Budgeteering

Kari and I recently decided that I should start taking over our personal home finances. This will free up more of her time and give me a better understanding of where our money is going. Overall I’m excited but a little scared.

She’s been doing it for the last decade or so and has done a great job of keeping us afloat and in good standing with our creditors. Now it’s my turn. I hope I don’t screw it up.

Budgeting

Kari’s aversion to creating a budget was one of the initial things that started this process. She’s not against the idea of budgeting, just the extra work that goes into maintaining one. She’ll review the credit card statements and has a general idea of what we’re spending, but not necessarily watch every dollar.

I agree that setting and maintaining a budget is going to be work, but I’m hoping that the time spent will be worth it. I know that I will need to set up a system that is maintainable and somewhat automated. I’m willing to give myself the time to figure it out and not feel rushed to have all the answers next by next week.

Just make sure the bills get paid on time buddy.

Budgeting apps

There are two apps I’m currently testing: Mint and YNAB. We’ve been signed up on Mint for years, but rarely check or maintain it. YNAB is an app that our friend Maile suggested. I found a 4 month free trial to test it out, which should be plenty of time to see if it’s a fit. Mint is free and mostly self automated, so there’s no reason I can ultimately run both if that’s the best choice.

I haven’t really spent enough time with either yet – but the initial impressions so far is that YNAB is very (very?) hands on, and Mint is almost set it and forget it… But we’ll see.