It's all about open communication

• To keep our schedules in line with each other, Amy and I share each other's google calendars. We also make a habit to invite each other to family appointments.  Who ever gets to a browser first makes the appointment.  Before we commit to a meeting or an activity we first check the shared calendars just in case (a quick text or phone call for verification when needed).  This solves the problem of double booking.  Another thing that the calendar provides is a quick overview of where we are spending our time: family, work, hobbies, personal growth, etc.  It becomes very obvious to see a situation arising where we get too stressed due to lack of vacation/entertainment.

• For tracking our budget, we use mint.com with our joint bank account.  We only started using this service last March and we are very pleased with the analysis tools that come with it.  At glance we can see our net income and see how we are doing financially as well as which categories we are spending in.  (note that I removed the axis that displayed $ amount for privacy)

Net Income Analysis

Expenses

• We are also experimenting with the use of Pivotal Tracker.  Tracker is primarily used in software development houses that apply agile development.  We are using it to manage our tasks in the home.  So far we are liking it.  We are also using it track the benefit concert project at Newman.