Managing our finances is really ALL of Phillip’s job…because, well…honestly, if it were up to me, our budget for TJ Maxx would be WAAAYY more than our grocery budget.  Right after we got married, we naturally combined our bank accounts into one checking account with both of our names on it.  I don’t know how other married couples have separate bank accounts…it just doesn’t make sense to me, but hey! Whatever works for you, right? 

While Phillip does an excellent job at keeping our finances in check (& telling me when I’m spending too much at HomeGoods…heck! I even included HomeGoods in our written vows to one another! I vowed I wouldn’t spend “too much” money there!) I have been helping him out by keeping our finances ORGANIZED.  (Let’s face it, Phillip is good at a lot of things…but organization just isn’t his “thing”…is it really any man’s thing?) 

In order to keep both of us happy when it comes to finances, I put together our “Bill Binder” and it’s home to all of our bills we need to pay, monthly bill calendar, check book, spending budget, and a bank account overview.  Having a bill binder has helped not only our bills be paid well enough on time (something Phillip is quite good at!)  but keep our need-to-be-paid bills and already-paid-bills organized.  Here’s how we do it:

+Once we get the mail, if there’s a bill we immediately open it up, get the bill itself out and then throw away all of the excess paperwork and envelopes.  (We quite haven’t grasped the concept of paperless billing yet, because the way my mind works is if I see it on paper…I know I need to pay it ASAP!) 

+We have two folder pockets in our Bill Binder.  One for “Bills To Be Paid” where we put all of our upcoming bills into and one labeled “Bills Already Paid” that we put the paid bills into once we’ve mailed in/paid-over-the-phone/or paid online.  We also make sure that we write and highlight on the bill itself when we’ve made the payment.

+After the bill has already been paid and put into the correct folder, I take that folder back into our filing cabinet in my office and file the bills away.  I keep literally EVERYTHING that is important or for tax purposes, so in order to avoid a HUGE paper stack (that I hate looking at!) I file EVERYTHING away! We have a great filing system and I’ll probably be writing its own post later on! I file all bills in their correct category and in order putting the most recent bill on top.  I only keep bills for the current year together, so once the new year rolls around, so does a new filing system.  We’ll keep old bills for 2 years in a whole other file cabinet drawer.

+Every month gets a brand new Bill Calendar inside the Bill Binder.  This calendar is for Phillip only, really.  He writes down when we both get paid (his paychecks & my wedding & session checks) and then the dates that the bills are due.  For us, our big ticket items like our mortgage and our car payments are due at the 1st and the 15th of the month. We also have smaller ticket items like cell phone, Netflix, and car insurance that is due throughout the month.  Seeing all of the due dates in a month format makes it easier for us to see when what & how much is due.

+If we get extra spending money that we want to save, but we don’t want it to go into our savings account juussst yet, we use an envelope system of saving.  This is mainly for me, since I’m more of a touchy-feely person.  To me, if I have the money in my hands and it’s geared towards something that I’m saving up to buy…I won’t spend the money. For example, we have three envelopes currently: a vacation fund, a new clothes fund, and a PUPPY FUND (yes…we’re getting a PUPPY in August!) So when I have spending money that I don’t want to actually spend, I just divvy it out into these envelopes.  We don’t keep the money in the envelopes for long because we’ll end up putting it back into our savings account, BUT I’ve kept record of how much money I’ve saved up for these particular items, so when the time comes I can pull the money out of savings and buy whatever it is I’ve been saving for us.

Some things that have helped me along the way with our financial journey are the following:

+Mobile Banking Being able to check our accounts all in one place has been AMAZING! Phillip will check our accounts daily, as for me, I like to be a little less money-worried. SO I check it every week (or when I’m standing in line at TJ’s!)

+Mobile Check Deposit I absolutely LOVE this feature! We bank with Wells Fargo and goodness gracious, could their mobile check deposit not get any easier! I used to have to spend time to go to the bank and deposit checks all at one time.  Now as soon as I get a check, I snap a picture of it on my phone and it goes straight into my account. LOVE it!

+Our Envelope System Seriously y’all. It’s true. I won’t spend actual money.  Debit cards to me are SO easy to spend money with. But when it’s actual cash, it won’t leave my hand too fast! Phillip was Mr. Smarty Pants when he decided to give me
cold hard cash for my birthday.  Did I buy anything with it? Nope. I ended up putting the money into our Vacation Fund envelope, so now when we’re on vacation I won’t have buyers remorse when I want something!

+No Credit Cards After we got married, Phillip and I cut up ALLLLLLL of our credit cards. To me, yes. It was a pretty hard thing to do, but I felt FREE once it was done.  Phillip and I buy NOTHING on credit, we don’t open up ANY credit cards at stores.  Our feeling is, if we don’t have the money to pay for it then, we don’t need it right then, so we just save up for it. Trust me, letting go of those credit cards wasn’t easy, but it’s been SO worth it! We don’t have to worry about going into debt with credit cards.

 

I hope this has helped some of y’all! Being newly married and trying to figure out all of this on our own has been quite an adventure, but I think we’re making it work-slowly but surely!

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