Con­ver­sa­tions about mon­ey are nev­er easy es­pe­cial­ly when you have to sit and make cold, hard fi­nan­cial de­ci­sions with your part­ner. Whether you are mar­ried or in a se­ri­ous re­la­tion­ship, it is cru­cial that you learn to build your re­la­tion­ship by un­der­stand­ing how im­por­tant and use­ful a bud­get can be in your every­day life and in achiev­ing long-term (fu­ture) plans.

I know most peo­ple dis­like hav­ing to dis­cuss mon­ey mat­ters but if you think your re­la­tion­ship is in a po­si­tion where a bud­get needs to be im­ple­ment­ed, then it is time to put your pride aside and get crack­ing.

Bal­ance is the name of the game and it’s go­ing to take sac­ri­fices and hon­esty. All cou­ples should sit and talk about where they are at fi­nan­cial­ly. I re­alise peo­ple shy away from the top­ic be­cause they do not want to bur­den their part­ner with their wor­ries or mon­ey prob­lems etcetera. How­ev­er, if you want to build a life with some­one, be­ing straight­for­ward about your fi­nances will not on­ly open doors but close doors that are not for you. The per­son you are spend­ing your life with should be the biggest part of your sup­port sys­tem.

Fan­cy dates cost mon­ey and so do trips, eat­ing out ca­su­al­ly and go­ing to the movies. Now, mul­ti­ply that by two. The per­son that is spend­ing the ma­jor­i­ty of cash is sure to feel it the most. I know it is hard to see cou­ples do­ing lav­ish things and you and your part­ner may be strug­gling to even ac­com­mo­date a sim­ple date night but break­ing the bank and pre­tend­ing you do not have a prob­lem is go­ing to make things worse.

If you are mar­ried or liv­ing to­geth­er you need to de­ter­mine your house­hold needs such as mort­gage, gro­ceries, car pay­ments, util­i­ty pay­ments and debt pay­ments. Your needs are to be pri­ori­tised above your wants, then you can be­gin to fo­cus on lux­u­ry and plea­sure. Every cou­ple, no mat­ter the sit­u­a­tion, has to dis­cuss in­di­vid­ual needs. This is where things can get a tad tricky but keep in mind why you are bud­get­ing in the first place. You want a fu­ture that is se­cure and less fi­nan­cial­ly frus­trat­ing with your part­ner.

Cre­at­ing a shared bud­get can en­sure you are both work­ing to­wards the same goals and will, with­out a doubt, bring you clos­er if it is done cor­rect­ly. Set aside one day per week, to start bud­get dis­cus­sions prefer­ably when you both are rest­ed and have at least 30 min­utes free. When you are speak­ing, bear in mind that every­one was brought up dif­fer­ent­ly and start­ing a bud­get may be a for­eign con­cept to some. Look at ‘Bud­get­ing for Cou­ples’ videos on­line to get start­ed and ac­quaint­ed with all the terms and help­ful tips that may suit your unique sit­u­a­tion.

Easy ways to bud­get and still have an ac­tive so­cial life de­pend on your mind­set. You may not be able to go for din­ner at your favourite spot or to see a movie every week, but, you can plan a ro­man­tic din­ner at home and watch a movie af­ter. That saves gas mon­ey, cin­e­ma fees, fast food/ restau­rant fees and you still get to have qual­i­ty time with your spe­cial per­son. If one per­son is more fi­nan­cial­ly sta­ble than the oth­er, one part­ner can buy the gro­ceries whilst the oth­er cooks and wash­es dish­es. An­oth­er fun op­tion is en­joy­ing more out­door ac­tiv­i­ties like go­ing to the beach, go­ing fish­ing or even hik­ing. We live on an is­land and I hon­est­ly think cou­ples do not make the most of that bless­ing. Vis­i­tors come here to va­ca­tion and pay big bucks to ex­pe­ri­ence our beau­ti­ful coun­try, why can’t we en­joy it a lit­tle more and ap­pre­ci­ate the beau­ty in front of us? Try a stay­ca­tion in­stead of a va­ca­tion else­where this year.

Plan pic­nics, house gath­er­ings and make an ef­fort to in­vite friends for a game night. What about danc­ing? Have a night out but set lim­its be­fore you leave the house. Be on the look­out for drink spe­cials, food spe­cials, dis­counts when shop­ping and places that have lit­tle to no cov­er charge. There is no shame in be­ing smart fi­nan­cial­ly. At the end of the day when you hit your tar­get and achieve your goals, you can en­joy things with­out the wor­ry of be­ing in debt. What is more im­por­tant, a fan­cy pair of shoes or sav­ing to­wards a new home? A bot­tle of cham­pagne or your chil­dren’s school fees? Be pa­tient, your time will come and if it is su­per im­por­tant that you or your part­ner take re­ceive a lav­ish gift or get away every now and then, make it hap­pen but en­sure that you can tru­ly af­ford it.

Small sac­ri­fices help build a bet­ter fu­ture and your part­ner will ap­pre­ci­ate you for be­ing un­der­stand­ing in­stead of com­plain­ing and be­ing un­re­al­is­tic. When your bud­get is made, keep a month­ly meet­ing to keep track of things. Make ad­just­ments as you go along and most im­por­tant­ly, do not lose faith, this is just an­oth­er page in your sto­ry.