Couple goals: how not to argue about money?

Money can be a major source of conflict in many relationships. To prevent the conflict it is essential to discuss money openly together, set up a household budget and discuss how the money will be spent and saved.

Then, Spendee comes in hand to help you both stay on top of the finance, track the progress of your goal and instantly get access to overview.

1. Discussing goals

Start by discussing your short and long term financial goals. Make sure that you agree with what you are saving for whether it is summer vacation, new car or credit card debt. Mention also your personal financial goals such as a new camera for you or a new computer for your partner.

When you know what you are saving for, the next step is to prioritize and calculate how much you can save each month after paying for all the necessary expenses for each of your goals.

2. Setting up budget

Now the fun part comes :) To be able to save money that you need to reach your goals, you need to take care and control of your expenses. This is when Spendee comes handy as it allows you to track your expenses based on your categories and set up budgets for each of this category.

If you know how much you want to save each month, you also know how much you can spend. Set up either monthly or weekly budget for each of your expense category. Weekly budgets are easier to follow if you are starting with budgeting, while monthly budgets give you a bit more flexibility.

Set up budget for different categories to better optimize your savings.

Follow these steps to create your first budget:

1. Click on Budget icon
2. Tap “Create your first budget.”
3. Add a name and an amount of your budget
4. Choose the category you want your budget for
5. Select a period and starting day
6. Turn on notifications to be aware when you are about to exceed the budget

To see all the budgets in your app, both of you have to set it up, even though you have a shared wallet.

3. Setting up a shared wallet

When you have your budgets set up you can start tracking your spending in Spendee. To be able to see each other expenses and to calculate all of them into budgets, you need to create a shared wallet. The shared wallet is paid feature however only one of you (owner) needs to pay for it. The price differ based on country, reaching $2.99 for Spendee Premium.

As an owner of a wallet, you can invite other people.

This is how to do it:

1. Open wallet setting of the wallet you would like to share
2. Click on “Add a new member”
3. Invite other users through his/her email address
4. The invited user will receive an email with a link to register to Spendee (if not already registered)
5. After registration, the invited user will see a notification in Notifications. He or she needs to click on it and confirm the invitation.
6. After confirmation, the shared wallet will appear in Wallet list and you can start using it.

4. Tracking expenses

When you have a shared wallet set up, you can start adding your expenses. You can either connect your bank account which will import all your card transactions automatically or you can add your transactions manually. Always make sure that you add every little expense you make. As you start adding more expenses with appropriate categories, they will become part of the budget calculation, so you will be able to see how you are doing in terms of spending.

5. Analyzing results

Even if you set up a budget for a month, I would recommend sitting down together after a week to analyze how you did. You might find that some of the budgets will need to be changed or added it.

However, a regular check-up will help you stay on top of your shared finance and will help you to improve your spending habits and progress better with your goals.