Budget Jars

I am a huge fan of Gail Vaz-Oxlade, who is a Canadian personal finance guru. She used to have a tv show called Til Debt Do Us Part on Slice (it is still showing repeats), and she has a new show Princess on the same network. She has a tough love approach, and really helps couples to take control of their finances and debt.

One concept she employs is budget jars. My SO and I are currently trying this. We seem to be having problem deciding what amount should go into each jar, and definitely differ on what jars are more important. He thinks personal allowance and entertainment should be high, while I prefer to have more in the transportation jar. Right now our transportation amount will barely cover gas for my car, let alone regular maintainence and a possible bus pass for him. We also differ over saving vs debt repayment. I think we should save a little, but concentrate on debt repayment. But he wants to get a house asap, and thinks we should save for a down payment.

This is a process, and hopefully we will be able to get things sailing smoothly. We will see if the budget jars idea works for us.