Friday, January 16, 2009

The lovely and talented Sarah of Everyday Gluten Free said, "I'd love to hear how you got from separate checking accounts to where you are today!"

The marriage of one Gluten Free Frugal and one SuperDad is a mysterious and magical thing. HA ahhh ha ha! What I mean by that is, "Uh, I don't really remember."

Back in the day, I felt pretty strongly about each of us taking responsibility for our "own" stuff. I had MY money and he had HIS money and never the twain should meet. We were both making minimum wage or just above. I was a seller of movie tickets and he was an artist of sandwiches. That year, for my birthday, he bought me candy bars and crossword puzzle books. (BTW, do I remember what he bought me last year for my birthday? I do not. But I was thrilled with the candy bars. Actually, who isn't thrilled with candy bars? Crazy people, that's who.)

Time passed. Blah blah. It happened to be that I was making more money that he was. Like, by double. And splitting everything evenly wasn't really working anymore. Plus, I believe now, marriage isn't a "split" thing, it's a "share" thing. There shouldn't be "his" and "mine," there should be "ours" (except the comic books, I don't really want those, but thanx, mmmkay?), and so we put it all together. And that made moving to one income so much easier.

Now SuperDad is a very excellent type of person, and he doesn't spend money on silly things (well, other than comic books), and we all know that I'm ultra cheap a very reasonable shopper. So, that helps us, as far as that goes.

If there's one single thing a couple can do to succeed with money, it's to get on the same page.

And how are things going? A) I wrote a check for the entire cost of my braces (which will be reimbursed through my flex spending account). They asked if they should wait to cash the check, and I said, "Nope. It will be fine." How cool is that? B) It took SuperDad 10 days to pick up a paycheck. I asked what he wanted to do with it, and he said, "Whatever." A paycheck that we don't *need*? What is that?

These things didn't happen because we have so much money (BWAHAHA! As if!), but because we're on top of the money we do have. And that? Rocks!

The end. (Who is sorry she asked? Sarah is! Hee.)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi,
My name is Caren.

I find your site http://glutenfreefrugal.blogspot.com/
and the selection of resources there very interesting.
I have a good credit card website that contains much useful information for your readers. There's a fine set of articles that reveal all pros and cons of credit cards, give tips how to avoid credit card debt and establish good credit with minimum efforts. During the current financial crisis this can't but attract more visitors to your site.

If it agrees with your policy, I would like to buy a link in a fresh post at your site.

Please let me know if you are interested via email caren@acclaimnetwork.com
Thank you for your time,
Regards,
Caren.

Sarah said...

I am not sorry I asked. That's a neat story, and I agree that sometimes the simplest gifts (candy bars!) are the best!

Thanks for sharing!

Kristen said...

Amen! The rewards of budgeting and living frugally are SO worth it.

Kristen@TheFrugalGirl
http://thefrugalgirl.com

Unknown said...

:) Kristen - your photography is gorgeous!

Blog Widget by LinkWithin