Finances and marriage

To tag onto the last post that somehow was construed from talking about a lovely evening movie with the Carter family to me talking about Jimmy's impulse CostCo lawn chair purchase, I remembered this funny Jimmy moment and had to post it.

But let me start from the beginning of this wonderful story. When you get married, one thing everyone tells you that you need to talk about it your finances. So I took that quite literally, especially because we each had several different accounts at different banks/financial institutions individually and two together for our house and wedding. I had it all figured out less than 2 weeks after we got married and set an evening after work for us to go to the bank together. But before we went, Jimmy insisted that he wanted to know exactly what was happening. The way I operate is in Microsoft applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint). So what better than to put together a PowerPoint presentation for Jimmy?

It was titled "Money Discussion" and was 7 slides that (in my mind) clearly outlined our current state with a similar look of a process map and then the movement/actions needed of the checking accounts (what stays open, what closes), savings accounts and finally retirement accounts....with a future state look as well. I thought it was highly sufficient for the communication problem at hand because I knew I couldn't just verbally explain it to him. So when I sent it to him, I instantly got a text message saying "you are crazy, but I love you" (or something of the sorts....). Still to this day, I claim to not be crazy, but we just communicate differently because apparently he STILL did not have a grasp on the movement of things. And then and there my friends is when it was subconsciously decided in our marriage I would handle the money for the most part. I know what goes where, when, how to set it up, etc. And I'm happy about that - I'm a financial analyst for goodness sake, so this is what I love.

Because of that, when I say things like "We don't have money for that" or "We're broke Jimmy!! (insert loud screaming)"....even if I know for a fact we are neither of the above at all because we operate off of just one salary and everything else goes to one of the savings accounts - Jimmy takes it rather seriously. Which I didn't really think about...but I get it now. He trusts me to keep track of these things, so when I get overdramatic and state "AH- we are poor", he takes that as the honest truth. However, after I realized that, I tend to tone down my overdramaticness a little to keep him sane. But one thing I do keep close track of is our spending and try to save wherever possible. So one day I made the statement to Jimmy that went like this:

B: "J, why did you buy X, Y and Z yesterday??!!! AHH!! You always just spend so much money on stupid stuff! I feel like every morning you wake up and your one goal of the day is try to spend as much money as possible to make me mad!!!"

And there you have it folks. The statement that will haunt me forever. Obviously that is not his main goal. Obviously I'm overdramatic (how many times can I say that in this post). And obviously I don't think that is his goal. But you better believe that Jimmy will not let me live that statement down. So when he bought that Tommy Bahama lawn chair at CostCo and tried to convince me to buy 2 of them (But Brittany, they have a cup holder AND a place for your cell phone), but I firmly said no....his response is always:

J: "There you go again, ruining my main goal of the day - to spend as much money as possible"

I cannot even tell you how many times he uses this statement against me. I'm not going to lie, it makes me laugh every time - as he continually reminds me of how ridiculous I can be.....but ah! Sometimes it drives me crazy.

So recently, he found something else he wanted. They are called Thundershirts and they are for your dogs. They are like little coats/shirts that you can buy that you put on your dog and it's supposed to make them have less anxiety and barking through a constant, gentle pressure. Do we need them know? Would it be nice to get them and see if it worked so Milly wouldn't bark at Toby all the time or Toby wouldn't be terrified in storms?? Absolutely. Is it worth $35 each + tax and shipping, um nope. That's a new outfit for work or a few dinners to Salty Iguana!!! They are cute though...

And I'm sure you can guess what Jimmy's response to me was when I said "no".

Yep...."There you go again, ruining my main goal of the day - to spend as much money as possible".  Sorry Jimmy - I'm trying to pinch some pennies and save for our future children's college education :)

However, if you are in the market for these Thundershirts and don't have a mean husband or wife like me that says "no" all the time....these do come with high recommendations on their effectiveness.........

Oh marriage. Gotta love it! I will say that Jimmy is back at home finally after traveling for work, and we sure missed him - so glad he's home!