Tips for a New Bride on Running a Household

Budget

• The first thing you should do after returning from your honeymoon is get your financial house in order. Add up any debt that you accumulated over the last few months and make a serious effort to pay it off. Add your income to your husband's and set up a household budget. List all of your fixed and variable expenses. Include a budget for entertainment and dining out. If your income is very close to your expenses, make a concerted effort to reduce your expenses by reducing your cable plan, eliminating a phone line or reducing shopping trips. Make retirement a priority: Have at least 10 percent of your monthly income automatically deducted from your paychecks.

Save Money

• Impress your new husband with your financial savvy. Clip coupons, run all errands during one trip, use more efficient light bulbs and check competitor's ads before buying anything. Make your own cleaning supplies using lemon, vinegar, bleach and hot water.

Stay Healthy

• Plan to maintain a healthy lifestyle after you're married. Plan meals that provide you with all the necessary vitamins and nutrients. Maintain health coverage, take out life insurance that is 10 times your annual salary and take out a disability insurance plan. If you can't afford health insurance, at least take out a catastrophic health insurance policy that will pay for hospitalizations. If you lose your health, you may jeopardize your employment, increase your expenses and run your household budget dry, so make your health a priority.

Organize

• Commit to eliminating as much clutter in your life as possible. Sign up for automatic bill payments, request to receive correspondence via email and add your name to the Do Not Mail list to eliminate paper. Set up an easy filing system for remaining paperwork or, even better, scan each document into your computer, save the file and throw away the paper. Electronic searches are much easier than perusing hundreds of papers.

  Add hooks and storage containers by the front door to hang up coats and place important items like your cell phone and keys. Place drawer organizers in the kitchen and office. Invest in a variety of baskets and containers and place common items in them. Place organizers in the kitchen, closets and under your bed.

Clean

• If both you and your husband work, talk about which chores each person is willing to do until you have tackled all of these responsibilities. Deep clean your home once a week: mop, dust, organize, clean appliances and scrub. Every other day be sure that you each pick up after yourselves and that you place items where they belong.