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I have often heard people say that there is typically one Spender and one Saver in a marriage, and I’ve often found that to be true. However most people are surprised to learn that I’m the spender in my relationship. I always joke that my Hubby likes to save money as much as I like to spend it ;)
I tend to refer to my teenage years as my “Spending Years” when talking about finances. You see, this was a time in my life when I didn’t have any responsibilites other than Clothing, Saving for a Car, and Paying for Gas and Insurance. My parents had always taught me how to budget, so that’s what I did. I had a budget for Spending, a budget for giving, a budget for saving to pay cash for my car, and a budget to pay for my Gas and Insurance, that was about it. No, I didn’t go out and charge up a bunch of credit card bills, but I still wasn’t being smart with my money.
It wasn’t until I got a few years into College and started talking about getting married that I realized the value of money, or the value of saving. You see, while I had been been budgeting and staying out of debt, I hadn’t been saving for the future or planning ahead. I had failed to make purchases that would have value in 5-10 years. I just simply kept track of what was coming in and going out and if it wasn’t a negative number then I thought I was good. I would only soon find out that my budget and spending habits weren’t sustainable, and oh was I in for a shock!
… To Be Continued!
So why do I tell you all this? Well, first, because it’s my story and that’s all I have to share :) Plus, I think we can all learn a little from different perspectives. I know that I am not a minimalist (as much as I try to be these days), and I know that I love to shop and spend money so I try to be as disiplined in that area as I can. However it’s been a process for me to learn to appreciate the value of a dollar and to learn to love saving money. I think there are so many reasons why we are all looking to save a few dollars here and there and I think we all have different motives. Hopefully this series will help you understand me a little better (For better, or worse) and help motivate you on your financial journey.
What about you, Are you the Spender or the Saver? How has that impacted how you look at money???
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Oh I am definately the SPENDER in my marriage! I would shop us out of house and home if I didn’t respect my dear husbands sanity! He is so the saver, it takes him MONTHS to decide on an item. It took him 8 I repeat 8 months to buy a pair of hiking boots and them he bought the first ones we’d looked at. I have only recently started couponing and I LOVE it! I get my shopping fix without spending a small fortune everytime I go to town. I love all the free stuff I’m able to bring home and now I’m PROUD to show my husband my reciepts instead of carefully filing them away without him seeing what I’ve purchased. And I’m happy to say that we have NO debt and have a nice little cushion in our bank account. Together we make it work, we’ve been happily married for 11 years.