Money, money, money...

I just finished doing my monthly budget review for the month of March. My husband and I have split the financial duties - he calculates networth each month and I calculate cashflow. Then we meet and discuss.

Our ideal monthly review we would review our goals, metrics, and finances and determine how we did. Of course - it doesn't quite go that way, but it's an evolving process :).

Some of the metrics we came up with (but of course forget to track) are:

• Did we meet our budget goals?
• Calculate the amount of food thrown away due to spoiling (ideally we would use all food)
• Did we have a weekend of fun - during the month?
• Did we do something outdoor adventurous?

Of course we have great intentions, but mostly just focus on the budget review. I have started using Mint.com for the past 6 months and love it. And my husband actually likes it too. We have it setup to refresh for all of our accounts. And have budget categories setup. Once a week (or less frequently) I go in and review transactions and update the categories. Every Saturday morning my husband and I receive a weekly email showing recent tracsactions, how we are doing against budget, bills due, etc.

It is much less stressful because Dan can see that I am not out on secret shopping sprees and when the credit cards are due (so he knows they are being paid on time and not getting dinged with late fees).

It's actually almost fun to review and track finances now that I have a process and a tool I enjoy using (and my husband has stopped bugging me about whether or not I've paid the credit card bills)...