This post is going to look at two different perspectives on this phrase in the world of personal finance.
Got My Deposit Back!
After waiting for over a month to get my deposit back, I finally emailed the coordinator at my venue asking if I was going to receive it back. She emailed me back a couple hours later stating that she had requested it be returned to me the day after my wedding, so theoretically I should have received it before I got home from my honeymoon (as I thought I would). She sent the person in charge of cutting checks an email asking what had happened- that person was out for surgery for a month and the volunteer who was in charge of handling checks didn’t do what they were supposed to do! So, the very next day a check was in my mailbox. I’ve decided to fully commit it to CC1 immediately and kill that debt by next month (I haven’t canceled my health insurance yet, so I don’t have the wiggle room for the $775 per month yet, plus I owe husband some cash for adding me on to his car insurance).
I asked where my rightfully owed money was, and I got it! I wonder if I ask for a raise, will I receive one…?
And on the seventh day, God said “LET THERE BE CUTE SHOES.” (Or something like that)
I have an unhealthy obsession with shoes. Whenever I see a cute pair of shoes, I go through a deep internal struggle about the cost and the need for the shoes. I did an excellent job in 2012 of only buying shoes when I absolutely needed to, but this year has been a different story. I bought two pairs of shoes this past week (buy one pair, get one pair free, how could I possibly pass that up?!?), and my husband bought me a third pair. This is on top of other pairs I bought earlier this year…
Good ol’ husband, he loves to make me happy. He loves to make me happy with shoes. I often don’t have to do much more than ask then he will buy whatever it is I want for me as long as he perceives it to be reasonably priced (i.e. I saw a beautiful $14,000 dollar ring a few weeks ago, there is no way he will ever buy that for me unless we win the lottery). On our honeymoon, he bought me a very expensive somethin’ that I was admiring, with merely the excuse that we were on our honeymoon.
This mentality he has, while fun at times, can be stressful. Eventually we are going to start a family, the belts are going to get tighter and I don’t think he’ll know what to do! I mentioned in a comment to a reader who was interested in seeing how we will combine and manage our finances together, but him and I don’t talk money often. It is definitely a source of stress between us, with him being slightly better at it than me but him more frequently buying things that I don’t think are necessary to happiness, but in his mind they are. He could probably save thousands a year by cutting back on some of his discretionary expenses. Eventually I want him to be on board for killing the mortgage as fast as possible (after I kill the student loan), but I worry he won’t like what it will entail.
Once I get my credit cards in order and am a strongly contributing member in the household, I will ask him to start making sacrifices for the good of us and our future family. We will see how it goes, hopefully another ask and receive that I will receive…
Good-bye Debt (with less than 5 figures a year)! 
I think I was the blogger that asked about couples finances 🙂 I’m a newbie lawyer, and have been in a relationship for 6 years. We were thinking of getting married a few years ago, but I knew I didn’t want my student loans to affect him. I actually sat down with a family law judge and a few lawyers to ask their advice. We’re in a community property state, so I pay very close attention to how our financial decisions will affect the other. I’m the extremely frugal one, and he surprises with “luxuries” I wouldn’t normally buy for myself… it definitely boosts my morale after paying Sallie Mae each month!
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