life on a budget.

stephen and i spent the first few months of our marriage trying to get caught up on bills.... we'd been behind since summer 2009 when he studied aboard, i paid a fortune to have my jetta fixed, and well... life happened. we ended up borrowing from the money our parents had given us for the wedding and reception and when our big day rolled in and balances were due on everything we ended up having to charge quite a few things due to never getting the wedding account re-built. so we welcomed march 2010 and the tax return it brought us along with the successful sale of my old jetta. we finally caught up on our finances - got the credit card back to $0 - and started to lay out a plan for day 1 of the budget we meant to implement when we said "i do." since april 1st, we've been following our budget...and we love it. the key is writing down every thing you spend. leave it to us to be in our early thirties to realize that actually works. it makes you think twice about that venti chai or pitcher of beer or lunch during the work day when you have an allowance you have to make last and you aren't spending blindly. if you aren't already grown up and writing down what you spend and paying attention to where your money is going, i highly recommend it.