We live and die by the spreadsheet...

You know what time of year it is??  No...it's not "resolution breaking" time, it's not "bitching about the cold" time or "dreading that crap day known as St. Valentine".  Nope...it's Wang Family Budget time!  This is the time of year where we map out spending and saving for the new year.  It sounds odd and I will mock this process, I am very grateful for it.

I am grateful that Ching and I have very similar spending habits...we don't believe in unplanned retail therapy.  We don't like big ticket items that can de-value in an instant.  Currently our biggest monetary goals involve investing in our home and the girls that continually sap us dry.

This plan is an odd look into the next 12 months.  I know the regular monthly expenses and the special line items.  I can tell you that we are vacationing in Minnesota in August.  I can tell you that we are budgeted to travel during the holidays of 2013.  No one we know is getting married, so no planned wedding gifts.  Laurel doesn't know the but we are planning on sending her to that ridiculous spa like camp where she is occasionally run into that Paul.

While I treasure in the planning and the peace of mind, I do give up spontaneity.  I know how much is spent on my birthday gift (that is also a special line item) and there is never a vacation that is just a surprise.  Ching and I are not there yet.  Maybe we will never be....we are planners...we live and die by the spreadsheet.

Ching and I are both accountable to each other.  All of our money goes into one pot and there is one spreadsheet.  The spreadsheet isn't magic, it's just an electronic file that has a projected suggestion.  If either one of us, strays from the allotted number, there better be a good excuse.  Or the planning is just a waste of time.

We live comfortably, but with fiscal responsibility.  Jesus, maybe the Wangs should have taken our glorious spreadsheet to the guys on top.