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Re:The Surprising Ease of Plain Text Accounting by markvdb on Tuesday July 19, 2016 @03:03AM (#12120269)
Tell that to my significant other with a straight face.

I know my financial position. For me when I was single, energy spent on personal finance was energy lost for other causes, like earning a lot more money for example, or doing something socially relevant or building a laser cutter.

But my signifciant other? Living hand to mouth on a tight income, and not mentally prepared to even think about budgeting.

So now as a couple, needing to nudge her into basic budgeting, it better be with as little friction as possible...

Something low tech that really helps with that by the way is day-by-day budgeting. Estimate your annual net income minus your fixed costs: mortgage, rent, utilities, insurance, savings, investment, ... Divide this disposable income by day/week/month/quarter/semester/year. You now have one number per timeframe not to exceed. Discuss everything exceeding this limit, and build sensible rules from that.

Re:The Surprising Ease of Plain Text Accounting by hnal943 on Tuesday July 19, 2016 @10:07AM (#12121838)
This is a great point - if you're married, budgeting is more essential because you can't do a defacto budget in your head. If anyone is interested, Dave Ramsey has some really great advice for how to sell your spouse on budgeting and how to keep things simple.
Re:The Surprising Ease of Plain Text Accounting by josephb on Tuesday July 19, 2016 @10:46AM (#12122081)
Thanks for this tip. I've been looking for info to assist coaxing the other half into budgeting better :)