Over the holidays, my husband was telling his cousin some kind of anecdote or story, in which a small plot point was mentioned. As the police would say, alcohol was a factor.
He was explaining that every month, we (my husband and I) have a month-end meeting. We sit down, laptops open, and go through our finances. Obviously, he didn’t go in to too much detail about a relatively boring topic (who cares about meetings?) and moved on to the real nuts and bolts of the story.
Or, he tried to. His younger cousin, obviously confused, interrupted and said, “What the heck is a muffin meeting?”
The whole table found this absolutely hilarious. After laughing uproariously and moving on to another subject matter, the terminology stuck with me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized… calling it a muffin meeting instead of a month end meeting is actually kind of brilliant.
Why the Muffin Part Matters
Talking about money is weird.
Not everyone grew up in a house where finances were discussed openly. There’s a lot of secrecy, stress, and emotional baggage wrapped up in money. Even when things are going well, it can still feel heavy.
Renaming something small, like a “month-end financial review” to a “muffin meeting,” takes the edge off. It adds a bit of levity to something that can otherwise feel intimidating or serious. The playful tone shows that neither party is coming to the table with everything figured out - this is a discussion, not a presentation, and it shouldn’t take a lot of time (it’s about the length of a coffee break.)
Now we actually do get (gluten-free) muffins for the meeting
How we run our Month-End Meetings
We both know in advance when we would like to have the meeting (usually on the first weekend of the month) but we don’t have a set time. We try and slot it in when we’re both feeling alert, focused and ready to listen. We prep anything we want to bring up, open our laptops and make sure we’re on the same page with:
what we’re spending
what we’re saving for - which accounts have priority, what we want to pay off first
what matters to us right now - if we need to save for a trip or make some budget decisions
what we’re okay flexing on and what we’re not
Doing it monthly means nothing builds up. There’s no surprise stress. No “we should probably talk about this” looming in the background. It’s a good way to know there’s going to be a check in, and if something urgent does come up, it’s easier to bring up between meetings because we are used to these types of conversations.
If You Want to Try Your Own Muffin Meeting
The first one is going to be longer, because you’ll have more to discuss. Try and pick a few key topics you want to cover, and quit while the going’s good - if someone is getting frustrated, or feeling emotional, hit pause. A few very low-pressure suggestions:
Rename it. Seriously. Call it whatever makes it feel less scary.
Start small. You don’t need to review everything at once. Pick one or two focus areas.
Make it regular. Monthly is great. Consistency matters more than perfection.
Use the format that works for you. Spreadsheet, app, notebook, napkin.
Treat it like any other goal-setting conversation. Finances are part of life, not a separate, secret category. However, try to keep this meeting focused on finances, and don’t trail into a much larger general life planning meeting
Money is just another system. And like most systems, it works better when you look at it regularly instead of avoiding it until something breaks.
What’s something in your life that could benefit from a more regular, structured meeting? Are you running month end meetings in your house? Let me know!
