Date Night Idea: Budgets and Beers

Creating fun and easy routines that make managing your money something you look forward to.

Budgets and Beers is a quarterly date night that Derek and I have that we look forward to just as much as the Minnesota State Fair. I know that sounds crazy, but it has become our time to update our net worth, track progress towards goals and dream about what we want for our future, all while having beers! Our path to getting better with finances didn’t start here, we were far from it. Money shouldn’t be a source of fear or anger and this is how you can make it just a little better than yesterday. 

In the Beginning, It Can Be Overwhelming

When I graduated from college and started making a real salary, I thought simply paying my bills while having extra money to go on vacation was properly managing my money. I lived this way for years but didn’t seem to be making any progress on my student loan debt and my savings account was barely a thing. What have I been doing wrong this whole time? How come my finances didn’t seem to be getting better as I was getting older and making more money?

Before I stumbled upon Dave Ramsey, I didn’t know where to begin and my finances were a source of stress. Do I need to invest more? Is saving for a home more important than paying off student loans? How does my car payment fit into things? I was what he would have called “Dave-ish” because I didn’t follow his rules, but it was the push that I needed to get started. As I started to dig into the scary stuff, things became clearer and I was no longer feeling the burden of the unknown with my money.

Clarifying goals is truly step one in determining what path you should take and for me, it was paying off my student loans. Others that I speak with are saving for a baby or trying to upgrade a car. Take some time to think about what your initial priorities are so that you can make room to save for them to actually make them happen.

Simplify Personal Finances

The moment I decided paying off my student loans would be priority number one, everything became a little more clear. I was no longer worried about how to do everything at once because I gave myself permission not to. I only invested up to my employer match, I paid minimums on my car payment and I didn’t stress about the low balance in my savings account or my lack of a house fund.

I used a simple calculator to determine how much I needed to pay each month to become debt free by a certain date. As I toggled between higher and lower extra monthly payments, I could actually settle on a payment that I could afford that would get me to debt freedom sooner than I initially expected.

This extra payment number allowed me to focus on just one thing. I could spend money wherever and however I wanted but I had to make this extra payment every single month.

Make Tasks a Part of Your Routine

By following a simple budget each month, which included plenty of vacations and restaurants, we were guaranteed to be debt free by our target date. Weekly we would track our spending and if we ever overspent, which happened a lot I must say, we would just move money from another category to balance things out. We never touched the extra debt payment category. A budget helped me stay on track in the day-to-day and quarterly “Budgets and Beers”  date nights kept us motivated!

Each quarter Derek and I would sit down to talk about how we did that past quarter, along with updating our debt totals and net worth. By adding this automatic date night to the calendar, we held each other accountable to making those monthly payments and it became something that we actually looked forward to. Previously I was floundering hoping that I was doing something right, and now I was actually seeing the progress.

Something to Look Forward To

You feel a sense of relief when something becomes routine. You are no longer trying to force something and it becomes your new way of life. Budgeting wasn’t easy right away, I actually hated it. But once I saw how it was helping me stay on track to reaching my goals, I knew it was worth all the headache. Seeing our debt totals decrease and our net worth inching towards a positive number gave us the motivation to keep going. 

Now I can honestly say I love budgeting (and it’s totally ok if you aren’t there yet). I love our quarterly date nights and I love that all of the perceived sacrifice is working towards a plan that gets us to a life where we can travel more, have flexibility in work and simply live in the present.

Whether it’s a weekly chat with your partner, monthly budgeting sessions as you're figuring things out or quarterly updates towards goals, what can you be doing to make your money just a little easier to manage? Unfortunately personal finance isn’t something taught to us so we have to take it upon ourselves to be the experts. Setting up these systems might seem scary but once you get started you will be relieved that you took the leap!