One thing that is important with a family budget is to have Money Talks regularly. You want to make sure that you are on the same page with your spouse. We had a Money Talk yesterday about our Emergency Savings. Here’s how it went:
My husband said that we need to have $5000 in savings and then we can think about getting a “new” car that we desperately need (our cars don’t go out of the state). I told him that I needed the security of 3 months expenses ($7800) before we think about getting a car. “Do you know how long it’s going to take us to save $7800???” Just so you know my husband is the saver, he’s the reason I changed from a spender of every penny to a saver. But, it is going to take us a long time to save $7800. If we save $200 a month it will take 28 months! Last month we saved $500, but that would still take us 11 months. The only way we could have our full emergency fund by Christmas is if we can save $1140 a month! I told him that because he is self-employed I needed 3 months in the bank, I’m not asking for 6 months ($15,600 wow!), just 3 months. I won! 🙂
Debt Free and Broke 