Cash Flow

Well now that the wife is home and the European adventure is over it is time to settle in for the time and start to try and improve our financial situation. I didn’t realize just how different a single income household would be until it finally happened. When I was in the UK my food, gas, most of my entertainment, and other major expenses were covered. In fact my per diem left me with a small balance of spending cash too. But working remotely from home and having the wife back in the US has changed that. We recently sat down, as I think many people in the states are doing, and took a serious look at our debts, assets, and budget. After going over all of this I had to laugh and tell RG that we have some slight “cash flow issues”. Like many business we have a strong balance sheet but week inflow/outflow cash situation.

After a couple days of trying to figure out how to participate in TARP I decided we just had to live a little less extravagantly (though the wife will ask when we were extravagantly at all). The new budget uses an old system. Basically we determined how much we need to spend on food and gas, plus a little extra for fun. That money is it and that is all we can spend in those areas. Once it is gone, well we eat left over or don’t drive for a couple days. The bills are all paid on line, and now we almost never use the card. We still get to contribute to the 401k and savings but now we go out a lot less; probably 80% less. But that is ok. We get to entertain a lot more and RG is proving to be a great cook.

It also allows RG to look for a job she can be passionate about rather than one that just provides us with the means to buy stuff. It is very important to me that she finds something she likes rather than just something that pays. While I hope she finds something soon it is not for financial reasons. What really makes me wonder though is this, if I make a good salary, more than some families, how can they get by even with both people working? We aren’t living pay check to pay check but we don’t have much wiggle room, how do people that make less do it? Anyway I guess our budget was a long time coming, hopefully we will get a little more wiggle room in the future, but it isn’t that bad either.