One of the most frustrating things is get your budget down significantly, only to see it blown by a spouse who is not with the program. All of the hard work and careful planning that you do to save money can be unravelled by one impulse purchase or bad decision. So how do you get your spouse or other family member on board? Read on for some tips.
Address the Stigmas
My friend Bonnie (not her real name because I don’t want to embarrass her) is almost ready to give up on trying to be frugal and save money. Her husband thinks she is being ridiculous when she tried to save. he tells her that it is only money and doesn’t want to act poor. The reality of course is that if they don’t start saving they may end up poor, if a crisis were to occur.
Address the fact, with your spouse, that acting frugally isn’t acting poor. In fact, frugality and using coupons are a trend! Brag about how other families are saving money and challenge him to see how much you can save in just one month.
Lead By Example
Sometimes all it takes is to show a spouse what you are doing and how it makes a difference. Share the grocery receipts or create a document that lists all of your debt. Cross off debt as you find extra money to pay it down. He may start to contribute to the plan by giving up certain things or do them in a different way to make the debt go down faster.
Hold Off on Making Him Work for It
One mistake that I think many of us make when trying to convert a spouse to our frugal ways is by dumping a lot of stuff on him at once. Don’t give him a lot of work to do in the beginning. Yes, I know it isn’t fair that you do all of the work, but remember that you are trying to convert your spouse. Ease him into it. Frugality may be new to him.
For example, you might do all of the research yourself into lowering your car insurance, but then ask him to make the phone call to switch it over. The bit of victory might just make a lasting impression.
Issue a Challenge
The next step would be to challenge him to find a way to save money in a certain area. For example, you might say, “Wow, we are spending a lot of money on the cable bill. Can you think of any ways that we might lower it?” Then let it go. It is his project, and he’ll likely rise to the occasion.
What do you think?