5 Ways to Help a Reluctant Spouse Begin to Budgetby Miriam Caldwell | More from this Blogger 22 Nov 2006 11:34 PM One difficult thing in any marriage is dealing with the finances. It can be especially difficult when one spouse wants to save or spend more than the other. It may be that one spouse (usually the one who pays the bills) comes to the realization that something needs to change, while the other spouse wants to continue spending money without cutting back. It is important to work on your finances as a team, but is there anything you can do to help get your spouse on board? Here are five suggestions. 1) Often times one spouse simply has no idea just how the money is spent. A mistake that many people make is to assume that because they are making money, they have enough money for everything they want. It can be eye opening to sit down and explain exactly where the money goes, and how much is left or overspent each month. 2) It is important to allow you and your spouse to have some money for yourselves each month. This can help to limit overspending. It can also prevent one spouse from feeling hen pecked by the other over every little purchase. 3) If your spouse refuses to limit spending you may want to switch the entire family over to a cash system. This will only work if you both switch. You simply can't take away a debit card, but if you are willing to make the same sacrifice this may help your spouse be willing to switch as well. 4) You can find ways to cut back categories that affect the family. This can include the grocery budget, eating out, and clothing. As you do this, you can share with your spouse the amount of money that you have saved over the month. This may help to motivate him to change as well. 5) If the situation is truly serious you may want to take to a financial counselor or clergy member as a couple regarding your situation. Often an outside opinion will help your spouse realize that things do need to change. This should be used as a last resort, only if your spouse absolutely refuses to discuss the situation or change. Related Articles: Five Steps to Help Couples Manage Money Together Budget Strategies: The Envelope System Learn more about Miriam Caldwell  Miriam is a SAHM mom of three children. She has a daughter who is seven, and two sons, four and two. She loves being a parent and spending time with her children. Relevantmoney tags User Comments MattAtThrive (5) 21 Aug 2009 08:53 AMGreat list of options, Miriam. As a behavioral psychologist, I know how important it is to be able to get on the same page with your significant other about money and there are studies that suggest that money is the number one thing couples argue about (even more than sex, and when something beats sex, you know it is serious). One suggestion I'd add to the list is finding an active way to share the budgeting together. At Thrive http://www.justthrive.com we just added our new budgeting suite, and it gives couples to something to look at together as a jumping off point. If you aren't using an online personal finance site or don't want to, you can replicate the same thing on paper - the important part is that you have something to discuss and look at, so you avoid making it personal. Community Tags budget, Money Management, marriage Discuss this article
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