Great talk last night

My wife and I had a great financial talk last night. It started because I received 2 checks in the mail (I love that feeling) and was checking to see where they were going compared to the budget we had made for them, etc. The talk was mainly about the mystery shopping that she has been doing and how we had not included it in the budget as income. She is learning her response to "extra money", which is to instantly want to make it "fun money" since things have been tight. She then comes to me on how she wants to use it for fun and I am very logical and suggest something important (like getting out of debt), and she gets crushed because she knows I'm being wise with it.

So, instead of going through that roller coaster of emotions, she decided we needed to talk about the money to come before it comes. That way, she knows it's not "extra money" but it's money that has a purpose and goal. In the end, the way we decided it's going to go is 10% Tithe and 90% emergency fund, but on the condition that we ensure that every month she has $30 of "fun money" , or as in our budget, sewing supplies. That way, she doesn't have that feeling of things being so tight she can't have any fun, but at the same time we're hitting our goals of getting rid of the sick beast called debt.