Financial Friday: not enough vs. mismanagement of

That's a catchy name for a blog series. Just came up with it, not even kidding.
MOVING ON!

I've taken control of the finaces in our house for a few months admist the protests of "budgets are dumb". The reality is that for the past 3 months we have been living as close as paycheck to paycheck one can live without it actually being that. It's hard to say what has changed since we haven't taken on any new debt in 6 months but I suspect the following:

-A husband who refuses to make his own lunch when there aren't left overs

-A wife who refuses to give in and make lunch for a husband who won't make his own lunch when there aren't leftovers

-A wife who meal plans but doesn't excute said plan 60% of the time

-A wife who spends a lot of time in two towns 18 miles and 27 miles away working or dancing. 

-a husband who communtes 60 miles per day practically 5 days a week

-A husband who has medical/therapy bills coming out of pocket

-A husband and wife who forget to pay bills semi-monthly occasionally which puts the bulk of some payments into the last two weeks of a month. (side note: we are NEVER late on bills except for one that has no late penalty) 

-A husband and wife who try to eat orgainc, local and gluten free as much as possible
-The energy taken from the husband and wife from health issues, commuting for dance, and dance itself. 

-No budgeting techniques used between the husband and wife

  There are some things that just are: Commuting, medical bills, extra energy used lately and spending a little extra on groceries. Then there are the rest of contributing factors that are a direct result of a lack of responsiblity and accountability.

AKA not excuses what so ever. 

And while in 5 years of togetherness we've never needed a budget plan before, I think we need one now. To me the problem is not having enough money. It is a problem of that management of said money. I could be wrong though which is why my budget plan is multifacited. 

I made up 2 tables on Word. One table is for income which includes any miscellanous/left over money that goes into or stays in our bank account. The second is for expenses. Since Chris gets paid on the 1st and 15th, I get paid twice a month at one job and once a month at the other, it makes most sense to break up the budget to be bi-monthly instead of monthly. We also pay our big bills (mortgage, cars, motorcycle, credit card) bi monthly so again, doing 2 budgets in one month just makes better sense for us. I printed out the tables blank and then went to work filling them in including into the expenses table any saving we do monthly (savings and Roth IRAs). This gave me a chance to make decisions about what bills get paid in what part of the month. Most had already fallen into either after the 1st or after the 15th but there were some that we were paying at sporadic times. 

Here are the tables copy and pasted from word. The second table wouldn't transfer right but you see what I'm getting at :)

Income source	budgeted	acutal	difference
navy
office
dance
mis./left over
total

Expense	Budgeted	actual	difference

our expense table has many more boxes

Already, there has been some miscommunication. I had no idea that the Mini Cooper loan was set up on automatic payments so it got paid all the way off for the month. Luckily that payment isn't a big one but it illustrated the point that Chris and I don't have the best communication about the way our money was being managed. Hopefully that is the only issue we have as I get the management side of things into shape.

The other budgeting tool we are using is the envelope method. As all of you have probably heard, studies show that using cash makes people spend less. You have more of an emotional attachment to money you can actually see as opposed to plastic. I have budgeted for fun money for Chris and I, entertainment/eating out, and groceries. Once it's gone, it's gone. If we have left over, instead of taking the same amount from the bank account next time we put that difference into savings. The singular problem with USAA is that you can't make deposits in person or just send in cash so we'll have to round up or round down on some things but we'll cross that bridge if and when we get ther.
 Side note: I think it's so shitty that ATM's almost only put out 20's. The only ATM that does 5$ demomination but it's 27 miles away.
Bygones.  

 And finally underneath my printed out income/expense tables, I've started a spending journal as well just to keep track of where we spend our money.

So there you have it! The great budget overhaul of 2013. I make it sound like Chris wants nothing to do with it and for the most part, he doesn't. I am of the mind that we need a budget so I am willing to do the leg work to show him how this will be helpful.
And I am very confident it will be helpful.
Let me also say that this is not a hostile, control movtivated, Nazi take over of the bank accounts. I'll be the first to say that a good deal of the money I make goes to student loans so I have zero right to do such a thing. This is just me giving some budget tools a try to see if it works

Next week, I'll do an update on how the first week went. If you have any tips to help us on our way or that could be helpful for anyone else, please share!
FYI: Excel is not something I care to spend any minute of my life trying to figure out if that is helpful to filter your advice at all.