Dh suggests classes

[hooah08]

So dh tells me I should take some financial classes since I clearly suck at money. Its not that I am horrible (maybe) its that there is never enough, although anyone on here can say I am desperately looking for a job myself, and I end up spending what we dont have on things we need. I can budget all day, but there just isnt enough money. I end up making a big financial mess and dont tell dh because his anger frankly scares me to death. What should I do, needless to say we arent as close as we could be because of the mess. Thanks for your help.

[guynavywife]

While he put it poorly, there are free classes on not only how to manage your money, but how to plan with what you have and look at your expenses in a different way.
For example "need" is an amazing word which can mean many different things to many different people. Also, they can show you how to plan a weeks menu using many common ingrediants, and using leftovers in new ways to make eating less expensive.

MWR offers these types of classes.

[Amy]

I'm doing an internship right now at a readiness center on base for Airmen and their families. There are several different classes and one on one financial counseling/budget preparation if you call and make an appointment. I'm sure all bases have something similar.

There are probably things you can cut out if you don't have enough money to pay all your bills. Come up with a budget- there are budget worksheets online and computer programs (like MS money) if you don't want to go on base. Keep track of all of your receipts and bills...you may be spending more than you have to (and more than you are aware of) on something. If you track all of your purchases, you may realize that you're making a lot of the same type of frivolous purchase...movie rentals, fast food, online shopping, etc. Once you know what the problem is with the way money is handled now, you'll pay more attention in the future before you make the same mistakes. If it's just a matter of not having enough money to pay your bills, then you need to eliminate or lower some of your unnecessary payments or, yeah, increase the amount of money coming in. Look around for cheaper car insurance, consider dropping or lowering your cable or cell phone plans temporarily.

For awhile, I paid for everything with cash. Went to the bank when we got paid and withdrew the money for food, gas, entertainment, anything my daughter would need, etc, (anything other than bills) then put the money in separate envelopes. This was after I came up with a budget of course. It was easier to see how much I had spent and how much I had left, so rather than seeing that we had $X in our account, I knew that we had $x for food, $x for gas, etc.

You could come up with an allowance so that you're not overspending on fun stuff. And make sure you come up with grocery lists and only buy what is on your list. (This is a problem for me, sometimes.) We cook our meals and freeze them, so, say, when we make chili, we'll eat half and freeze the rest, which will be another meal when we don't have time to cook. Saves time and money (we would have just thrown it out otherwise).

I don't really know your situation so I don't know what else to say. If you give me more info (pm me or whatever) I can help you out more. I'm pretty good with money...I had to learn to be after my husband and I had issues with finances our first year of marriage.