Gearing up for FTJ Bootcamp: Getting Spouse on Board

[flybygrace]

We tried the spending freeze last year but it lasted about a week! Yesterday, I sat down and calculated how quickly we could pay off our $2k+ credit card, and if we're really good, we could have it paid off by April 1st!! I told DH last week that we were going on a spending freeze after Christmas b'c I was not going to have a mountain of debt hanging on me this year. By May we'll have our cc paid off and a $2k loan repaid (using our tax refund). A month or so later we'll have our medical bills paid off. I'm sick of not having anything to fall back on but a piece of plastic, so my goal is to pay off the cc before DH gets his manager's bonus (if he even gets one) -- if it happens, his whole bonus will go into a savings account.

Honestly, I just straight up told DH how it was going to be. It may not work for everyone, but I do all the financial stuff and stretch dimes into dollars, so I know exactly what we need to do to accomplish our goals. If I have to be the Spending Nazi, I'll suck it up and be that because otherwise we'll never get anywhere except futher in debt. [ETA: I made up a quick chart to cross off $50 increments all the way to our final goal -- maybe a visual reminder will help!]

[ddillender]

Good job flybygrace. He'll thank you for it once it all gets paid off. It will be a weight off his shoulders too! Good luck!

[morgie's mom]

This spending freeze/FTJ happened at a time last year that was just right for us--we both knew that we needed to get serious about stopping spending.
There really wasn't a lot of convincing to do--we both knew where we were at.

[BillswifeRebeccasmom]

Thankfully DH is on board with this. I reminded him of this last night and he said he was still on board and trusted me when I said this would help! I am so glad he is on board.

[dolphin_diva27]

I didn't get that far last year. But I have already asked DH and he is on board with us. Now if you asking him to post on here, he is clueless about that. So i am doing the posting.

[3to4]

I am of no help - DH was so excited about the spending freeze idea - I guess I should be grateful I married a tightwad (just kidding of course

[jso315]

Dh is amazing - I don't have to really talk him into much when it comes to finances. He totally trusts me & what we are doing. (so that is fantastic) But I did tell him that if we can get rid of our debt, it would make life so much easier on us. We are huge skiers ~ like every other day atleast & I did mention to it would be easier for us to do our family ski weekends & easier to buy our gear if we didn't have debt & actually had a "ski savings" account! This for sure put him over the top & he is ready as ever to get rid of the debt!

[Christy]

Dh was completley on board last year but then was deployed to an area without computer access so he could not check in regularly to see the challenges and to get feedback. However, this year, he has other ways of getting more involved. He's curious to see how this will play out for us.

[ILoveAnnie]

It helped us that we both agreed to make individual sacrifices... he buys no more snack food, I buy no more soup, etc. With a little give and take its more of a team effort.

[dolphin_diva27]

We did this FTJ a couple times now. I convinced him to do it so we can save that money we would have blown on junk and put in personal account.

I think its a good way to communicate better about your money as a couple.