Marriage Monday: The Business of Being Married

Welcome to the very first Marriage Monday guest post! To learn a little more about the importance of guest postings to our Marriage Monday segment, please visit here, sir/madam.

And without further adieu... meet Katie, the wife who learned four big lessons about money in marriage.

Chris & Katie on their wedding day!

Hello to all of Sam’s readers! My name is Katie. I went to McMaster University and took History with Sam. I currently live in Timmins, Ontario and I have been married to my amazing husband Chris for 11 months.

I’m very new to this marriage game but so far I am loving it and can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us. For this post I decided to write about my experiences with Money and Marriage.

Money is a really tricky subject all on its own, but when you combine it with a marriage it gets even harder. Studies show that money is the number one thing couples fight about and one of the main reasons couples split up. From personal experiences I know that money is a hard topic to talk about and to deal with but I wanted to share a few things that I have learned about money management since being married.

Just to let you all know, before I got married I spent money like it was going out of style and came into my marriage with maybe $300 in my bank account and that was after working for an entire year. Chris, on the other hand, is really good with money and saves like its his job. Another aspect to add to this equation is our job situation. Chris is a teacher, but there are no teaching jobs so currently he substitutes whenever he can. He also works part time for G4S as an armoured car driver, and he builds muskoka chairs on the side. I work as a style specialist at Le Chateau, as a waitress at Montanas, and I work full time at a stitching and embroidering business. We are both working part time jobs right now and we don’t make a ton of money. Mind you we make enough to live on. Our goal is to both become police officers within the next year and we’re working towards that goal but for now we’re working part time jobs.

Lesson 1: The Business Meeting

One thing we do that has totally changed the way Chris and I talk about money was having a business meeting every month to go over our finances. We talk about our income, our fixed and variable expenses, and our goals. The first time we did, we wrote down all of our fixed and variable expenses, plus our savings and debt repayment. When we have more meetings we just go back to that write up and tweak anything that needs tweaking. This has helped us get on the same page when it comes to money and has made a huge difference. Having a serious talk about money with your partner on a regular basis is so important and I recommend it to everyone.

Lesson 2: The Wise Spender

So my crazy spending habits combined with our current income was just a bad mix. I quickly learned that marriage doesn’t equal more money and that I had to learn to spend my money wisely. My spending habits have changed dramatically. I don’t “go shopping” anymore like I used to. And I’m not an impulsive shopper anymore. Now that I can’t afford to be a shopper, I’ve become a hunter. If I need something, I scan the internet for the best deal and good quality. Before I would just buy something if I liked it. Now I compare prices and read reviews on a product to make sure that I’m going to get my money’s worth out of it.

Lesson 3: The Budget

Another thing I learned about money is that I need to make a budget. Chris and I estimated our income for every month and then we totalled our fixed expenses (the ones you can’t change like hydro, taxes, etc.). For the remaining money we had left over we made a budget for our variable expenses. We ended up adopting the jar system from the show Till Debt Do Us Part. We have a certain amount of cash every week for food, transportation, entertainment, clothing/gifts and miscellaneous. This has cut our spending significantly. Before the jars I would spend a ton of money on groceries. Now that we have a budget I have to plan out our meals for the week and make a shopping list out of that and then stick to that shopping list. We’re eating better now than we did before simply because we’re planning out our food.

Lesson 4: The Impossible (That Wasn't Impossible)

The biggest lesson that I’ve learned about money in the past few months is the power of saving. Chris and I were able to save up enough money to buy a house. This was a huge for me, the girl who never saved money in her life. I’m still floored by the fact that we were able to save up and buy a house. We were very blessed to find a little house that was within our price range and was ready for us to move in right away.

Katie & Chris, being cute in the way they're so good at

All these things considered I am no where near perfect when it comes to money management but I am a work in progress. I’m very lucky that God sent me a man who is really good with money. We still argue about money from time to time but getting on the same page when it comes to this tricky topic has been wonderful for our marriage. I hope that you guys have enjoyed this post, thanks for reading!