Figuring the Figures

The Lord said to do it and that’s good enough for me.
Then again there’s the fact that if I didn’t consider my finances I’d very soon find myself without any finances. I remain convinced and unmoving on the fact that much of our financial woes come about because we fail to plan/budget. Like any meandering journey, without direction you’ll sooner or later walk right into trouble. When you’ve taken time to look at the maps and plot your course, you’ll only walk in roses and good times.
Lindsay and I have managed to walk in mostly roses and good times. Though I must admit we have dropped our map at times and walked right into briars and thorny bushes.
Our first attempts at financial organization were non-existent. They were those precious few months of our courtship when all caution went to the wind. All money went to the wind too. I think anyone is excused in a little carelessness at this time of their life.
As our wedding day approached, and along with it the reality of what we were doing, we began to understand that if we did not begin to settle down a little and gain control of our finances we would permanently lose control of them. So we gave it our first pitiful attempt—a ledger book. We weren’t subtracting it out of our checking account as we went or anything responsible like that. Oh no. We were just writing down the purchases as we made them and then adding it all up at the end of the month. I’m not sure what good that did us, but it provided at least one moment every month where we exclaimed, “Holy cow we spent that much!” So we were trying, but only as much as a begrudging child tries to enjoy peas at a parent's command.
After a crazy first year of marriage we retreated to the solitude of upstate New York for a summer. It was a little like our summer of courtship all over again. We spent money and traveled all over the place, leaving traces of our life savings in our wake. The end of the summer was another “Holy cow!” moment. It was time for some repenting.
Our next effort was better, with a little too much fun peppered in and too little function in the mix. We took a large sheet of butcher paper and posted it on our wall. In a table sort of style we wrote months across the top and budget categories down the left side. Our categories included such things as gas, food, utilities, fun, etc. We had a specific amount we had allotted for each category listed as well. Then, as we spent our money we would track across the top to the appropriate month, down to the appropriate category, and then write in amount, date, and place of the expenditure. In this way we were much more organized. It was a cool little budget planner we had hidden behind a door, but again we did not keep real good track of the totals until the end of the month. So the lesson we learned was that no matter how cool your budget is, and no matter how detailed you get in your recordings, it’s not worth much more than a cool detailed thing until you start keeping track throughout the month.
I think we’re finally just about as good as we can be. We have a specific place in the home that we put all of our receipts. Once a week we sit down and add them all up in their respective categories. We now keep track in a notebook that is much easier to handle and much more preservable (is that a real word?). So as we go we know just how much we’ve spent and just how much we have left. This helps us ration our money a little better. We don’t overspend at the beginning and we are a little wiser at the end. This has helped us ensure that we always meet our needs, but always have money left over for fun and to build up a supply in the bank.

As a final note, we’re happy to announce that while at the beginning of our marriage we had almost 0 money left to spend on our own desires (you may call this an allowance) we are up to $100 a piece at times, with extra money for dates. Yes, we are living large.