by Christina Pilkington

Created on: March 13, 2007   Last Updated: May 31, 2010

Men and women often have different priorities on where they spend their money. The soon-to-be husband might not have spent that much on personal grooming in his bachelor days and might be shocked how much his wife spends on hair cuts, highlighting, nails, facial treatments and make-up. That's why it is extremely important to know the spending habits of your spouse before you get married.

The best way couples can learn about their spending habits is to make a list of everything they spend money on for one month. Then they can plan an afternoon to look over each other's lists. This way there will be no surprises after the wedding.

Once the lists have been reviewed, couples can make a list of which expenses they have that are non-negotiable (such as rent, utilities, and car payments) and how much income they have. Then they can work out how much to spend in other categories such as food, entertainment, vacations, ect.

Another important issue to consider before getting married is whether both the wife and husband will work. Are they both in agreement whether the wife will stay home with kids (if they choose and can have them) or will work full-time?

My husband and I both wanted me to be able to stay home with any children we would have after getting married. However, we both brought debt into the marriage. We made out a plan for paying down that debt and saving quite a bit of my salary to use over the first year the kids (we had twins!) were born.

We wouldn't have been in a position to reach this goal if it had not been a big priority for us before we were married. We knew exactly how much we needed to save up to pay down our debt and how much to save, so we knew how much we could spend on things like food, vacations and going out in order to meet that goal.

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