Allocated spending plan for married couples

[maynard]

I'm getting married next October and I'm looking for some opinions. I use an allocated spending plan to keep track of my budget / spending. Meaning every dollar of my paycheck is acounted for and is allocated towards some category. I use a simple excel sheet and aim for the 20% savings, 50% needs, 20% wants rule-of-thumb.

Do any couples have a similar plan? I've got a good system down for myself as a single person, but I'm not sure the best way to do it once we're married. We both have similar outlooks on money and we're both on the same page financially, so thats good. The fiance wants to also use my system once we have joint checking and savings.

We both get paid bi-weekly, but on opposite weeks. So its harder to allocate on a bi-weekly basis like I do now.

Does anyone have any advice? Should I allocate/budget on a monthy basis to keep it simple, or should I now do it on a weekly basis, (since we now will have a paycheck every week as a couple)?

[BuckyBadger]

What is the difference in your paychecks?

[disneysteve]

I would continue to do exactly what you are doing now but with both incomes rather than just yours. Of course, that means your wife needs to be involved and have an equal voice in the process. The new budget will just be based on a higher income. Other than that, not much of anything really needs to change if the two of you share common goals, as you certainly should if you are getting married.

[BMEPhDinCO]

I use an excel sheet to track our exenses and our paychecks/extra as they come in. We have some coming in at the mid-month mark, and the rest at the end of the month, so I just save it all in the direct deposit account until the end of the month and then send it out - makes it easier than sending out during the month for me.

We have joint fun in cash, since that way, when it's gone, it's gone and we have individual accounts for personal fun, with personal credit cards. Then joint expenses (ie groceries) come out of one checking account and bills come out of another. The rest goes to savings...

Really it's just an extension of what I did as a single person but with more money coming in and getting distributed...

[BuckyBadger]

I do everything biweekly, since we get paid biweekly. It makes the math a little weird since some things are paid biweekly (extra deposits into savings etc) and some things are paid monthly (mortgage etc).

The reason I had asked about the difference in your salaries was that if you wanted to do it weekly, you could potentially force your paychecks to be nearly equal if they weren't too far off to begin with by playing around with your with holding. But you might not know exactly what your taxes are going to look like your first year as a married couple, so that might not really work now that I think about it...

[naomibatac]

My husband and I have a yearly fiscal budget which we plan and discuss at least a month before the new year. On that budget there is sub-grouping for monthly and weekly. Then we compare the actual expenses with the projected. This guides us for the next year's budget.

[MonkeyMama]

I'd personally just allocate things monthly to keep it simple.

One other thing to consider is a "Live off of one income" plan, if at all possible. That is what we did when we got married. Primary reason was because we did have plans in the future to have kids, etc. BUT, I still think it's prudent not to get accustomed to two incomes. Just look at the economy. When we both work, 20% is a pretty abysmal savings rate. Or, I should say 50% to needs was ridiculous, just because our income doubled when we married? You don't want to get used to spending more just because you have more income between the two of you. Serious food for thought. Also, it's always easier to save less later than it is to save more later - so I would start on the tight side and go from there. You can always re-evaluate.

[JPreston]

To keep it simple and more managable, I would perform your allocation plan monthly. Either way, I believe that you all will be successful because "your on the same page financially". Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.