Can you point to anything in your past about which you remember saying, “When our budget has room to breathe/I pay off my loans/I get a raise, I’m finally going to splurge on ______”? I can think of two, and I thought it might be fun to chat about them today. I’ve mentioned here and there the idea of our household budget expanding over time, which is both somewhat fiddly to talk about but also something I feel it’s important to be realistic about. And also, isn’t it the arc we all hope to realize over time? I’ve been writing this blog for almost 15 years – it spans from the perspective of a college senior to a mid-30’s mom – so I certainly hope my financial situation has changed over our time together. Yours, too :) And it has. John and I have moved from a season of paying off student loans and entry-level jobs (where splitting a burrito at Chipotle was a rare treat) to a new season where we have advanced in our careers and can comfortably afford most things we want. (Though you better believe we still live by our budget – in fact, I’m thinking of updating that very old post because so many of you have emailed hoping I’d get the example Google Doc fixed up. Let me know if that would be of interest!) Accordingly, our budget has expanded a bit, and it’s been interesting to adjust our behavior to fit it. It’s been sweet, but also has required some rewiring, some uncertainty, some resetting of expectations. For example, I was chatting with John about buying tickets to Wicked, which is coming to the DPAC here in August. I have wanted to see it for years and years and years, and I said

In honor of our anniversary, I have a relationship-themed Marvelous Money post for you today! (Boy, between this and my post earlier this week, I’m sure leaning hard to the unromantic side of married life for anniversary 8, ha!) Today, I thought I’d tell you a bit about our bi-monthly net worth meetings: what they are, why we have them, why we love them, and why they’re incredibly helpful for our financial progress. What is a net worth meeting? A net worth meeting is our chance to review our family’s finances in the big picture. We celebrate progress, check in on our financial goals, discuss challenges and opportunities, and do a bit of nitty-gritty budget upkeep. And, as you might have guessed from the name, we calculate our family’s net worth. We hold our official net worth meetings every other month, usually in the second weekend of the month unless we’re traveling or otherwise occupied. In this season of our lives, they’re held in the afternoon while the kids are resting, or in the evening. Tell me more about what you do in this meeting. Well, first John calls the meeting to order, then we take attendance… j/k j/k. “Net worth” sounds very official, but our meeting is not! Generally, we like to get the small stuff out of the way first by entering any outstanding transactions into our budget doc. (We each have responsibility for entering certain cards and accounts into the doc, which we do about every two weeks, but this is an opportunity to catch up as needed and ask each other any categorizing questions.) Once the budget is fully up to date, we’ll flip to the “Net Worth” tab of our doc. (For more about the custom Google Doc we use to track our budget, read

Wow, y’all! I figured you would like this series, but I’ve been blown away by the response – I LOVED reading your thoughts on last week’s post on time, so thank you SO much for sharing! Truly. To catch up any new gals: Nancy Ray and I are writing an eight-part series every Tuesday in January and February covering “how we do it” in eight different areas: the rhythms, habits, and routines that help us get things done and make the space and time for what matters most. You can read more of the backstory here. Today’s topic is finances! I’m particularly excited about this post for many reasons (obviously), but one is that it really drives home what I love about this series: that you’re hearing from two people with similar hearts but different ways of living them out, showing that there’s no one right way to do things. Anyone who knows Nancy or I knows that we are both extremely passionate about financial literacy and freedom, but the fascinating thing is that “how we do our finances” is in some cases very different. Let’s dig in! I wanted to begin with a few of the principles that guide John’s and my thinking on money, because all the tools in the world won’t be much help if your thought patterns are constantly conspiring against you. Here they are: 1. Whenever possible, we take advantage of the power of compounding and the time value of money. We want to make our money work for us as hard and as often as possible, which means starting NOW, even if that means starting small. Time is so powerful, and it’s the only part of the wealth equation you can’t make up. More about this here. 2. We remember we can’t judge anyone

One of my pet peeves about personal finance is when experts make blanket suggestions on how to save money. I think the way you spend (and save!) should be based on what you value. If you do this, you’ll not only find it easier to stick to your budget, but you’ll get greater pleasure out of the money you DO spend. Though I dislike one-size-fits-all suggestions, I love being inspired by how others are finding ways to save. I asked six of my savviest friends for their favorite ways they shave their budgets, and added in a few myself — I hope they get your wheels turning! Saving money on food: I don’t eat meat during the week. I have a pretty consistent rotation of small and inexpensive meals that I eat for weekday lunches and dinners. Not only does it save me money, but I don’t get decision fatigue over deciding “what’s for dinner?” — Jess Metcalf, Content Manager and newly-engaged gal We shop almost exclusively at Aldi, which cuts our grocery bill almost in half (compared to name-brand grocery stores). I make a dinner plan based on their weekly specials, which helps us eat in for the majority of the week with plenty of leftovers for lunches. — Samantha Ray, hair and makeup artist and blogger Food spending has been a challenge for us (to put it lightly) but we’ve made significant progress by switching to getting vegetables from a CSA box and buying meat from Costco (organic meat at normal prices). We get the box twice a month and plan our meals based on what vegetables we receive. This has challenged us to think outside our recipe box/cookbooks and has significantly cut down on the number of ingredients we buy per recipe. — Dave Kirk, finance guy