over the course the last couple of weeks or so, we've charged $1,100 dollars. As you can see the balance this morning is $6,633.
Where is all this spending coming from? Things like eating out and shopping. I'm also putting gas and groceries on the credit card. I've never been good with budgets and the wife wants nothing to do with the money planning. She's happy with her Citi and Macy's cards so it makes it a bit harder for me to budget and plan.
New Year's resolution for 2012: Create a Budget!
HS
10 comments:
Well, there's an easy way to find out what you are spending. Get out a spreadsheet, word document, piece of paper and pencil, or whatever you are happiest with. Then write down everything you spend, every day. It's not that difficult. At the end of each day, each week, and each month, you will see what you have spent money on. When you say you don't know what you spend money on, you're really saying that you don't want to confront it.
Personally, I like to know what kind of monster I am staring in the face. Then I can consider my options on how to deal with it.
Do you really want to get out of debt? It's not comfortable to know all the details when we are changing our behavior, but it's the only way to figure out how to remedy a situation.
Does your wife pay attention if you show her the big picture?
If you have a good income and you don't mind carrying a certain amount of debt and paying interest on it (assuming you do) and if the debt never really grows, then maybe you don't even need to change anything and can keep on doing what you have been doing. I'm sort of unclear on what your goals are or what you dissatisfied with and want to change regarding your personal finances, if anything.
Ouch!! If you really want to "see" where your money is going, you need to track it! Good luck with your budget! :)
So the talk with the wife seems to go in one ear and out the other. You will be forever in debt unless she gets on the same page.
Yea we finance people understand debt etc. you'd be surprised how many people out there don't get obssesed with their personal finance.
I find it mind-boggling that you can continuously be aware that you are overspending and going into debt, yet never make any genuine effort to change your behaviour.
I've been reading this blog for (and I'm embarrassed to say it) years, and you make me want to punch myself in the face.
For the love of god, GET IT TOGETHER ALREADY.
Have you tried Mint.com? I really never firmly put our budget into place until I started using that. I highly recommend it.
Also, and I hate to say it, but while you are spendy, you are anxious to change...but your wife reminds me of my brother - unable to even face the reality of the situation. No matter how much money you make, more is going to go out.
Please make sure your retirement savings are in place. Please make sure that in your old age your child will not have to take care of you and your wife. Unfortunately for my brother, he has no spouse so there is no one to provide a money buffer for when he's old and gray - but your wife has you, and you can automate retirement savings. The worst thing you could do is to burden your child with having to take care of you financially in for the rest of his/her life.
Knowing what you spend, controlling what you spend, and sticking to a budget is not "being obsessed with personal finance".
Quite honestly your wife sounds like a spoiled child. You have a baby coming and she "doesn't' want to hear about" the money and is happy with her credit cards?
I dunno. You might be one of the lucky ones who can go the rest of your life always being in debt and you'll never have a crisis. But one emergency, and you're going to be in a world of hurt that has the potential to destroy everything you have.
What happens if, god forbid, your baby gets sick or is born with issues? Are you going to put those costs on a credit card until there's no more credit left? Then what? What happens if you lose your job? What happens if your wife can't or won't go back to work after the baby is born? Can you afford to live your current lifestyle if she quits and stays home with your child?
Preparing for those things, talking about them, and coming to an agreement about them is the mature, adult thing to do.
Hiding your head in the sand, refusing to talk about them, and spending like there was no tomorrow on credit is irresponsible and childish.
I feel your pain HS. There's nothing more difficult than a spouse who sees no need to change their self-destructive behavior. You might try putting it in the context of the baby - like "We need a budget so we can start saving for college." Sometimes people will do for their children what they won't do for themselves.
"and to this day I'm not sure how to control it. "
Bullshit. Yes you do, you just don't WANT to.
CUT THE DAMN CARDS.
You can't keep overspending if you cut the source of overspending to a million plastic shreds. Stop giving the stupid rewards point excuses and the stupid my wife doesn't want to blah blah blah stories you spin and just cut the damn things. All of them. There is no sale no rewards points large enough to make overspending worth it. Maybe once you guys grow up and get used to spending within in your means and have your debt paid off you can practice using the cards correctly but until then: SHRED, SHRED, SHRED.
The best way to calculate your spending is by putting in all your income and expenses in a excel sheet monthly and create a spending budget per week. For more tips see www.thedebtpatriot.com
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