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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Budgeting + Marriage = FUN Times! Not!

I spent some time this morning reading an article about First-Year Marriage Shockers. I thought it would be entertaining since I just finished my first year of marriage but I was annoyed more than entertained. Most of the women quoted in the article didn't seem to live with their spouse prior to getting married.

Craig and I lived together for a year or so before we got married. It was a good financial move but also good to see how the other person "lives" when you live WITH them. That post brought me to a better article that talks about the 10 most shocking things that happen in your first year of marriage. Ya know, things like your friends dropping out of action, each of you gaining weight and falling into his and her house roles, and (my favorite) realizing that having a two-income household doesn't make you rich... you still feel poor. Go figure.

The second article made me giggle a little because most of it is true in our case.

Before we got married, my Dad told us that more couples get divorced due to finances than because of their sex life. He likes to remind us of that fact quite often. I have to say, the hardest part of being married, for me, is the budgeting. Inevitably, when the shit hits the fan, it really hits the fan. At the end of June through the end of July - it rained poop. We needed a new mattress (due to a bug problem); we got hit with some unexpected bills; and then my Bubba got sick. We spent our savings fund but thank g-d we had a fund started! Now we're rebuilding and stuff from last month is still kicking us in the tush this month.

Tonight, I'm setting aside some time to reconfigure our budget. I read some amazing blogs on budgeting and saving like the Simple Dollar and Fabulously Broke... in the City and they give me a lot of inspiration on how to save plus the motivation to do it - so tonight I'm going to revise. Aside from our weekly menu plan, I'm going to do some major surgery to our budget.

For my married friends - what's the hardest part about YOUR marriage?

1 comments:

Honey B. said...

Money definitely reigns supreme for marriage issue of the week at our house! My Mom always says the three things you will fight about most in your marriage are sex, money, and kids.

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