Paging Suze Orman....

Dude, life is expensive. They don't tell you that when you're a kid, growing up and dreaming of what you want to be, where you want to live, what kind of house you were going to have, etc. It's so funny because whenever I used to take my oldest nephew somewhere special, just the two of us, like the movies or to get ice cream, when he was a lot younger than he is now, he'd ask about my debit card and would act like it was this never ending source of money, not knowing where the money came from or that you had to have so much in your account in order to get what you want. He'd ask "can't you just debit it?" Sorry, kid, nope. Kids have it easy in that they don't have to deal with that, and sometimes I have moments where I just totally want to be a kid again. I'm having one of those moments this week.


Since T and I moved in together in November, we've been in the ever-so-fun process of combining finances. We've both been our own for so long that we're used to just being responsible for our own bills and leave it at that. I'll admit, we struggle somewhat in the whole keeping the other person informed on the state of your checking account thing and in realizing "hey, we're in a partnership!" thing. We do pretty good for the most part but both of us have our slip ups in that area. We argue about how tight our finances are, as I'm sure most couples do, and it's probably better that we get these types of discussions out of the way before we get married so that we know what we're getting into. It's a growing process, right?

I often feel guilty because T and I are at total different ends of the spectrum in terms of finances. He's been pretty good with his money and made it out of college and grad school with little to no debt. On the other hand, I made the decision in college to go onto law school, and I knew when I made that decision that I would be signing myself into quite a bit of debt. I think any student who goes into grad school realizes this. You try not to think about it while you're in grad school, because otherwise, you could very well drive yourself crazy. When you hit that day when it's time for your exit interview with good old Sallie Mae, and they hand you a piece of paper with the outstanding amount on it, it's like reality just bitch slapped you, and you're standing there going "um, OK, so....I'm supposed to pay this off when?" Then you start running through your head of what you can do to make extra money, and I've joked about such options of selling my organs on the black market on the side or getting a second job in addition to the one that dedicates about 50-60 hours of my time a week. Believe me, I've been working diligently for the last four years to pay off my debt (credit cards included), and I'm finally making headway now that T and I are working as a team. However, every now and then I have total moments of complete panic where I think that I'm never going to get there. I am proud to say that I will have one of my credit cards completely paid off in full by the time of our wedding in September. (Whoo!!! Celebration dance) Hopefully I'll have those student loans paid off by the time our own children get to college, but we'll see...

I realize that I'm complaining about finances a day after raving about our honeymoon in Ireland, and yes, this could be a way to save on money. However, T and I were really lucky in that we were able to pay for this in full right when we booked. Lucky. It'll be nice to get there and not have to worry about how we're going to pay for it.

That being said, I've tried different ways to save on some dough. I've quickly become that person in the grocery store who has a huge coupon book and is always out for the biggest deal. I search the Web for free giveaways or samples that could be sent to our home for toiletries, food, medicine, etc. So aside from the normal cost-cutting type of measures, I'm open to tips or suggestions from any of you more experienced married individuals out there reading my blog. How did you and your significant other adjust to sharing the finances when first living together? What kinds of cost-cutting measures work for you guys? Suggestions gladly accepted :-)

In the spirit of finding ways to earn some extra money, we'll be throwing our very first garage sale this weekend. Proceeds to go towards the "T and Nain Honeymoon Fund." Keep your fingers crossed that we have success!

Have a Happy Friday everyone!