Organized for the New Year

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas/Holiday celebration with friends and family - I've enjoyed having a week off and am looking forward to another.  I spent some time this morning finalizing the transfer of all of our accounts to our new house and getting our 2012 budget confirmed.  Jordan and I, unless an unforeseen disaster strikes, will have our credit card totally paid off by the end of the year and we are both so looking forward to entering 2012 being consumer debt free (aside from the vehicle loan).

We have settled on the following as our monthly budget:

Our utilities won't be that high - but it was the average of the bills in the rental.  While our home was built with some upgrades in the windows and insulation and we also have six months free of our phone, internet and satellite tv services - we haven't received our first bill yet and just want to have a bit of wiggle room.

Our insurance has been a huge win, we had further discounts when we actually moved and so this payment includes both of our vehicles as well as the house.

I have increased our gas budget because our commute is a bit longer - we don't have a good gauge on what it will be, but if it's more - the overage in the utilities guess should cover it.

I'm not really concerned if we spend more or less in either booze or eating out/entertainment categories - as long as the three combined are equal to or less than $450/month.

We have started our allowances up again so that we have a bit of personal spending freedom.  It's so nice to be able to treat someone to lunch without having to check in with each other first.

The Joint House account is a planned spending account that includes everything from clothes, shoes, hair cuts, pets, annual expenses, vehicle and home maintenance as well as large household purchases.

The majority of the Joint Gifts account is for Christmas, but it is also intended to include birthday presents/housewarming gifts and that sort of thing too.

The Joint Emerg and RRSP accounts are pretty self explanatory - although last year we only put $100/month into each of these and we've increased it to $200/month for each of these categories.

Financially, I'm feeling a lot more positive as Jordan and I embark into the new year as a married couple in our own home.  I'm looking forward to staying positive in the rest of my life too!