Money Listens

How’s your budget coming along? What’s that? You haven’t been able to agree with your dear spousie about all the categories yet? Welcome to the club. I’m assuming you wrote down your projected expenses, totaled it up, and exceeded your income. So what do you trim? Make the cuts you both can agree on, then take turns suggesting other areas you each could cut. It isn’t magic, it’s effort. If you feel “I’m the one always giving in, always sacrificing,” write that down. This would be a good thing to journal about. Also, write at the bottom of your budget –

By not getting a haircut, Jane just paid off $25 of debt.

By not playing golf, Dick put an extra $25 into savings.

By skipping the vacation category, Jane funneled another $50 in the 401(k).

By ____________ (insert your name here) saved $_____for________.

Then cross out the single name and add both your names. You’ve got to be in this together. Dave Ramsey always says “It’s about ours.” When you married, it went from mine to ours.

This is where a paper budget can be more useful than Quicken. When you make changes on a spreadsheet you forget why and what you did. On paper, you can see the cross-outs. Draw arrows from the category you’re trimming to where you’re putting that money. The idea is to see the positive side of giving up things. When you look in the eating out envelope, instead of feeling deprived because there’s only $25, think “Wow, that $50 we would have spent at Ta Molly’s has gone right to our emergency fund.”

If your spouse still hasn’t “got it,” try using guilt, fear, shame, nagging, and manipulation.

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 9:06 pm and is filed under Budgets and Planets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.