Together on Tuesday: MONEY

Ah, money. I've always found it rather . . . well . . . blah. Money is not interesting to me at all. In high school philosophy, I wrote some obnoxious paper about how we should all revert to the barter system because money was ruining everything. While I've grown up a bit, I am still not just that motivated by money. (Clearly . . . I am a social worker married to an historian. On purpose.) For us, money is simply a tool to help us build the life we want--which is funny, because probably people who like money feel the same way.

So how do we manage it?

First, I must say we are blessed that we have very little financial stress. There is enough compatibility between our income and our lifestyle to allow us the luxury of not obsessing about money. Are we rich? See above . . . NO. But we live below our means and we have enough. I cannot overstate how thankful we are for this. After spending plenty of time with people who have no choice but to spend a LOT of time thinking about acquiring cash and paying bills, this is not to be taken for granted.

Second, it is very important to us that we use our money to live out our values of social justice, care for people and the environment, and simplicity. Unfortunately, in this culture, this is a decidedly not-simple task (hence this entire blog!). Just about everything on the market in the US today is a product of someone else's blood, sweat, and tears. While I used to be an expert bargain shopper/couponer, and I became very efficient, I realized that type of shopping didn't allow me to purchase items I felt good about. So while I don't like to spend a lot of time thinking about money, I have to spend a lot of time thinking about how I spend it if I want to live my values. Sometimes I can pull this off. Other times, I fail miserably (she says with grace for her own shortcomings).

One thing we kind of love around here: our "dumb money:"

At one point, there was an undisclosed amount of money spent by an undisclosed family member each month on an undisclosed vice . . . and while said family member was enjoying his daily coffee and scones, his wife was spending too many lunch breaks at Target. Since we don't fight about money (truly! so thankful!) and didn't intend to start, we instituted "dumb money." It's basically an allowance that we don't have to account for, so even if the other spouse thinks the purchase is dumb, they aren't allowed to say so. We love it.

So while some things are working for us, we could manage our money a LOT better.

We used to have a tight budget, by necessity since one of us was in school for the majority of our marriage. Our income has fluctuated so much that the budget no longer matches . . . and we sure have gotten lax really paying attention to where that money flows. Time for a new one. For years I managed the money, then Ben took over. (We realized it wasn't a great idea for one of us to be completely in the dark about the day-to-day activities like paying bills, etc.) Now we have a hybrid system, where we kind of tag team . . . and while this works most of the time, sometimes it leads to a comedy of errors: "I thought you paid it!" "But I thought YOU paid it!", repeat ad nauseam. (I exaggerate . . . things get paid on time, but it does get a little silly around here.) I have never had any luck with these supposedly helpful financial software/websites, and we have yet to find a management system that works well enough that we really stay on top of it. And while my wonderful husband has put some effort into boring things like investments and retirement account, I am still pretty clueless, and I am pretty sure we could be smarter about some of this stuff. So we are thinking it's time to tighten ship around here. Or so we have been saying for months and months . . . have I mentioned how a baby changes everything?

Said baby makes it even more important that we sharpen our financial situation. I would love to learn some simple, efficient ways to manage budgeting. (Comments welcome!) I would be thrilled if money played an even smaller part in our life . . . we are on a path to simplifying even further, as I am working part time and we are whittling unneeded expenses. This will make space and time for the things that are most important to us . . . which, to me, is the best use of money there is.

Here's hoping that my Together on Tuesdays ladies have some ideas for me . . .check out Nancy, Danielle, Michelle, and Charlotte for more money talk!