Budgets, Tennis, and Healthy Competition

What do budgets, tennis, and healthy competition have to do with each other?

You may think that budgets and tennis have nothing to do with one another, but ohhhhhhhh...let.me..tell.you! The one secret I have to a well-functioning (trying to become well-functioning...?) marriage (besides trusting Jesus..obvi) is an awesome little category to your budget for a "slush fund".

Slush fund is our super technical phrase for personal spending money. We allocate a small amount each month for spending at our own discretion (the holy grail of not having to explain why I saved up to spend money on a dress at Anthropolgie when Target sells them for half the price- genius!).

The actual reason why I am recommending a slush fund has nothing to do with the little items that Grant and I purchase on our own....but rather, it has everything to do with the fact that it allows for us to bet against one another and for the bet to actually mean something (granted, this only applies if you share bank accounts). This technique is great for people who like a little healthy competition.

You with me? Here is an example:

You and you husband go to play mini-golf. It is not enough to merely play the game. There needs to be something more in it for you to truly give your all and all. Sooooo.... you make a bet. If he wins- free ice cream. If you win- free lavendar tea latte. If you share a bank account, there is no real win here. But, if you have your little slush fund, when you win, you get to have that delicious little latte from his slush fund.

You can thank me later for such a great idea.

Grant and I play tennis about three times a week now (check out my spring awakening experiment to see how that fits into my vision) and we are absolutely loving the ability to make real bets (we aren't competitive at all...#sarcasm). I mean, of course there is all that other good stuff that comes from playing tennis together like being outside, playing a sport, having quality time together...yahdahyahdahyahdah....It's really about the free latte, folks! ;)

With some friends and people in our bible study, the idea of a budget has come up more and more. Because Grant and I are both people that like systems, we created a budget spreadsheet that we update monthly and track savings and spending in about 15 categories (our system is probably intense for most human beings....we get it! we are a little craycray) However, if you are interested in having a template, feel free to email me and I will send you the template we created (see screenshots below).
email: jacqueline.r.erickson@gmail.com

Perhaps it will save you the trouble of formatting, designing categories, and writing formulas. Just select your categories and add in your target numbers to get your magical spreadsheet. And don't forget to win all the bets with your new slush fund (you can find this section in our spreadsheet under the lamely titled columns of "JER Misc" and "RGR Misc"- be more creative than that please).