Communication

Today is day 115 of not using my credit cards!

Over the last few days my husband and I have had some really good conversations about money.  The name of this blog is called Debt Runs Me, not Debt Runs Us.  That is because I am typically the one who is worrying about the money.  My husband is very care free and doesn't really worry about our financial situation.  In fact, he is not totally convinced that we can pay off our credit cards and live without credit card debt.  He basically takes his monthly allowance and leaves the rest to me.  That is both good and bad.  It is good because he does not hinder my debt paying desires.  Bad because he doesn't really hold me accountable for my spending.  He never asks questions, just goes with the flow.

A few days ago I told him that I really needed him to be more active so that I could curb some of my spending.  Keep in mind that we have drastically cut our spending vs. three months ago.  However, I typically spend our budgeted monthly amounts pretty quickly.  We use the cash envelope system, but I hold the envelope.  After about mid month I find myself pulling from wherever during shopping.  So we sat down and discussed our strategy going forward.  Promptly on the 1st of each month we will pull out our cash amounts for spending (roughly $700+ each month).  I will allocate them to the envelopes but leave everything at home.  This will hinder my ability to just stop on a whim and shop for household items, etc.  Instead, my purchases will need to be planned.  We WILL NOT use our debit cards!!!

In addition to that, we discussed a little more about our debt paying strategy.  We agreed that we are making a commitment to pay off debt.  We also agreed on a plan to tackle our budget over the next few months.  We are really going to be stretched thin.  Basically we have cut our amounts to the bare minimum for our spending and have pretty much hit what will be rock bottom there.  Our budget is not really flexible.  What is flexible is any weekly overtime hubby receives.  We have started a wish list for items outside the budget, which pretty much includes everything at this point, except toilet paper.  Over the next few months we are going to sit down each Friday and determine how we are going to spend that overtime.  Do we want to pay down debt?  Put money towards savings?  Purchase something off our wishlist?  Save for bigger purpose?  Once our budget grows a little then additional cc payments will be automatic and we will still have the discretionary overtime spending.  This week we have $70.  Unfortunately we are currently over budget due to the birthday party I discussed a while back.  So we will use that money to help make up for those expenses.

I am excited about our talks and am hopeful about future discussions.  Talking about money with hubby really helps me stay accountable to my spending.  He is extremely intelligent and asks great questions!  Just one more step in the looooonnnnnggggg journey to financial freedom.