Dilbert's numbers

[dilbert789]

Originally Posted by MoneyGal

OK! I'm glad that you are not thinking (I don't think) that I'm criticizing you! (Phew...what a sentence.)

This is a classic "pay yourself first" problem. You can set up all kinds of structures so that when the money runs out...it runs out. An easy to implement one (but hard to live with!) is to just stop using cards.

OK, and now my judgement: WTF $40 in dog toys!? All right...it's out of my system now...

In how I setup the budget I was trying to implement a 'pay the joint first' method so that our joint bills were at least covered along with the savings chunk. Then anything left over in your own account is your spending money.

What didn't cross my mind (and caused me to just smack myself in the head for not thinking of it) is to then take out the 10% immediately from the joint account and put that into our joint savings account. This way the joint account that we over spend out of will bottom out, and we won't be constantly chewing into the money that we should be saving. This savings will then go to pay the debt back when it comes due, and this will help create an emergency fund after that is paid back.

The best solutions are often the simplest!

We have a 70lb Lab-poodle cross that already costs like $120 / mth on average between food and the occasional vet bill... So $40 in toys makes me cry...