OK, so I understand a need vs. a want, but how do I convince my wife of this? She seems to think shopping is a need. She is living a set lifestyle, and my trying to save money to get out of debt is percieved by her as trying to change or downgrade her lifestyle.
Obviously if I got a raise or some how made more money I could use that money, but how can I get her to cooperate in saving money?
Anybody have any ideas or suggestions for me?
That is a great question. One I'm sure most of us will deal with. I think the best approach is to sit the other person down with some hard facts. Show them some printouts from calculators that show how long it will take to pay off the credit card at the current rate. If it's never show them a dollar figure for interest paid over the next 5, 10, even 20 years. When they see that you are spinning in a downward direction instead of coming up for air, they should have some understanding.
Of course depending on your situation, you could get drastic, and take all credit cards away, and only use cash to purchase things. Go old fashioned for a few months and get cash divided into envelopes for your budget, then when you need to pay for something, you take the money from the envelope. When the cash is gone, you've got to figure something else out.
Another trick is in the Ebook, now that you've posted a comment you have access to that area of the forum, get that ebook it has alot of good tips and tricks for you. One includes getting some extra cash that you didn't know you had. Thanks for posting!
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Take her to the store and buy a really nice pair of scissors. Im mean a quality set! As you get into the car take them out of the bag and cut all the cards up leaving them in the bag. Job complete! Then go old fashion as suggested above.
I have no idea of how to do this either. I suppose I'm "whipped".
like the one given by c0lorado ron! but jokes apart a better financial discussion is really needed between you and your wife. involve her in the budget planning of the house. set some targets for shopping, Credit Card payments & debts, house expenses, kids etc. and include savings as one part in it. if she like some extravaganza's in life promise her that after saving for an 'X' amount of days or months, you will get her that
initially it will take some time but very soon she will start taking interest herself
vik
Saving money will benefit her as well, so maybe she is a visual person and needs to SEE how limiting her spending and saving money will benefit her.
In order to let her know how difficult it is for you to manage the debts, you must ask her to participate in the budget planning of your house. You can persuade her by saying that she has not to compromise with her lifestyle for the whole life. Once you are out of debt, she can again have her set life style. You need to explain her that unnecessary shopping will leave you nowhere. Besides you must also try to fetch some extra income which can make you a debt free person as soon as possible.
I might have an answer for you. If you have a tool that will show your wife the actual true to life effect of a purchase, that might help her to understand. If you have a software that you have all your debt entered into, and you are tracking your progress with great detail, and for example it shows you will be out of debt in 17 years. Your wife wants to go shopping, and usually spends $200 when she does. You take that $200 and put it into the software as a one time payment, and wham, you knock 6 months off your time to debt freedom. Also if she usually puts that on credit cards, you could do it in reverse, and add a credit card balance to the software, and viola, that might add 6 months to your plan. If she's not convinced by real world data, there might be real trouble ahead!
Also remember to reward yourself and your spouse once in a while. If you've been sticking to a budget for a few months, and are able to pay extra to debt every month, and sock a little away in savings, figure out what a good reward would be, maybe 1 months worth of extra savings/debt payments per year instead of saving it, or paying it to debt, go ahead and get a visa gift card for that amount and tell her to enjoy herself. If there are rewards, it's easier to follow for the long haul.
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