I have just added up Gadget's Ebay spending on the wedding. Bear in mind we are over 10 months from the big day, and there are still a lot of things to buy. Whilst I appreciate his involvement, I wish I had a bit more idea of what he's been spending - he's way over budget already.
As I've mentioned before, I'm a conservative spender. Gadget is not. He is a product of our capitalist society and consumer driven economy; he wants the best of everything and he wants it now. He doesn't want to wait and see what we already have that might work.
In the grand scheme of things he hasn't spent that much, and at least he's getting into the planning. My worry is where this will lead, and how I tell him that he probably can't have everything he wants. Whilst this sounds very negative, we both understand our financial roles - his is to spend and mine is to hold him back! This is the case for our relationship in general, and is clearly going to be true for the wedding.
It's not that he's deliberately wasting money; it's more that he can't function within a budget. Keeping track of his spending and stopping at a set limit are slightly alien concepts to him - which will make lots of sense when I tell you that his job title is "Commercial and FINANCIAL manager!"
Note: I feel the need to add that I had to check the spelling/grammar of this post title before I wrote it. Yes, I have OCD. Deal!
2 comments:
Heh, well this sounds familiar.
I found that what works with us to work in cash only. We did a budget, worked out how much spending money we have per week, and now we draw that out in cash once a week. NZ is so eftpos dependent, it can be hassle to keep track of how much you have left.
I find the hardest thing to keep control of is the 'medium term savings' thing. I'm all about saving and saving until we can have an awesome holiday somewhere. Fiance would rather buy an xbox, or a computer, or etc etc and never let that money accumulate.
I guess the thing is to come up with a clear agreement between the two of you of how much you can each spend. This may involve you making a budget and explaining it to him. My fiancé, left to own devices, would never make a regimented budget on his own with different saving categories. If the guy was single, he'd wing the whole thing and only save if he happened not to buy an xbox that month :)
Yep Gadget is exactly the same! Not sure about the cash idea (carrying cash makes me a bit nervous) but we definitely need to make a budget agreement. And by we, I mean me of course!
Post a Comment