Three Ways Being Frugal Helps Your Relationship
There is a definite correlation between saving money and building your relationship. In fact, I think saving money is probably one of the best things that I can do for my relationship, because it helps me improve in an area that I really struggle with–spending quality time with my wife–but there are definitely other reasons why being frugal helps your relationship as well.
It Encourages Personal Interaction and Builds Teamwork
There are many activities that you engage in when you’re trying to save money that facilitate growing your relationship. The list could go on forever, but think about cooking meals together, going for walks in the park, playing board games together–all of these are activities that you can do together with nothing interfering and they’re cheap. They encourage communication, something that most of us could stand to do a little more often, and foster personal interaction within your relationship.
Many frugal tasks also involve working together. Cooking a meal is one of them, but you can also do things like volunteer, plant and maintain a garden, do projects around your house, etc., etc., etc. All of these activities develop skills that help grow and enrich relationships.
It Builds Trust
Deciding to take control of your finances requires that you make a plan to get and stay out of debt and to be intentional about your financial future. Part of this process involves creating a budget and then sticking to it. This means that for a whole month, you have to trust that your partner is controlling their spending and sticking to the agreed upon plan.
This also means, that when your partner suggests something to buy, that you trust that they’re keeping your overall goals in mind. You can’t always second-guess what they want to do, otherwise you’ve become a Budget Nazi. You need to trust your partner, and at the same time, deserve their trust. If you can’t succeed in both of these areas, then you may be having trust issues in other areas of your relationship as well. Work on it.
It Demonstrates that You Can Achieve Things Together
If (when!) you succeed at living a frugal lifestyle, making a plan, setting goals, and sticking to them, then you’ve really accomplished something. This isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes hard work, patience, and diligence. If you can work together in this way over and extended period of time, it says loads about your marriage. It shows that you have relationship skills that are often hard to come by and that you might be one of the decreasing numbers of successful marriages.
I’d be really interested to see what everyone thinks about that final point. Do you find that working through financial problems and working towards financial goals helps strengthen your relationship? What have you learned by working together?
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