Take The Money And Run

So, today was a big day.

Scott closed down his bank account and joined mine.

We now have a shared checking account.

And savings account.

We ordered checks with both our names on them.

One word I have for this: CRAZY!

Okay, it's not crazy, people do this all the time, I know this. But, like most of you reading this blog, I've always had my own account. That's how it goes when your single and living on your own. You do your own thing...worry about yourself, take care of yourself, pay for yourself. You (hopefully) know exactly what you'll see whenever you sign into your online banking. And no one else looks at it but you. Then you get married. You have to shift your thinking to know/remember that someone is going to be seeing all your charges and that you'll be seeing all their charges. You have to shift your thinking to remember to discuss large purchases with someone other than your other self. And that, my friends, is a bit of a shift to make.

To be honest with you, it kinda freaks me out...just sayin.

I mean, I was still working on talking about all the things we each were buying and fine with the fact that I didn't know every last little thing he bought and visa-versa. Now? Now...he's gonna know, I'm gonna know, all of us in this little two person family are gonna know. (God already knows so I'm not mentioning him)

I honestly don't mind this at all, I've been wanting and wishing to do this for awhile now. It's been hard having two accounts and not fun asking questions like "Are you paying?" or "Want me to write you a check for half?" I just don't like that and I'm glad to not have to deal with that anymore. We are married, for crying in the night! We have enough awkward moments as it is, let's not add to it, okay?

I know it goes with out saying but it's something that I think is pretty normal to worry about when sharing a checking account with someone and what I'm going to have to remind myself from time to time: Scott is not going to judge me and he will still love me no matter what purchases he sees. I mean, I'm not planning on judging him and I DEFINITELY will still love him no matter what I see (especially if I see a charge from Tiffany's or Nike).

We've talked about a few ground rules that come along when two people are using the same account. We have chosen a set amount that we can't spend over without discussing with the other person first. We have discussed what to do when it comes time to buy gifts. We've chosen the bill payer. Me! Yay! Yep, I did just say yay about being the bill payer. I'm weird, what can I say. I especially love setting up online payments and going down the list once a month making sure everything is payed. Side note, I really hate writing checks with a passion. Hate it so very much, it's not even funny. Weird maybe, but not funny. For some reason, it stresses me out to write out the amount and make sure it's to the correct person and having to write my signature. Oh how I hate my signature...even my new one.

Back to the topic at hand. I suppose I just need to leave it alone for now. I mean, let's be honest, it has only been a few hours...and I'm still processing...and no one has looked at the account but me and no one has spent anything but me, so it's not that huge of a deal just yet (and not at all saying it will be). I just thought I'd share all the crazy thoughts in my head, be honest with the maybe 5 of you that actually read this. I'll keep you posted about the future of this shared checking account business. I'm sure (not really) that it will (won't) be interesting.

Funny little story to cap this boring post: when we ordered checks with both our names on them my name was listed over Scotts. For some reason (maybe you can chalk it up to the old fashioned girl in me) I thought it just didn't look right so I asked them put his name first. I probably owe it to him, anyway, since my name came first on almost all the wedding things we had printed or created. I also had them print out his middle name instead of just using his initial. He goes by his middle name, it should be printed out. I don't think the gal helping us liked me much after that.