Blended Familes and Money Disagreements
Blending families raise a lot of tricky issues and when you mix two families, you also mix your values.
Tensions can arise when you and your partner have different ideas about how to manage family finances, and this can lead to a lot of arguments.
It’s important that you find ways to prevent these fights because they will have a big impact on your children and your relationship.
If you are wondering how blended families can prevent fighting about money, just follow these simple rules.
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Create A Detailed Budget
A detailed budget will help to ensure that you manage your money well and avoid financial problems in the future.
It will also make sure that you are on the same page with your spending and there are not any arguments about one of you spending too much.
Your budget should cover all of your expenses, including housing, transport, living expenses, child support payments, debts, and recreational spending.
Make sure to include every single penny that you spend, so even small purchases, like lunch or a coffee on the way to work, should be noted down.
These small expenses quickly add up and leave big holes in your budget, and if you don’t know where that extra money is being spent, you and your partner will start playing the blame game and arguing.
It may take you a few weeks to develop your budget and make it accurate, but if you stick with it, you will find it a lot easier to manage your money and you will not argue about money as much.
Set Goals As A Family
Financial goals are very important, especially in a blended family, and you should include the kids in these decisions as well.
You may have smaller goals like saving up for a day out together or buying some new play equipment for the garden or larger goals like saving up for a family holiday.
Whatever your savings goals are, they are a good way to show the whole family that they all benefit from working together to save money.
When you all have a common goal, it prevents fighting about money.
It is also important that you set larger financial goals with your spouse, so you are both working towards the same end result instead of pulling against one another.
If you already own your own home, do you have a goal for paying off the mortgage?
If you don’t own your home, when would you like to buy?
What kind of retirement savings do you have and how much do you want to contribute to those accounts?
Agreeing on long term goals from the beginning will prevent a lot of arguing in the future when big financial decisions need to be made.
Set Some Basic Rules
Setting basic rules from the beginning is just as important as setting goals.
It will make it a lot easier to stick to your budget and meet your financial goals, and as long as you both stick to the rules, it will prevent arguing.
You should set rules about weekly spending once all of the bills are paid off, so neither of you goes over budget.
It’s also a good idea to set rules about paying the bills and tracking the budget together.
Pick a day once a week where you will get together and look over all of your finances, so you are both on the same page.
When it comes to large purchases, you should set a limit.
For example, if either of you wants to purchase something that is more than $200, you should discuss it together first.
You should also have a discussion before borrowing money in any way, no matter how small the amount.
Hopefully, this should have given you a better idea about how blended families can prevent fighting about money.
Unfortunately, many blended families do not follow these rules from the outset, and this leads to financial problems.
When you are unable to stick to a budget and control your spending, you may rely on borrowing to cover your monthly living expenses.
If debt starts to build up too much, you could find yourself in a situation where you are unable to pay back what you owe.
When you are in a position where you can no longer afford to make debt repayments, you need to look into debt relief options.
If you are struggling with debt, get in touch today and we can discuss your options.
You can reach us on the phone or fill out an evaluation form and we will get back to you.
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