Of the two of us, my husband and I will both readily admit that I am the more responsible one financially. Because he knows that frugality is not his strongest point, he eagerly leaves it to me handle the bills and personal finances. And while I have to say that it is in all actuality a chore, I do enjoy the thrill of balancing the budget each week and month. The same way I enjoy a good bargain-hunting shopping spree, I like finding new and creative ways to save money and make a dollar stretch.

A lot of budget balancing in my household boils down to my husband and I having constant debates about what constitutes a need, verses a want. The two of us try to stick to a certain dollar amount each week for our own personal items and things that we would like to have but do not necessarily need. This way, we get to have some free spending without affecting the household budget. Oddly enough, he always seems to go over his personal budget (insert sarcasm here). So it’s not unusual for us to have one of these conversations where we’re trying to decide if a certain purchase is actually one worth making when it clearly isn’t something essential to the operations of our home. The hubs frequently identifies things that he would like to purchase and when I explain to him that those items may not be in the budget, he’ll say something like “well what about that vacation you keep saying you want to take? If my $40 purchase isn’t in the budget, how can we afford a vacation?”

Just yesterday, as we were driving down the freeway, a tire blew out on the car. This morning after making some calls we realized it would cost about 200 to 250 dollars to replace the tire. He was annoyed by the price. To me it wasn’t that big of a deal to pay that kind of money for a necessity. That’s the illustration of the point that I’ve been trying to drive home to him. When you cut down spending on things that you don’t need, the financial hit you take when you have to make a large-scale purchase for something that you do need is not as bad.

To me the same theory applies when it comes to things like rewarding myself for working hard and being responsible. When I want to take a vacation, I don’t want financing the vacation to be a source of stress. It kind of negates the whole goal of going on vacation. Being frugal and fiscally responsible is not always easy, but it is it’s own reward. 

If you enjoyed this post and want more support. Then maybe you and your boo should read Heal your Relationship with Money so you can get to the core of your money problems.         

Frugalistas, how do you reap the everyday rewards of being financially responsible