The last few weeks have been crazy to say the least. Three weeks ago we all had no idea what life was going to throw at us. You need to check in on your extrovert friends because they might not be doing ok. I know that I’ve used Zoom calls just this week for a family meeting with my parents and siblings, a networking meeting with a financial advisor, business strategy session with a client, and for my kids to connect with teachers. We still need that face-to-face connection even while quarantined.

Despite all the upheaval in our lives, I want to make sure you are still having your weekly Money Date and reviewing your Year Planning goals. I know it can be tempting to change your schedule and stop having your meeting. However, now is more important than ever to be on the same page as your spouse or partner.

I came up with a list of things to discuss during your weekly Money Date to help facilitate the conversation.

Agenda For Your Money Date

I’ve created an agenda for your Money Date to help you stay on task. You can download it free here. Having an agenda makes certain that you are meeting each others needs, but also living with intention with your money.

Food Storage

During your Year Planning Session and the 21 Day Challenge you set up your monthly spending plan. Did you set aside money monthly for food? Are you spending less eating out and now have “extra” money to build up your food storage?

What should you have in your food storage?

Food Storage Organizer has a super handy list for 3 month supply needed for 1 person. She breaks down short term vs long term food in this article. One thing that I discovered for myself is that overwhelming feeling that you should have food storage, but then you don’t know what to get, how much, and what do you do with it. Food Storage Organizer will be a great resource for you to determine that information.

Where do you buy food storage?

• Honeyville
• Home Storage Centers
• Costo
• Sam’s Club
• Emergency Essentials
• Local butcher shops or meat packaging places

Why should you have food storage?

If the COVID19 quarantine should teach us anything, the store shelves are an example to us of why we should have food storage. Bread, milk, eggs, flour, yeast, noodles, toilet paper, and bleach became a hot commodity and stores limited the ability to purchase them after the initial run on the stores. Those that had food storage sat back and watched as panic set in.

Do you want to live your financial life with intention? Then, start building a 3 month supply of food storage.

Stimulus Check and Tax Return

If you’ve listened to my story about how we are using the Adoption Tax Credit to erase any taxes we owe, then you know that we are using it to rollover our Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. We still receive a tax return because of the Child Tax Credit. If you want to learn more, then check out this podcast episode where I talk with CPA, Daniel Peterson in depth about it.

Are you receiving a tax return and stimulus? Time to discuss what you will be doing with it before it’s spent. Remember, this year you are living your financial life with intention, so don’t let that money get sucked away.

Here are a few ideas of what you can do with your tax return and stimulus check:

• Fund your retirement account
• Pay off debt
• Fatten up your emergency fund
• Build your food storage
• Save for a much needed vacation after the quarantine is up
• Beef up your adoption and fertility fund
• Pay cash for a new car
• Start a business
• Buy a new home
• Remodel your home
• Tithe or donate to charity

Remember that whatever you decide, you decide together. My husband and I discussed this at length. We talked about our specific needs, concerns we had, and where we thought the money should go and then we made the decision together. One person shouldn’t feel that their voice wasn’t heard. This is a team effort.

Emergency Fund

Your emergency fund will give you peace of mind during difficult times. Whether you need to use it or not, just having that money available will give you a sense of confidence.

How much do you need?

I hate to say this, but it depends. It depends on your Money Personality, on the type of job you have, the amount of debt you have, how many people in your household, and the expenses that you have on a monthly basis. Some experts want you have have 6-12 months, but if you haven’t built anything, then 3 months is a great place to start.

Where should you keep your emergency fund?

Most definitely in an account that you have access to such as a high yield savings account or money market account.

I’m so excited for Qube Money to come out soon because you’ll be able to put your emergency money in a Qube and even break it down further into categories such as house emergency fund, car emergency fund, food emergency fund, utilities emergency fund, and sanity emergency fund. Right now Qube Money is still selling their LifeTime Membership before they launch. We purchased the LifeTime Membership for ourselves to help us with cashless envelopes for personal spending. I talk about it in this blog post.

You can also look at your local credit union and online banks for high yield savings and money market accounts.

Date Night At Home

I know you are probably thinking, I see enough of my spouse during quarantine because of social distancing, do I really need to go on a date with them?

Why yes, yes you do.

Southern Romantic Getaways provides 25 Quarantine Date Night Ideas that I thought I’d share with my readers. We are huge fans of Star Wars and kissing, so I love their idea about having a Smooch War. In fact, we’ve been going through the Star Wars series on Disney+. We even got our 4 year old addicted to the series. I can assure you we won’t be doing Smooth Wars with our 4 year old around. Check out their download in the link above for the rules on Smooch Wars and the other 24 Quarantine Date Night Ideas.

What If We Need Help

If you need a little boost to get started with your Year Planning Session and setting up your weekly Money Date, then schedule a personal coaching session with Laura or join the 21 Day Challenge for group coaching.

Testimonials

Here’s what others have to say about their work with Laura.

This article may contain affiliate links. We may receive payment if you click on the link or purchase something off their website.