Alice's Mommy Blog

I have been inspired by Briana at Bionic Briana to write a few blog posts about how I save money on everyday things with my family. So provide me with some feedback on what you think of these posts.

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This week’s topic is team effort.

In our house finances are a team effort. While I handle the everyday stuff and the big monthly bills and tallies, my hubby is responsible for the corporate accounting for our company. So we each have our areas that we are responsible for. At the end of every quarter we go over the corporate stuff together, and at the end of every month we go over the monthly stuff.

That might sound like a lot of work for me, since I do the every day stuff and he only does his quarterly, but it makes sense for us. I joked the other day that his credit bill is all pizza and gas, because he doesn’t do much shopping. If he buys something it’s an errand I sent him on, like the new electric toothbrush he ordered on line, the protective cover for my phone, and the kettle that needed replacing. Everything else he buys is business related. I would have no idea if the charges on the corporate card are accurate to check them, since I don’t use that card. But I know that RCSS is the superstore and WMT is a Walmart. He has no idea. It’s much easier for the person checking things, to know what you spend in a month.I know our food costs and the level of our pantry. I know that is expensive for an item we us regularly, what is fair and what is dirt cheap. But we are both aware of what we spend in total a month, and what we need to be comfortable.

If your partner doesn’t know how much you spend on food they could go crazy at the store and blow through 3/4 of your budget in one trip. It also means I know exactly where all our money for each budget went. That way we know we are on par with our budget, or sometimes learn that something needs to be adjusted because it’s just not reasonable anymore. Feeding the two of us was easy on $300 or $400 a few years ago, but now with a 4 and 2 year old, we need more. They probably drink $30 work of milk a month alone!

So it’s important to make it a team effort and always know what the other is up to and what the family can afford.

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