The Story of Jamie and Oscar

For Jamie and Oscar, it was a whirlwind romance. She saw him, he saw her, and that was the end of that. Their first date was Indian food ($31.50 with tip). It made Oscar sick but he didn’t tell Jamie until date number 17.

They got married approximately 782 days later, in a small ceremony and they had donuts instead of cake (wedding total: $18,932. But who’s counting? Oh right, Jamie’s dad. He was definitely counting).

Their romance was dazzling. Their finances were not. Jamie came into the marriage with student loan debt ($48,500), Oscar had credit card debt ($9,200) and an outstanding car payment ($13,800). All in—$71,500 owed.

They made decent salaries ($65,000 combined), but they still felt underwater—you might even say they felt like they were drowning. They didn’t fight often, but when they did—it was about money.

But the thing is, they had dreams.

They wanted to have kids one day, to buy a house. Heck, some days they just wanted to buy the fancy cheese at the grocery store and not feel bad about it.

Their dreams had always felt out of reach when they glanced at their checking account. But one day (actually, the same day Jamie stood at the grocery store staring at fancy cheese), they decided something had to change.

It was time to take control of their finances.

So, they decided to try YNAB after doing a little internet research. Who knew if this would actually work—other budgets hadn’t.

When they entered their accounts, here’s what their balances looked like:

It was tough to see it all laid out like that. They knew they were struggling, and now they finally saw why. It wasn’t a great feeling, but there was some relief in bringing to light what had been hidden for so long.