First post - how to budget if other half is still spending!?

cat4772

zipzap

Welcome. My hubby is useless with money. He can spend money faster than anyone else and still have nothing to show for it.

For 9 years we have managed money separately, until I found he'd maxed out his credit card, maxed out his overdraft (his wage went in and he was still overdrawn on payday), taken out a loan etc and still thought nothing of spending £200 a week (he'd done it before in 2001 and I sorted it differently then). I worked out a SOA to the penny and told him that from his wage £350 a week, he had £150 on minimum payments for loan & credit card, £200 for his share of bills etc and had nothing left! I pretty much gave him an ultimatum I manage the money and he has a weekly allowance or we can sell up, pay off debts and get divorced.

He knows he'll not get a penny more than his allowance each week and not to insult either of us by asking. We have a full and frank discussion about money every fortnight and make decisions jointly about where spare cash goes (he feels involved then bless him).

If I hadn't put it to him in the option of stay or go, I'd be banging my head against the wall about the debt.

Good luck and I hope you are able to use some of our collective ideas!

Cat.x

Gemmzie

Same situation here. But I made a budget started implementing it but let father continue using his own current account for business use, petrol etc. Now he's seen how fast and well I've cleared my debts and mum's debts (she had £4k on credit cards which will be cleared in around a week ) he's started coming around.