Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

Money. To quote Liz Lemon, "Blerg."

I'm not sure exactly why it happens or what causes it, but for some reason money is always the tightest for my husband and me in August. You would think it would be December with Christmas presents and traveling for holidays, but ever since we got married, it's always been August. Even though it's probably not true, I'm going to lay the blame squarely on the fact that I was a college student when we got married. I think we got into this weird "school starting, student refund not here yet" cycle, which sadly, we are right back in now since I'm starting grad school in a week.

If any of you are familiar with Dave Ramsey and his "Total Money Makeover" you'll know that he talks about how in a marriage/partnership one person is usually the nerd and one is the free spirit. Well, I'm raising my spreadsheet loving, budget keeping nerd hand high. And that occasionally causes some problems. I can't speak for every partnership that has a nerd and a free spirit, but usually the nerd (me) is plugging right along with money, usually knows exactly how much is in the account at any given time, what bills are due soon, etc. etc. while the free spirit (my husband) just kinda lives out there in la-la-land knowing that there's some money somewhere and that they'll use it to pay for things. This arrangement tends to work pretty well until the free spirit gets "the shock." "The shock" is what I refer to as the free spirit realizing that there isn't as much money as they thought and proceeding to freak out. When this happens, as least for my husband and I, it means he's suddenly EXTREMELY interested in the finances, something he didn't really care about before, and no matter what's on the horizon in terms of income and expenses, bemoans that there is no money and we are forever broke.

I'm sure you can imagine that this is not fun for anyone involved. And it's not! Really, any time you deal with money regardless of whether it's friends, family, spouse, or significant other, money woes are the pits. Thankfully though, I know this is just a little stumbling block that will be resolved shortly, but it still stinks to deal with.