How Your Budget Changes with Marriage

Marrying someone means that a couple’s budget will have to change. Before, each person only had to make sure that his or her own bills were paid. After they say, “I do” they will need to start considering another person in their finances. As can be expected, adding another person to the budget means more money will be spent, but there are opportunities for married people to be offered a break in the amount of money they are paying each month.

Car Insurance Discounts

Marriage Discounts

After getting married, couples have a chance to lower their car insurance premiums because auto insurance companies give people a discount for being married. This can be most advantageous to males under the age of 25. If they get married, they can see their premiums drop by 40 percent in some cases, even though they remain a member of one of the highest risk demographics for auto insurance companies.

Multi-Car Discounts

Couples can also qualify for cheap car insurance because after they move in together, they can now bundle their car insurance policies. This will give them a multi-car discount for insuring both vehicles with the same company. With lower car insurance premiums, married people will see less pressure on their finances.

Multi-Policy Discounts

Another way to obtain cheap car insurance is with the multi-policy discount. With the multi-policy discount, couples who purchase their life insurance, homeowner’s insurance and car insurance together from one company will obtain a discount.

The Joint Checking Account

As a newly married couple obtains a joint checking account, they will begin to have more money at their disposal. If both people are working, they will contribute their paychecks toward this account, and it is the account that is generally the one that is used for paying the couple’s monthly bills. This can be a very big adjustment for people who have always handled their finances individually.

Also as two people begin to share their lives together, they will see the balances on their bills rise. For example, the utilities will be used by two people rather than just one, so it is to be expected that more money will be spent on household costs. The money in the joint checking account that is more than each person makes individually will be able to be used to pay these extra expenses.

Hobbies

What will put upward pressure on the newlywed couple’s finances are each person’s hobbies. When one person is living alone in their own homes, they aren’t paying for the other person’s penchant for buying art supplies if they are painters, for example. The extra expense may be applied toward buying clothes or going to the movies. When people are married, they must remember that they will need to add these costs to their budget.

Each person will need to state very clearly what they like to spend their disposable income on so that there are no surprises in this area and they can both plan within the budget to accommodate these entertainments as much as they can. This one area is where people can begin to have problems in their marriages. The budget pays for the agreed upon purchases, but the couple will need to discuss every extra purchase they make. If they do not, it’s possible that the account could be overdrawn because one person has done something the other was not expecting.

Marriage means that there are more expenses; the utilities are more expensive, the food bill goes up each month, the amount paid for clothes and entertainment also increases.

But, married couples can save a lot of money on their car insurance, for example, just because they are married. Their new budgets benefit from the many discounts they can receive, and it makes it easier to handle their finances.

This guest post was written by Laura P.