Budget Planning

by Laurie
(Ohio)

We have many things hitting us at once, we are glad we stumbled upon this 3 weeks ago. Recently married, no children, new mortgage. We want to set up a budget plan for the home. We have a couple of cc with a debt of around 5k between the both of us, I don't have a job thanks to downsizing and having a hard time finding one. Neither of us ever had a budget. I know it will be hard, but we have to start somewhere, just a small question. Where do we put car gas, do we pay it from our personal expenses amounts (my husband pays his car's gas I pay my car's) for each one or is it part of the home expenses and needs to be like another regular bill. I think we need to designate it like another bill, because if I use my money for gas, I won't have money for anything else. What would you say?

LM says:Laurie, thanks for sharing. I think it would really depend on how you guys distribute household income. Do you keep your own finances and your husband keeps his? If so, your gas will come out of "your budget" and same with his. Although this is really like an accounting trick because in the end it all comes from the same pot of money. I would suggest that either way is fine but if you want to take it out your household expenses then you might have to start taking all your expenses, not just gas, out of the household budget. There are many benefits to consolidating both of your finances into one. If that is something you want to consider let me know and I can go deeper into that.