Hi again. I posted last night about the frustrations I'm having with my DH regarding money and he being out of work and still spending like he is working. Anyway, I just went on to our bank's website and noticed he withdrew another $20 last night and didn't even mention it to me even after we argued about money last night.

I've now officially had it and I have a question for you all. If I transfer the money out of our joint checking account into my personal checking account and he tries to use his ATM card, will it overdraw the joint account or will the card be denied?? He uses the card as a credit card, not a debit card.

Any help you can give me would be much appreciated. Thanks for everything!

Edited to add: Thanks for the tip Campfrugal!. I called the bank and they said that if he used it as a credit card the transaction would still go through and we'd be hit with a $29 fee each time. Now I'm back to now knowing what to do.

I need some help getting my DH on board with cutting back on spending. He's laid off from work right now because he's a landscaper. He usually works if it snows, but we havent had much this winter. Money is starting to get tight and when I tell him this, its like he doesn't even listen.

DH gets $40/week allowance (even now that he's out of work). That money is his to do whatever he wants. But he doesn't use it to put gas in his truck because he uses his ATM card for that all the time. And usually midway through the week he's using his ATM card to buy chewing tobacco. That is his very bad habit that he can't seem to quit. So after the $40 allowance, he spends another $40-60/week on gas/tobacco. I'm at the end of my rope with this.

I don't get a weekly allowance. I have a part time job that pays me $125/week in cash. I use that money to buy groceries and put gas in my car each week. Whatever is left is my spending money for the week. Its usually around $20. My full time job pay is used to pay rent and bills.

What can I do to get through to him that his $40/week HAS to last a full week??? I don't mind if he doesn't get gas with that, but the tobacco is getting out of hand. If anyone has any suggestions of what I can try, please let me know.

Thanks

Ok, I need some advice from all of you. I need to put in for vacation time at work. Per our company policy, we have to take at least one full contiguous week of vacation per year. Then, we can break up our remaining time however we want. This policy is in place to promote good mental health among our employees. I like the policy personally.

So, I need to plan a vacation. Its been a couple of years since DH and I went on a real vacation. But I just feel like I shouldn't spend money on a vacation because I want to save every possible cent towards a house. I have to admit though, I'm feeling like I could use a break. I don't want to start dreading my job and I know I need to take some time off. The biggest problem for me is that noone at work knows how to do my job. I'm the finance manager and I don't have anybody working under me. I'm the whole finance dept. for the company. So of course I worry that if I take a week off, the place will fall apart, payroll won't get processed, bills won't get paid, etc...

I'd really like to go to Disney World. I was looking online and pricing out trips and we could go for a week for about $1700. That includes airfare, hotel, and park tickets. We'd of course have to eat, but I've heard it can be done relatively inexpensively. I also heard you can now bring your own food into the parks. So if we had a fridge in our hotel room, we could do some grocery shopping and save money that way. DH doesn't drink alcohol at all, and I very rarely do, so that wouldn't be an issue.

I know this is really long, please bear with me. For this year, I'm maxing out my Roth IRA contribution and I'm also putting 10% of my salary into my employer's 401K plan (no employer match). We have 13K saved so far for a house. Would it be bad if I took some money out of savings to use for vacation? When DH goes back to work in the spring, I'd be able to replace the money to savings within a few months. Or if we finally get some snow and he gets called in to plow, that would be even better because he gets paid time and a half for snow work. But I can't rely on that happening.

What do you all think? I feel like I need to ask someone's permission to do this. Savings has always been a one-way street for me, it usually doesn't come back out. DH doesn't have clue about our finances so I can't really get a straight answer from him. (Long story there, btw, about him not having a clue. I'll just say this...serious car accident 11 years ago, still some brain damage, really bad memory problems and very impulsive when it comes to spending...therefore, I control our finances)

Please help!!!

I hate Mondays. Especially when its a holiday and it seems everyone else in the world has it off from work except me.

So the $20 challenge is confusing for me. I don't understand how you do it. I've read a lot of posts about it and it seems everyone does it differently. If someone could explain it, I'd appreciate it!

This year, I've decided to save $5 bills. I'm already up to $55. Also, I'm not spending my change. I'm saving all coins that I get when I use cash. Already I'm up to $11 or so. Yesterday I transferred all my change from a jar to a 3 liter water bottle with the cap super-glued on. I cut a slot in the top of the bottle so I can't get money out of it. So I won't be able to count it again until the end of the year when I cut the top off. I've heard you can save $300-500 in a year doing this. That would be just what I need for Christmas shopping.

I'm so excited to start this blog. I've been reading everyone's blogs here for a few months. I thought if I put my goals here, they might actually happen!!

So a little background: My DH and I have been married for 9 months. We don't have any kids but are very anxious to start a family. We currently rent a tiny house, but we're saving for a down payment. Prices are still kind of high here so we're just waiting until the time is right to buy. As far as debt goes, I have a personal loan with a balance of approx. $19,000. We both own our cars outright and we don't have any credit card debt.

So, my main goal is to save for a house. I try to save $1000/month. Its hard right now though...my DH is laid off from his landscaping job for the winter. He usually works when it snows...but so far we haven't had any snow this winter. I'm the only person who prays for snow I think!!

I don't want my first post to be too long so I'll stop now. I'll add more later. I want to start posting my monthly expenses so I can track things better.

I look forward to getting to know all of you better! I feel like I know you already because I've been reading for a while.

Bye for now!!