by Tina Pollard

Created on: March 04, 2009   Last Updated: March 06, 2009

Four children, three dogs, two middle of the road incomes, and one stretched (like an orthodontics rubber band) budget!

Actually, in the beginning, there was no budget. There was David, my husband. He was our budget. His idea of budgeting money was to pay our bills when a bill collector called and asked for the money. Yeah, so I don't really like that.

I sat down with a stack of bills and an excel spreadsheet. We were going on a budget. The plan was to pay off what we had and not create anything new. For two years I fought with this plan. I moved and shifted bills. I copied cells from one month to the next. I had formulas plugged in all over the place and still, we were getting nowhere. This is where the harsh truth comes in. If I had to pinpoint the exact problem - well <gulp> apparently it was me, but at the time, I would have sworn it was David. I was frustrated with his lack of interest in our finances so I gave him the budget and asked him (very nicely) to take over.

Ok so that's not the truth. I think I THREW the budget at him and told him that I'm SICK of it and I QUIT! I said a few other things about how he's never been responsible a day in his life, blah, blah, blah. Just a teensy little temper tantrum is all it was. No big deal.

What happened next proves that I struck a nerve. He didn't just start tinkering with my spreadsheet, he changed our lives. I thought he was trying to torture the family with his insane new rules, but I stood my ground. I could live with whatever he dished out. Bring it on!

The biggest change came from the new rule that we would live on $300 a week. No exceptions. (I had to laugh) Sure, $300 sounds like plenty of money, but I knew our spending habits and there was no way this would ever work. David had no idea what he was doing, but I didn't say anything. He'd figure it out.

By my calculations, in a given week, we spent the following: Groceries ($120), Gas in 2 vehicles ($70), School lunches ($40), extra stops at the store for milk, bread, cereal ($20), lunch at work ($20 x 2 people). With his budget, that left only $10 a week for anything unexpected. With kids, there's always something unexpected - someone lost their gym suit, someone has a science project, the youth group is having movie night. Oh look, it's time to buy year books. What's that? Someone needs a class ring? What about getting my oil changed? Uh-oh, someone's sick - pays and prescriptions galore - if one of them gets sick, another will soon follow. His plan

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