Step #5: Get Support

When you make the decision to live your life for you – NOT the Joneses – you may get some flak. Your friends may wonder just why you don’t want to go shopping with them. Your kids will undoubtedly protest your refusal to buy take them to the movie they’ve been waiting to see. Your spouse may foil your best-intentioned plans if he isn’t on board with the program. Getting support in the process will make it easier for you to succeed.

Get Your Spouse Involved
Your spouse is supposed to be your rock, your person to lean on when times get tough. Unfortunately when it comes to finances, partners don’t always see eye to eye. Even the most financially compatible couples have arguments on how money is spent from time to time. You both need to be on the same page when it comes to your goals for the future and how you will accomplish them. Ideally, your partner will also be involved with the Forget the Joneses project. Explain the benefits of the program to him and let him know why you’re doing it. Hopefully he will see the benefits and decide to participate on his own. If not, there is still incredible value in participating even without your spouse.

Team Up with a Friend or Co-Worker
Resisting temptation is much easier with a buddy. Teaming up with friends, co-workers or other people you see on a daily basis can help you greatly. Explain to them what you’re doing, and see if they’re willing to participate as well (for example, If it’s your work week routine to eat out at lunch, have a co-worker brown bag it with you). Including your circle of friends can be of great benefit… not only to them, but to you as well.

Look for Online Support
If you can’t find the support in your own circle of friends, look to online friends. Here on Mommysavers, we have a great network of women to offer up support when trying to spend less. Sometimes the anonymity of the internet gives people the freedom to be more honest with their situations. If you would like a more personal buddy to support you one on one, visit this thread:
If you're interested in a Buddy, please check in here!

Good Luck!

P.S. I've thrown five pretty big steps at you in a short period of time. I won't be assigning anything new until next week.

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I talked to my DH last night, and he's on board. Yahoo! I'm all set to go.

Awesome assignment Kim ~ I actually think I am gonna take this to my mom's group and see if anyone would be interested in joining in. They are the support in my everyday "friendship" world ~ along with here of course. As far as DH ~ He still hasn't fully commited about joining in but he did say that he would try it out . I think as first sight of something he really wants he'll jump ship, however he did make some "don't need it" decisions . So baby steps...baby steps...

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Everyone here is on board. (My girls are really too young to get it, but we talked about it last night= No more trips to McDonald's!)

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If it wasn't on a clearance rack, it's not in my house!

I will say my hubby is somewhat on board - he knows how important it is to me to get our credit card paid off but he is not necessarily stopping excess spending (but then again he is not really spending either -- confusing).

What a great idea Kelli!

And I see you're also making progress with dh. That's awesome!

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I talked with dh last night and he's on board, he actually said I thought we had been making small steps towards it anyways. Which we had. We sold his big truck that sat in the garage all week and when my Explorer was totaled in the accident we purchased a used minivan instead of buying a brand new SUV again. Which got our friends talking of course, but hey who cares.

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Great assignments Kim! DH is pretty much on board, as long as I make the budget and organize all our spending needs, he will sit down and go over everything with me. He's not a big spender, I'm always the one that's finding a great "deal"! Writing everything down is really going to be eye opening and helpful

Well, I bit the bullet and talked to DH about this yesterday. He wasn't thrilled, to say the least, but he agreed to me giving him $25.00 per week as an "allowance" to be used any way he wants as long as he does not use the credit card for anything except gasoline (he does alot of driving for work and gets reimbursed for it). He's already grumbling about it, but I put it in writing and made him sign it

We'll see how it goes from here. Thanks so much for helping us "see" things differently.

I talked to my DH and he is on board with it too.

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Sam
Mom to Devin and Jordyn Anne
Loving Wife to Dave