I know I’m not the only one here who has a spouse that wastes money, wastes resources, wastes time, wastes everything without a second thought. Not everyone is frugally minded!
I’d love to hear about some success stories in converting spouses and family and how it was accomplished.
Thanx (I can use some inspiration as I am exasperated)
When a person is ready to make changes they will listen and understand what you’re saying. If they are not, you are wasting your time and breath. You can’t change people that don’t want to change. As a matter of fact, you can’t change anyone only they can change themselves.
It’s true that you can’t make others change, but you can help them want to change. I was able to convince my guy that clipping coupons, scouring sales, and watching out for wasteful use of utilities wasn’t a waste of time by “showing him the money.” I made a point of showing him grocery store receipts that print the percentage saved by sale purchases and coupon deductions–the bottom line spoke louder than any nagging I could do.
I would start with one area that was important to you and a possible future interest for him. Think how it might tie in some way to what he is interested in. Always being frugal or ‘cheap’ may not appeal to him and he may not want to portray that image (the macho thing) …. but if you can show him how saving money in one area would allow for more to spend on a vacation or a nicer car payment …. well, you’ll just have to get creative (which women can do) on what’s important to him and how it links in. We can hold a lot of influence over our husbands if we having a “sharing” attitude rather than a nagging one. It’s a hard line to tow at times :-) but it pays big rewards! Good luck! Keep us posted!
I did the same with DH I showed him how much we were saving and he was thrilled to see we could spend it on other things. His family is VERY wasteful and now he tries to convert them. ;D We are even saving our change plus five dollars a week towards buying land. Something he would of never thought of himself. He was an easy person to convert and I’m thankful for that. Shorty