Day 210

When Rick and I got married we combined our checking and savings accounts, our credit cards, and all of our bills.  It was fairly easy to get all that done, but figuring out how to manage everything with two people has been a little more complicated.  For the most part I keep track of the bills and when they need to be paid.  However, our bank only gave us checks in my name for our savings account which only allows us to write a few checks from it per month, and the checks for our checking account are only in Rick's name, so only he can sign them.  This made things difficult because instead of opening a bill, writing a check and dropping it in the mail like I normally would, I have to open it, figure out the amount, track down Rick, get him to write a check and then put it in the mail.  It got really annoying and I felt like a 50's housewife asking Rick to write me a check all the time.  I don't know why it took us so long, but we finally called the bank and asked for new checks.  I think I was just putting it off because I figured at the end of the school year, we'd be moving and getting a new bank, so ordering all new checks wasn't really worth the effort, but who knows what's going to happen with that now, so we ordered new ones.

Anyway, keeping track of bills and stuff with two people is twice as complicated in my opinion.  When it was just me, I always knew how much I was spending and the balance of my checking account and that is definitely not the case now.  We've managed to avoid any big overdrafts so far, but I did forget to pay the credit card once (in my defense they stopped sending me the usual 5 day warning email) luckily I called and got the late fees waived.  And forget any semblance of a budget.  I tried, but it's just not possible with my part time job and the University always forgetting to pay Rick.  It's waaay too complicated.

But, once we're both employed, we're going to have to figure out a better system and budget. We've been lucky that we have a pretty cushy savings account and can get by without too much worry right now, but I don't want to just spend down all of our savings.  I want to invest and have goals for our money.  Buy a house. Save for retirement. Fund our future kids' education. Go on vacation.