Whatever I read here sounds Great!
Alot of you seem to Have your Finances in order , and /or on the right track

I am just Wondering If your Dh's See eye to eye with you when it Comes to Budgeting/spending?

I can't See how anything would Go so smoothly , unless all participants want the same thing!

My Dh for the most part , stays out of the finances, He knows I know Best , and I pay all the bills Etc,
Still he is Not at all into Saving Money on little things

He thinks 5 bucks is no big deal , or he deserves to go out to eat when he wants , etc.
He works HARD for the money , and while he is into Investing and does save for retirement, etc. He needs to realize the little things are a big Deal!!

He also Gets 65 a Week for his spending cash.
God Forbid I tell him that it has to Go back to 40 or 50 bucks

Not that he is that Bad....

I just Think I could save alot more if he follows my Ways.
I Know alot of you are Much more strict with your Money... which is Great !

Ecspecially to the moms who are SAHM... how do you keep dh in check?

Why not have him write down everything he spends on a notebook, and then adding them later. If he's not willing to do it, then you do it for him for a week or two. Ask him for his receipts and check your bank statements, and maybe he'll realize that the small things do add up.

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I admit at first it was hard to get Dh on board, but guys are visual so I SHOWED him what we could be doing. I felt like I was planning an attack, and I sort of was. I put EVERYTHING down on paper. I shwed him how much we could save if we did XYZ, added up the lunches he was buying for 2 weeks when he could have brought some of those days and saved X amount of money.

Another thing and it may or may not work (but again it's visual and it will point out HOW MUCH those cents add up in savings)...every once in awhile DH goes food shopping with me and at first he used to laugh at my cents off coupons...I took him with me 1 day to Harris Teeter (they were having their triple coupon sale) and got a CART full of stuff for under $30 It was such an eye opener for hom to see how much we saved with my "silly little cents off coupons" he now puts aside the sunday coupns and always asks if I have them before I go shopping

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Really its not the best way but I have been known to flip out on my guy. Still he is really good at not spending we do get our little splurges like our on going coffee date. He will go out for lunch maybe once a week.
He knows that things are tight and it does take me handing over the finances for a month every so often for him to realize it.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

Shell has been giving me this advice and you know what it WORKS. I told dh today about what Kim is doing to help us all for 2008 and he asked me if I had a notebook ready for him of course not starting until the first but for him thats a BIG step

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Have a bootiful Halloween!

We are going to start using a notebook also. I should probably have a food notebook also! It is frustrating because I think my husband is on board until he does something like exchange his Tom Tom he got from his parents for Christmas for an upgrade which costs us $100. He is also good for taking $40 cash out of the ATM at a time. That drives me nuts because it will all get wasted.

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I don't keep him in check. I just do the best I can without his help and ignore him when he goes to the store and buys things for full price, even if we already have it. And then I ignore him when he complains about not having money. I've told him and shown him what works best and if he chooses not to follow it, that's his problem, I guess. As long as we always have money for the necessities, I'm ok.

I gotta say... you must be a stong woman, bec. i don't think i'd be able to take too much of that. I would try new ways to make him save $, maybe with out him even knowing.

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That would be a dangerous habit for my husband!

Dh wasn't on board at first. He was used to me bringing in a ft paycheck. When I quit to stayhome he felt like I was telling him to sacrifice every extra thing he wanted. Now he knows I have to work it in the budget or he has to come up w/ the extra $. He gets creative (sells something or turns in scrap or trades w/ someone). I try not to deprive him of his little extras and he tries not to go overboard.