First, let you husband in on the monthly budget. He has to cooperate for it to work.

Ways to save money...

Never pay a late charge.

Eat home cooked meals rather than going out.

Make a list of income and expenses so you can 'see' where your money is going.

Comparison shop on things like, grocerys, cable, internet, phone, insurance...

Conserve electricity and see if you can get on the averaged bill, so you pay the same amount every month. No surprises.

There are many money saving tips, but the most important thing is the whole family has to be on board.

Good luck - it is a work in progress.

thanks I do already do most of that, and i've found a way to get my husband in on the budget I guess you could say it is kind of lying but not really . I straight up tell him we are broke he can't use the debit cause it isn't there. He gets 50.00 a month for spending he tells me he doesn't have an allowance but I had to inform him he could either take it or take over paying the bills. So he accepts his 50.00 for now. I know come tax time that wont work cause he will want to spend but I've already figured where the money is going and it isn't in his pocket. I had to do him like this when we first got married to get him out of debt and well now 7 years later I'm having to do it again cause he has gotten us into debt. He wants a new truck so I told him he had better start saving instead of spending cause I wont finance more than 3000 at the most (he is wanting a 13000 to 15000 truck) and that wont happen until at least 2015 when we are out of debt besides house and student loans. So he has plenty of time to save his pennies. :) I'm tired of being in debt and struggling so I'm going to a cash only method. which we are pretty much at except when it comes to emergencies. We have no credit cards or personal loans. But the late charges have been eating us up too but We are done with those this year. I've set my mind to it and I'll make it happen one way or another.

I work with my partner on this one since we seem to trigger one another during the spending frenzies and are fine in between. During our stable periods we discuss loving cues we can give one another as gentle reminders during the frenzies. The goal is effective management, not deprivation. Toward this end, we encourage each other to use the manic energy for research so that when the budget does open up, we can proceed with extra confidence.

Works for me. Hope ya find what works for you.

I don't think this will work because it seems like you dont want him to "see" how much money is in the monthly system but what if he were to sit down with you twice a month and do the bills with you. You must already have a system and he can write the checks or write in a ledger what is going to be taken of "on line" so he sees what money is going out?My son and daughter in law got this old old retired man they went to for a very small fee and he helped them with their finances.

I start out the month and get a credit card filled up withe amount of money I need for food. And then I use that for the month keeping track. I try not to go over that

$50 is quite low. I don't know what his neeeds are.
My dad always said you don't want your budget to be so tight that you feel strangled.

You sounds like you have a good grip on things.

I just made a list for myself. Which probably you are already doing but I volunteer and I am no longer going to "cover" stuff I am going to make people pay their share, I am going to buy my B-day cards at the dollar store. I have 4 lunches out a month that I willbring lunches from home, When I bringing winefor something I am buying some under $10, I usually bring $20-30 for church morning goodies on Sundays cutting that out. My neice and nephew have fundraisers for their school will cut that out or limit it to $10. I always shop and 2 stores for clothes. There is another store I couldshp at that I will try.i don't need that many clothes anyway. I use to donate to three charities wont do that anymore.
So in my life I am trying to save too.

I have a checking account, a small savings account and a big savings account. when my little savings account gets low like right now I go into a panic attack.

My brother has power of attorney overmy accounts and knows my passwords.

When i get manic i leave my debit card at home in a semi hard place to get out. In a tall tall vase up on a tal bookcase. Requires a tall chair or short ladder to get at.

So I'll be thinking of you!!!!

I agree with sitting down together to make a plan and get rid of credit cards if you have any and some say debit cards as well..
If you have to go to the bank whenever you need money you'll think about what you're spending it on and if you need it

I am a single mom and have no credit cards. Thanks for starting this thread everyone is teaching me a lot.

A few of my favorite things is to go Goodwilling ...there's about 3 Goodwills in my city, plus a Salvation Army store, and a lot of thrift stores. It's amazing the new or like new good quality clothes you can find at these places.

Typically when I hit a major manic phase I feel like I have to spend so I keep a $20 bill stashed away. When I hit that phase I go to the dollar store. For me it isn't about quality but quantity. I need to buy a lot stuff and 20 $1 items makes me happy. Yeah I am weird like that.

I'm a tight ass regardless, I do however go out way too much all the time- value menu-woot!

We do what Belle suggested as she suggested it to me a long time ago. We each get a spending allowance a month and when thats gone, its gone. We pay all our bills the second they hit the mailbox. We use coupons and groupons. We rarely eat out. We eat out of the crock pot a lot and have leftovers. It can be done. Plus we keep the heat on 70 in the winter and put on sweaters. That makes our power bill about 80 bucks a month.