How to Encourage Your Spouse to Save Money

I got married earlier this year and for the most part my husband and I have the same views on money. We both hate debt, like to keep a nice cash buffer around, agree that we should actively save for retirement and mostly agree on normal household expenses.

BUT (yes there’s a but) the big difference between us is that he doesn’t have quite as much frugal in his blood. After we take care of the must haves like savings, investments, and bills he’s good with just casually spending “extra” money. I, however, am not.

While I’m all for having fun now I like to put a little more thought in how that fun could be cheaper. I don’t want to be a nag so instead I’ve come up with more creative (and subtle) ways to get him motivated about really accelerating financial freedom.

Here’s what I’m doing.

Giving Frequent Saving Updates

Every time I transfer money into the savings account I give him a update and act pretty excited about it. Picture me saying “I transferred X amount of money to this account today. Did you know we already have XXXX in there!” Then I show the account balances.

To me watching the savings account balances grow is pretty fun and I try to spread that enthusiasm.

Leading By Example

If your spouse really isn’t on board with the money saving one thing I’ve seen to be really effective is to just lead by example.

For instance, if you’re spending too much money eating out then start cooking dinner. Don’t nag. Don’t blame. Just do something about it. If there’s dinner on the table every night then there will be no need to spend money on takeout.

Start making the changes you see fit in the household and stick with it. As human beings we’re highly adaptable to our surroundings. If your significant other sees you repeatedly doing something he’ll likely eventually join you as well.

Scouting Out Good Deals

Another thing that I’ve done is scout out good deals on the things that I think are a little too pricey.

For us that was energy drinks. My husband works for the department of transportation which means super long hours in the winter time. He doesn’t drink coffee but when he’s plowing the roads sixteen hours a day he drinks energy drinks. The problem was they were SO expensive.

To mitigate that cost I simply checked around until I found the best price. (Which happened to be on Amazon!) And then had them auto-shipped each month.

Now we get to save money without ever having to do anything.

Give It Time

I can tell you right now that arguing about money will never work. It doesn’t matter if you’re right or not.

Instead you need to work on your personal finances together and come up with solutions that everyone can live with. It’s pretty unlikely that your significant other is going to think exactly like you do. That’s why it’s important to work together and make compromises where necessary.