I was a teller at a bank for almost 6 years, so my friends and family thought it was weird that Brian was the money guy. There were two reasons why Brian did the finances and not me. The first one, like I said, was that as the head of our home we believed that Brian was ultimately responsible for the stewardship of our money. By that I don't mean that how we spend our money is all Brian's responsibility or that I shouldn't ever be the money manager. But since he didn't have much experience with managing money prior to us getting married he needed to do the budget for a while to understand what our financial picture was going to look like to make sure that the way we were paying off debt, saving, giving and spending were in line with what we discerned to be honoring to God.
Second, I couldn't handle the emotional stress of dealing with the household budget. If we got an AT&T bill that was over the normal amount, I would go into full-fledged freak out mode, talk about canceling our service and how this bill was going to land us in the street and me in the hospital from a stomach ulcer. So I had to promise that I wouldn't open bills. Seriously. 24 year old woman who can't open her own cell phone bill for the sake of her mental health.
Second, I couldn't handle the emotional stress of dealing with the household budget. If we got an AT&T bill that was over the normal amount, I would go into full-fledged freak out mode, talk about canceling our service and how this bill was going to land us in the street and me in the hospital from a stomach ulcer. So I had to promise that I wouldn't open bills. Seriously. 24 year old woman who can't open her own cell phone bill for the sake of her mental health.
But over time (over a year) I was able to see Brian deal with money in really healthy way. If there were overage charges on a bill, he just called and nicely (without threatening anyone's life or crying) explained the overage and just like that the person on the customer service hotline removed the charge and all was well. I'm so thankful for the way Brian has not only modeled handling our household finances but also taken the time to help me see that the way I acted about money said money was the most important thing to me. It's not anymore. And since I can open bills and even pay them without any trips to the ER, I'm taking over the weekly budget.
As part of taking over the budget, I want to implement a new organizational system, but it's hard without office space. We do a lot of our stuff online like everyone else these days, but there are always papers to be dealt with. I LOATHE paper. It takes up space we don't have in our little apartment. We don't have a desk area to manage our necessary papers so we keep boxes in closets that really aren't accessible. Do you have any suggestions for organizing a bill center with no desk space? Or any sites that could have helpful tips?
As part of taking over the budget, I want to implement a new organizational system, but it's hard without office space. We do a lot of our stuff online like everyone else these days, but there are always papers to be dealt with. I LOATHE paper. It takes up space we don't have in our little apartment. We don't have a desk area to manage our necessary papers so we keep boxes in closets that really aren't accessible. Do you have any suggestions for organizing a bill center with no desk space? Or any sites that could have helpful tips?
So some suggestions of organizing a bill center with no desk space:
ReplyDeleteGet a file folder that is on wheels that you can file all the paper and still easily put it away when you don't need that. Another option is to scan all the documents in. Many of the companies are going to online billing now so you can look into that. Thirdly, there are programs such as Quicken and Quickbooks (although they cost money). There is a free program called Mint.com which is somewhat like Quicken. I guess if you look around online, you can find many different programs that could help.