This post is all about creating your newlywed monthly budget.
One of the biggest adjustments that come with marriage is the financial merging of two different lives!
Before, you had one person’s income and expenses. Now that you’re married, you’ve got multiple incomes, multiple expenses, and big financial dreams.
Whether you dream of traveling the world, buying cars, or building homes with your new spouse, you’ve got to make some clear financial plans and decisions. You can start your financial journey on the right foot by creating your newlywed monthly budget.
This post will teach you all the steps to create that newlywed monthly budget!
7 Easy Steps to Your Newlywed Monthly Budget
1) Make specific goals
The first step to making your budget is to make financial goals!
In my opinion, this is the most important step, which is why it’s #1. If you and your spouse don’t have goals to work towards, you won’t have enough motivation to make smart financial decisions day in and day out.
On the flip side, if the two of you have goals and dreams that you are passionate and excited about, you’ll have the energy and motivation to work hard, spend smart, and save money.
So grab your partner and start dreaming. Think big! Talk about your hopes and dreams for the future. Some of the goals you come up with might be relatively small and achievable in the next few months or years. Some of your goals might be so big that you’ll be working on them for the majority of your lifetime.
Here are some ideas of financial goals you’ll make:
- Build a saving’s fund
- Pay off debt
- Buy a pet
- Take a cruise
- Buy a car
- Build a house
- Travel to ___
- Launch a business
- Have kids
- Chip in for kids’ education/weddings
- Give to charity
- Get an expensive “toy” (electronic device, exercise equipment, adventure vehicle)
No matter the goal, make sure both of you are excited for it. You can get even more excited by talking about how you’ll enjoy achieving your goal or looking up pictures of your goal (ie, I like to look at floor plans for my dream home or search for pictures of potential vacation destinations).
Put your goals in order of when you’d like to accomplish them. Calculate an estimate of how much they’ll cost and split that into the months you have until that goal. Now, you know how much you need to save each month to achieve that goal, and you can move on to step 2!
Related: Communication Skills for Couples
2) Choose your tool(s)
The next step to budgeting is choosing the right tools. There are many options that people can use to budget.
You and your spouse might like to stick to electronic tools. Perhaps you’ll find an excellent app for tracking your budget, or you’ll set up your own tracking system with Google sheets.
Another option is to use paper. You might be interested in filling out a monthly budget template. Perhaps you will avoid using credit/debit cards to spend money, and instead you’ll stay in budget by pulling cash out of the bank each month. Once your cash runs out, you can’t spend any more money!
You might find yourself using a variety of these options, and you might end up switching to something else in the future!
This step can take a while to nail down. Don’t be afraid to try different budgeting methods until you and your spouse find the method that works best for you!
3) Write down income
Next, you need to figure out how much money you have and how much money you make each month. An important part of budgeting as a couple is to agree that the money you make is money for the family. It’s healthy for couples to share all of the money they make and even join bank accounts. The two of you have decided to work together to build a family from here on out, and that begins with sharing finances.
When you calculate how much money you make, don’t forget to include all of your income sources. If you are in college, you might be getting money from a school fund, scholarships, or FAFSA. You might be starting a new job, where you might receive more money from signing bonuses.
If, like me, your income seems to change month-to-month, you might consider getting a month ahead of expenses to make your budgeting a little easier. For more on that, read this post: Getting a Month Ahead of Expenses.
4) Create budget categories
Once you know how much money you have for the month, you need to divvy it out into your budget categories!
Some budgeting categories you might include are:
- Savings*
- Rent
- Utilities
- Groceries
- Fast food
- Phone payment
- Insurance (health and car)
- Gas
- Subscriptions
- Medical
- Fun**
- Other***
*One of the most important categories you can include in your budget ASAP is a Savings category! Emergencies happen all the time, whether it’s a broken bone, popped tire, or a global pandemic. Instead of going into debt or bouncing a check, start building your savings fund. You’ll be able to pay for those crazy emergencies and focus your energy on healing or moving on. You’ll also probably sleep better at night 🙂
**Another important category to include is Fun! You and your spouse are in the honeymoon phase of your marriage! Before you have kids or demanding careers or old age to hold you back, you should be having the time of your lives. Make sure you have a Fun category in your budget to pay for date nights, romantic gestures, and weekend getaways.
***You might want to include an ‘Other’ category for random expenses that don’t fit anywhere else. A few expenses I’ve put into our ‘Other’ category are when we filled up someone’s car with gas, bought planners, and got a hiking day pass.
Related: 5 Categories You Need in Your Budget
5) Track expenses
Your next step to budgeting is to track the money you spend each month. This is a step that you will do over and over again.
When you first start out, it might be tedious as you try out new tools and categories. It might also be shocking to find how much you spend in a single month!
You might team up for this step by having one person read aloud expenses while the other writes them down in a category. Or, you might take turns each week adding expenses to your budgeting app. Make sure to share the load of budgeting so that neither of you gets burned out from doing it all on their own!
With time and practice, you and your spouse become pros at monthly budget tracking.
6) Make small adjustments
Now that you know how much you make, how much you spend, and how much you’d like to save each month, it’s time for you to make small adjustments to meet your goals!
You might realize right away that you need to adjust how much money you put into each category. Perhaps you budgeted for $100 in groceries each month, but you end up spending $200! You can either move $100 from other categories into your grocery category, or you might try to meet in the middle by putting $150 in your grocery category and watching what you spend at the store.
If you are spending too much money for every category or for your budget overall, you might start thinking about ways to spend less and save money. This can be super hard, but small changes will lead you to big results. When you find that you really want to go out to eat again this month but it’s not in your budget, think back to the goals you started with. Remember how excited you are to make those bigger purchases later down the road. You and your spouse can work together to cheer each other on and keep each other on track when it comes to monthly spending.
If you’ve figured out how to spend less but still can’t put money towards your goals, you might want to think about ways to make more money. Perhaps you can work more hours, find a higher paying job, or find some odd jobs for the weekend. Here are a few ideas for ways to make an extra chunk of change each month:
- Babysit
- Walk dogs
- Clean houses
- Deliver food/groceries
- Tutor online
- Take online surveys
- Sell your stuff
- Teach lessons on piano/language/exercise
Related: Tips to Save Money Now
7) Commit to revisit your newlywed monthly budget
The final step is to make a habit of budgeting.
Commit to revisit your budget as a couple every single month.
Schedule time each month to review your income, track your expenses, and dream about your goals.
Find small ways each day to save money.
Invest in yourself by getting educated, whether that’s by going to college, reading articles, learning from a mentor, watching YouTube, reading books, or trying new things. Invest in yourself by excelling at your job, adding to your resume, taking care of your health, and networking with the people around you.
Most of all, remember that YOU can do this! You and your spouse have teamed up to reach high, work hard, and achieve your wildest dreams. Now go make it happen!
The post showed you how to create your newlywed monthly budget.
Thanks for reading!
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