[newdad]

Thanks to everyone who responded, they were all great suggestions. I love the "getting it done" site. I will be spending quite a bit of time there. I know that I shouldn't worry about a piddly (first time I've every gotten to put "piddly"in writing!) $40. It's the surprise of finding that it was just enough to cause an overdraught in your banking account, because I didn't know the money was spent.

My wife and I actually communicate pretty well. I should have brought her in when I did the budgeting. I didn't because we used to work together (that's how we met) and we both had to sit in budget meetings for days on end. I only had to sit in to two. She had been doing them for years and still shivers at the mention of the word.

I like Steve's idea of focusing on making more. I am working on that as I type this. But, if we don't follow a budget until that extra income is generated I will be sitting in the dark. I intend to use the budget as a bandage for the next six months and by then have enough new revenue coming in that I no longer have to worry about a budget.