Family budgeting 2020

Post date: 2020-01-24 16:34:15

We're your typical family with a couple parents and a couple kids, a mortgage, daycare costs, grocery / Target / Amazon purchases, and intermittent big items like vet bills and car repairs. What is the easiest way to make and track a budget?

Right now we have separate bank accounts and "domains" that we pay for: I pay the mortgage and daycare bills; he pays for the groceries, family Amazon needs, and intermittent stuff; and we each pay for our own cell phone, student loan, clothing, and random purchases (like a book on Amazon).

But that's not working well. While at one point it seemed even, now it seems imbalanced. We're missing out on e.g., the savings that a family cell phone plan could bring. And I'd like to start doing most of the grocery shopping.

What's a better approach to all of this? I'm open to things like Mint or YNAB, but my earlier attempts with them failed. With two young kids, I'm intimidated by solutions with high bookkeeping needs. Also, it seems like we might need more or different (shared?) bank accounts?

For those with fully integrated budgets, I have no idea how the emotional / relationship side of that works. I don't like the idea of having someone look over my shoulder on every expenditure or having to ask "where did all our money go?"

Please hit me with your budgeting tools and techniques! Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might have.

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