Household Budgeting and Other Life Threatening Endeavors
Published: September 28, 2009
If you want to ruin a perfectly good weekend just say the word BUDGET on Friday evening just as your significant other trudges through the door after a grueling week at work. The death stare is the least you’ll get, but you’re more likely in for a high pressure emotional storm resulting in a two-day cold shoulder.
Just about everyone we know is being more careful with their money these days. People are selling cars, using coupons, eating out less, cutting back on the “extra” things in life and yes… making out budgets.
My wife and I recently enrolled in a thirteen week financial management class that starts out by having participants create a formal written budget. We have an informal budget and pay our bills on time, save for retirement and help our kids pay for college, but we knew in the back of our minds that we could do better.
The biggest problem with a formal budget is that two people have to agree on where every penny is spent after essentials like food, shelter and transportation are covered. Sounds simple enough, but this is where you discover that each of you have vastly different financial priorities.
My wife loves to fill our garage with strange things that she finds at garage and estate sales while I prefer to fill it with tools from the local home improvement store. A formal budget forces concessions on both sides, and that’s why the class recommends doing the initial budget in a public place to avoid heated exchanges and possible bloodshed.
We stayed home and managed to peacefully negotiate our way to a budget that balanced our individual wishes with our finite income. Smooth sailing ahead, or so we thought.
During the first week of our new financial life we woke up and our ten year old dachshund was not moving. Closer inspection revealed that she was alive but extremely lethargic. She went out back and wandered around more slowly than normal, but the next day she started to stagger like she’d been binging on Nyquil all evening. Tears flowed as we thought she wasn’t going to make it another day.
As loving pet owners we took her to the vet where she needed an exam – cha ching, x-rays – cha ching, admission to the doggie hospital – cha ching, IV drug therapy – cha ching, a follow up visit and meds – cha ching! In total, she broke the budget to the tune of $350 and was back to terrorizing lizards in our yard without a hint of any lingering problems.
My wife, who appears to love this dog more than me at times, was initially willing to spend whatever was needed to get little Pebbles well. At the vet – post formal budget - she turned into an accountant. Before the budget, cost wouldn’t have mattered, but now that this medical treatment was competing with her garage sale and Starbucks coffee indulgences, life became more complicated. Though I can’t verify it I wondered if she was thinking that Pebbles had lived a long and happy life and maybe we should let nature take its course.
The economizing continued later at the home improvement store where I was grilled about the type of mask I chose to filter out fumes from paint stripper and floor finishing chemicals. I had purchased the expensive one that prevents organic solvents from causing brain damage, but my wife wanted to know if the $1.99 mask would have been just as effective considering how I act at times?
Putting these minor things aside, we are making real progress on our budget. Round two of the negotiations are coming up this week as we develop our pre-holiday budget. I think I’ll secretly save some Starbucks cups and refill them with cheap grocery store brew and see if there is any change in my lioness’s behavior. Hopefully for me, there won’t be.
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