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First Month Fully Integrated Finances

August 1st, 2016 at 12:03 am

Although we've now been married just over 3! months, July was the first month where we followed a joint budget and I completely took over the bill paying. It also was the first full month where we only had one household - although we were paying the final bills from our former apartments.

Whenever DH wakes up, we're going to have a quick budget meeting for August. One thing we've kind of had to hash out this month is the when/how of him giving me the cash tips to deposit. He was used to to just going by the bank once or twice a month to make a deposit. I want to make a deposit every Friday (when the lobby is open til 6.)

He didn't see why I wanted to do that since our account balances have more than enough for our daily expenses. I explained to him that all my money is directly deposited and that helps me be able to guage what the next month's budget will be like. When I showed him how much was available to budget for August from my contributions versus what he'd given me so far ... he started giving me the tips as he got them. Smile (He's a delivery driver - makes a small hourly wage, but averages 2x that in tips/delivery charges.)

So ... since we were putting everything together this month, it is difficult to say what our "income" really was - our budget was based off of all moneys from various checking/savings being put together. Expenses include final bills and deposit charges for new accounts. In other words, this isn't a typical month for us by any means. Smile

So .. expenses:
Mortgage (loan only) $526
Extra Principal: $25
Natural Gas: 69.20
Electricity: 382.44 (includes June bill that got misplaced!!)
Phone: 239.04 (last month of DH needing to use phone as a hotspot for Internet - our bill for August is less than $60.)
Water: 51.43 (2 month bill)
Internet/Cable: 150 (deposit, extra house visit)
Groceries - Fast food: 29.81
Groceries - 265.08
Auto Fuel - 241.87 (delivery driver ....)
Tithe: 130 (DH isn't on board with tithing, but is ok with me continuing my same level as before)
Giving: 30
Car Maintenance: 14.97
Car tax/licenses: 421.69 (Tags for 3 cars, 2 new licenses)
Clothing: 20.40
Computer Replacement: (DH) 249
Garmin Replacement: (DH) 142
Household (blanket, toiletries, paper goods, fan, etc.) 148.36
Medical - Non-deductible (allergy, etc) 64.53
Medical FSA Reimbursed- 80.48 (copays, meds, heating pad)
Pets - Cats - food/litter -$80.97 (a LOT of litter/food)
Pets - Cats - Medicine(flea meds) $77
Pes - Non Cats - Food - 13.50
Pets - Non Cats - Medicine - 16.61
Fitness - 41.83 (my gym membership, hopefully can cancel soon)
Date Night: 14.77 (although will be getting pizza tonight)
DH fun money - 16
Laura fun money - 79.22
Student loan (DH) 55
Medical debt (DH) 372

Whooh! I think that covers it! Besides the money put into the above categories, there was also money put into a variety of other holding categories.

August will be spendy for car maintenance, and I just got approved for a new AE card which I'll be using to make a $1k payment on the medical (get back 250!)

I'm looking forward to what our first month of spending will be like without deposits and final bill fees. Smile (also without needing to replace electronics!)

I have around 6 hours of overtime in August, and I think September will be a 3 paycheck month. DH is working on putting together some speaker sales. (To help fund his boat and tv wishes.)

Mortgage Principal Balance:
Start 7/1/16 - $112,000
As of 7/31/16 (2 payments) - 111,619
Medical Debt:
As of 7/1/16 - 3,668
As of 7/31/16 - 3,296
Student Loan - TBD

9 Responses to “First Month Fully Integrated Finances”

  1. PatientSaver Says:
    1470007924

    Love the very doable mortgage amount. Smile

  2. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1470008251

    Yes, the loan payment by itself is only $100 more than I was paying in rent. We have to wait til December to find out what our taxes will be. I'm setting aside 150/month right now for that (and $60/month for home insurance.) It's all the other expenses/categories which add up to an amount I couldn't swing on my income alone ...

  3. Petunia 100 Says:
    1470010404

    So what is it like having joint budget meetings after so many years of making decisions solo? Is it going well? Is it an adjustment?

    I hope you newlyweds are enjoying your new life together! Smile

  4. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1470011055

    DH still isn't up yet. Smile For the July budget he pretty much let me make all the decisions - didn't really have a meeting per se. I'm guessing the August meeting will be similar. Smile
    It is definitely an adjustment to having to get receipts from someone else in order to keep track of the budget (especially someone not used to keeping receipts - good thing I started training him when it didn't matter months ago - to give me receipts for my receipt apps. Smile )

  5. My English Castle Says:
    1470027624

    It is an adjustment, isn't it?
    But it certainly sounds like you're on top of it.

  6. scottish girl Says:
    1470038417

    Sounds like you've got it sorted Smile

  7. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1470051952

    Depending on what the tip money is you could possibly use that to cover some of your daily expenses to leave more in the bank?

  8. Kiki Says:
    1470070697

    Do you keep the mileage for writing off on taxes what isn't reimbursed by his company?

  9. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1470104282

    Yes MEC, definitely an adjustment. For me, lots of categories added that I'd rather not have, but are important to DH. For DH, just having a budget and keeping receipts ... major adjustments. He is really happy though to not have to worry about paying bills anymore. Smile
    SG - So far, I do think so. Smile
    VS - The tip money is what people give him when they get their food (usually ... though some people don't seem to care/understand that more than 1/2 his income comes from tips and give either NOTHING (UGH@@) or chump change.) The fastest way to have a delivery place make sure your order gets precedence over others is to tip well. The fastest way to have your delivery be the very last on the list is to be a bad or non tipper.

    Kiki - He's reimbursed for mileage in a way. Each order has a "delivery charge" added that he gets.

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