FINANCIAL PEACE: the husband's thoughts about budgeting

Photo by Caroline Joy Photography

I was a little skeptical about Dave going into FPU because I thought he was just making a bunch of money off of common sense and only contributing to his own financial peace. Which Id say he has a lot of judging by the look of his ballin house. But it turns out he is a pretty fun guy to listen to. Seriously though through FPU Victoria and I (for the first time both of us were on the same page about budgeting and cash) both got excited about budgeting using the envelope system. The envelope system is brilliant for two reasons:

           

1. I am a saver to a fault.

for example When I was a little kid we always bought fireworks for the 4^th and my brothers and I would each get some to shoot off. I would shoot a few but then would inevitably end up saving around half of mine so that I could have a killer grand finale the next year. I ended up throwing an entire dresser stashed full of fireworks several years later while I was cleaning out my closet. I am much the same way with money, to the point that I wont spend anything. (this is just as big of a problem as being a frivolous spender.) For this reason, I love the envelope system. It allows me/us to enjoy spending money because it is set aside very specifically for what we are doing.

2. Victoria is in total control of it!

 I receive my weekly and hobby money and beyond that she does everything. Before the envelope system our budget was not realistic and so we always went over and this stressed me out. I would always look at our credit card statement  and micromanage what we did. Now we get to enjoy being in control of our money. We save more, are less stressed, and the best part is Victoria loves it! Sometimes she dances in our house and makes up songs about squirrels and how much she loves budgeting. J