stock up for summer

I know it's not great for a lot of investors that stock prices are falling, but secretly it makes me very happy. Between you and me, it feels like my favorite store is having the best sale ever, and it's time to stock up (hardy har har) on this season's hippest fashions. Or, you know, place a buy order.

Sadly, I'm still on my budget and can't do much, but I had a few bucks set aside in my account for this exact opportunity and just placed the order. And my regularly scheduled purchase goes through in a week, so we'll see where it ends up then.

The plan for maintaining this week's budget is still on track. Jer bought dinner twice and I used a gift card last night. It's another beautiful day here, so I might skip the gym and go for a walk.

It probably sounds like I'm using Jer to bail me out of my budget issues, but that's only a little bit true. Every penny of my paycheck is accounted for in a text file that I update monthly -- and the money is spent on joint expenses as well as personal. Jer's paycheck... not so segmented. He's more freeform with his funds. The way we structured it, he ends up with leftover funds that eventually go into a savings account. A few bucks spent here and there going out to dinner don't affect his overall target. Whereas with me, every penny is critical.

It works for us. I'm passionate about money and he doesn't want to spend as much time thinking about it, but we're still able to reach our overall targets -- through scheduled automatic withdrawals to a jointly held account.

Can you tell I love to read personal finance blogs? Because I do. Someday I'll update the sidebar with some of my favorites. It'll be my own version of paying it forward.