Aka, the most boring post I will make. But it really is important.
Sometimes it takes a shock to bring about change. A layoff and a new baby on the way can definitely shake one up. Luckily my wife is very organized and a hard worker, so she finally got a new job a month before the arrival of Sean.
But that still forced a re-evaluation of things. You need to make sure that money coming in isn't exceeded by money coming out. When you have 2 kids in daycare (at 16-17k per kid, the DC area costs are insanely high) lots of churn in the budget become important to analyze. Some things just plain old lose (eating out every day for lunch at 10-12 per day, per adult? That adds up quick when you look at it ($120 * 52 weeks = $6240)). You can buy a lot of bread, lunch meats, and leftovers when you are talking about that much money. As you narrow things down (there are lot of things you cannot directly control (child care, mortgage) and a lot you only have minor control on (electricity, water, food)) you can see if there are things can be either dropped or that you can get a better deal on (I was paying how much for web hosting?!).
The best side effect of a budget? It has helped both of our waistlines (we know women gain weight during pregnancy, but a little known psuedo-fact (because I said so) is that so do men). Collectively we have probably lost 40lbs+ in the past 6 months.
Sometimes it takes a shock to bring about change. A layoff and a new baby on the way can definitely shake one up. Luckily my wife is very organized and a hard worker, so she finally got a new job a month before the arrival of Sean.
But that still forced a re-evaluation of things. You need to make sure that money coming in isn't exceeded by money coming out. When you have 2 kids in daycare (at 16-17k per kid, the DC area costs are insanely high) lots of churn in the budget become important to analyze. Some things just plain old lose (eating out every day for lunch at 10-12 per day, per adult? That adds up quick when you look at it ($120 * 52 weeks = $6240)). You can buy a lot of bread, lunch meats, and leftovers when you are talking about that much money. As you narrow things down (there are lot of things you cannot directly control (child care, mortgage) and a lot you only have minor control on (electricity, water, food)) you can see if there are things can be either dropped or that you can get a better deal on (I was paying how much for web hosting?!).
The best side effect of a budget? It has helped both of our waistlines (we know women gain weight during pregnancy, but a little known psuedo-fact (because I said so) is that so do men). Collectively we have probably lost 40lbs+ in the past 6 months.
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