Budget Party!
Posted by Jess | Filed under Jess
I know, I know. I’ve lost my mind right? Gone completely bonkers? I actually just put budget and party into the same phrase. And budget party we did.
A budget was something both my hubby and I needed to do, as well as my sister and brother in law. Both couples are fairly aware of the financial state of themselves as well as the other couple, so there was no big revealing skeletons in the closet. Plain and simple it was the start of a new season, with lots of money to come in and go out and the budget needed a facelift. So we made a night out of it! Why not turn something sucky into an excuse to hang out?
We gathered around their dining room table with Gail’s face smiling up from “Debt Free Forever” and four laptops (all of us students within the last few years) and crunched some numbers.
“How much money will we be making for the new semester?”
“What debts can we pay off right away?”
“Theres two weddings and two big birthdays to consider this summer”
If one person couldn’t find a hundred dollars in the budget that “had to be somewhere” the extra set of eyes were there to help. Advice, tricks of the trade, pitfalls and successes were passed around like a good wine. In the end my sister and BIL realized they needed to go back to jars and hubby and I realized we had a bit more wiggle room in the budget. This was a surprise to us, actually. One that we may not have found if it weren’t for the community style budgeting we did. Turns out that with the inclusion of our HST cheques, tax refund, and student loans (which give us enough for living expenses) plus some disciplined debt repayment on our part we will be able to pay down over half of our consumer debt by the end of the year while still affording to celebrate weddings and birthdays for our loved ones. Wait What? That shouldn’t work. I definitely checked the numbers three times or more, and the good news couldn’t lie.
The end of the year we were left feeling like all of our hard work had gone to waste with the unfortunate Quebec incident, but already by April we are able to feel positive again about our financial situation. Not out of the red yet, but well on our way!
As for the budget party, it was a great way for us to actually sit down and rehash the budget. We couldn’t put it off when there was a date made with another couple. This wouldn’t obviously work with any of your friends, but if you have people close to you that know your situation and are already living or trying to live a life free of credit suffocation then I recommend making an evening out of it and just getting it done! Money doesn’t have to be that thing you hide in the spare room when guests come over!
A twenty-something FT university student and wife from the wonderful west coast, Jess’s husband is also in school FT. They are both PT coffee slingers. Not surprising, they are in debt. As Jess says, “We love to say yes to each other.”
April 18, 2012 at 11:18 am
This is a great idea. I think my sister and BIL would be up for this…or maybe my best friend and her fiance. Planning for a wedding is expensive!
April 18, 2012 at 11:44 am
Oy. It really is! We were working to save for our wedding in the same year we were planning so money was going out just as quickly as it was coming in. This was before Gail though. Glad you liked the idea! Sure makes the process less daunting.
April 18, 2012 at 12:24 pm
“Parties” definitely make things like that more tolerable. After working in law firms forever, and knowing I should have done it when my daughter was born, we finally got around to doing our Wills a couple of years ago. I did them for us (thank you, precedents from my old job), and we made it a party with our neighbours who needed theirs done too. Our motto was “If you can’t have fun planning the afterlife with your friends, then you’re just not doing it right.”
April 18, 2012 at 12:56 pm
Haha MommaS you totally get it! Thanks for the comment
April 18, 2012 at 1:26 pm
@MommaS Says, love that attitude. Wish I was able to do that myself. Had a really bad experience with lawyers in the past and so…. yeah, we never did get around to it. My sons are 18 and 21 now.
I do love the whole idea of brainstorming with friends/family to help you through this budgeting process.
April 18, 2012 at 12:56 pm
My sister and I kind of do this. She is working hard at paying off debt while saving for a house, and her boyfriend is not currently working so it’s all her right now… We are working at paying off debt and saving for the house with 2 incomes, but we also have 3 kids. While we don’t look at each other’s budgets, we will run things past each other, how to make this or that work, what would you do?, that kind of thing. It does help when someone really knows your situation, has been there, done that, and also is living it… Sometimes someone else’s ideas are ones you haven’t thought of but make complete sense (and sometimes not
)
April 18, 2012 at 12:58 pm
Way to go Tara! Yea my sister and I are in completely different situations with life. Yet we are essentially in the same financial situation. Thats the thing that I’ve always loved about Gail’s Way: big money or no money it still works.
April 24, 2012 at 2:20 am
parties and get togethers for any reason are super awesome when you are extremely busy too with school or work and life! A most excellent motivating idea Jess!