In Pursuit of the Answer: Beginning of August

Photo by Alan Cleaver

My husband and I are watching our finances closely to see if a one income household would be possible for our family.

We’ve always been relatively smart with our money, but up until now I have handled our finances alone.  I’m a very frugal shopper.  I buy what’s on sale, I use coupons, love store brands, frequent garage sales, and have no problems purchasing used and discounted items.  I’m still the spender of the family, though.  In the past I’ve only bought what we “need”, but now that I’m going over the budget line by line with my husband each week, I really am only buying what we need.    I scrutinize things just a little harder knowing I’ll have to admit to every purchase now.

I feel good about our lack of luxury expenses.  We do have one expense that has to go this year – we pay a storage fee.  We’ve been remodeling our house ourselves (a project that will last our lifetime I imagine) and our storage space has been the best way to move our belongings around and out of the way.  Looking at our budget, though, it’s probably not a “necessary” expense.  We might be able to declutter our home deeper and manage without the extra expense.