<prompt> Human: Hi all. Long time lurker. I dont do well sharing my warts with people, but I need some help and advice. This could be in the form of a professional financial planner to talk to or just other better ideas. Well start here and see where it takes us. My wife and I have been married for 9 years. Weve grown to a family of 5 and were a 1 income household. I manage the finances exclusively or try to. Weve tried lots of ways of managing our finances over the years, but we always end up supplementing with credit cards which over time ends up growing. Some months we dont, but we habitually repeat this trend no matter the method. Were at an inflection point because a year later and we have the credit card balances ballooned again. Ive struggled for years with trying to understand real-time what the disposable income remaining number is AFTER the bills are drafted. The complications come into place not as much with making the bills but in managing discretionary expenses. I put these in quotes because some of these are kids camps, others are kids activities. Still others are things like birthday gifts. We save a big fat goose egg right now because we never have anything left over check to check because were spending them on things.Please help me solve this 9 year old problem. My Spreadsheet shows disposable income per month at 1100 or 550two weeks. Thats after every bill we have gets paid but before we eat out etc but before the 400month I give my wife for discretionary spending which was supposed to be her spend for things I didnt think we should be spending on or in lieu of stuffing it on a credit card but it hasnt quite worked out that way Weve read various methods like the Ramsey one and its a nice fantasy but real life threw issues at us Ramsey gave no guidance on how to solve and we ended up more fucked up with our money as a result. The wife and I fight about money more than anything. Please help us Reddit. you may be our only hope!  <response>: How hard and fast is your budget How much do you break down discretionary spending? I ask because I am the financial one for my family of 4. We were single income, until I took a part time job a year or so ago to supplement.It sounds like you have good funding. Maybe track ALL expenses for a month? Figure out where it all goes. Look at months past, what are your weak spots. Where can you cut. Are these priorities you want to have because that is what they are right now. My budget has a category for gifts, canning, food, gas, kids activities that are random and those that we plan for I save throughout the year for a bunch of things, it is a few dollars a month, but keeps the cost down overall. We are a modest means household, but I plan our finances very heavily to make sure we get to do the things that are most important to us I also go over this monthly and make changes with my husband. It sounds like you are spending on whatever comes up first, then when you run out of money putting anything else on the credit card. You know your fixed expenses which is great, but you do not have a handle on those expenses that fluctuate.Even if you have a bit of a budget, it sounds like it needs to be a lot more specific with firm limits in various categories and an eye towards cutting anything unnecessary. Plus you now have a debt I am guessing with a hefty chunk of interest to pay off. Without knowing exactly what you are putting it towards it is hard to say what you could cut. 400 is quite a bit more than I put into my discretionary spending meaning entertainment and the like. To me it sounds like you both need to work out your priorities and then build a budget based on that.I do a spread sheet. I keep track of everything from my retirement to saving for vacation, to how much I spend on repairs to my house there. I find that it helps to keep my priorities straight. 