Home budgeting can be a chore, and it might be tempting to do it yourself and let your spouse focus on other priorities. Don’t make this critical mistake!

Although it sounds like it will be easier if you don’t have to discuss every point, explain every detail, and so forth, it would be unwise to tackle your home budgeting alone.

Budgeting together as a team is crucial for the simple reason that you and your spouse will never be able to both stick to the budget unless you both worked on preparing it.

Remember, the hardest part about living on a budget isn’t balancing your checkbook or determining how much you should be allowed to spend on various things. The hard part is controlling yourself and not overspending.

The budgeting process depends mostly on behaviors, and only a small percentage of it is financial education.

In a marriage, both partners must be completely committed to living on the budget or else it won’t happen. Besides, you both spend the money, so shouldn’t you both be involved in deciding HOW to spend it?

It’s perfectly normal in a marriage for either the husband or wife to be “in charge” of the money, meaning that partner is the one who balances the checkbook and pays the bills every month.

When you decide to do some serious home budgeting, however - tracking your expenses and reducing or eliminating them in order to save money and get out of debt - then both partners need to roll up their sleeves and get involved.

As you go over your monthly expenses and try to find ways to reduce or eliminate them, be sensitive to your spouse’s feelings.

For example, maybe your wife routinely spends about $100 a month on clothes. That would be a good expense to reduce, since it’s not a necessity - but you can’t just declare, “OK, no more clothes shopping.” Instead, suggest reducing one of your own expenses: all those stops at McDonald’s, for example, or your daily Starbucks habit.

A word of caution: don’t make ludicrous goals like, “I’m not going to stop at McDonald’s at all anymore!” If it’s been a regular habit, you can’t realistic stop going cold turkey. When you do that you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Instead, set reasonable goals to start with, like cutting the expense in half. If it’s one of your spouse’s expenses, be sure to make a similarly generous suggestion, rather than declaring it off-limits altogether.

Understand clearly that your spouse doesn’t want to feel accused of wasting money any more than you do.

By working together in the home budgeting process, you can come up with a workable budget and stick to it.

In the long run, you’ll be enjoying your financial freedom together, so why not budget together now?

» Household Budget - It Always Pays To Save
The household budget process should never end entirely. Even if you are currently doing well and saving money regularly, it always pays to review your budget for areas to save.

» Household Budgeting - For Richer or Poorer? Say What?
The household budgeting process is a lifetime commitment. Living with your spouse for richer or poorer sounds fine during the church ceremony, but living poor does not have to be an option.

» How To Budget Money - What’s It Going To Take?
Discover how to budget money in a way that will work for you. What works for one person may not be realistic for another, so it is important that you create a plan that is realistic for you.

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