Will my significant other appreciate the significance of yet another set of irons?

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by glock35ipsc

We used to do that (her check ~> her account, my check ~> my account), and it worked well for many years.  But when we came to the conclusion that is was "our" money, not his or hers, and combined our accounts and started following a written budget we were amazed at how much we really had 'left over' after utilities and gas and food and etc (and how much we spent on stupid crap that we couldn't account for).  I always though a budget would constrain spending..... it actually freed it up!  The budget has done more to keep my impulse buying in check than anything else... if it's not in the budget, it doesn't get bought!

Sorry, I know this is sort of on topic, but yet kind of off topic.... it's kind of a passion of ours now (we do financial counseling), so my replies to these kinds of topics tend to be more than they probably should be!

We want to combine everything, but there are advantages to keeping everything together and advantages to using the services of two completely unrelated financial institutions. When we had a mortgage and other loan payments, budgeting just took care of itself. You made your payments and tried to save up for something nice or to go somewhere for the weekend. Now with a gap until the kids need college and cars, a budget is a must. Now if we can only "budget" the time to work on one . . . lolz.