<prompt> Human: I have trouble keeping my wife on our spending plan. We make it together each month be-grudgingly. However, she doesnt stick to it and gives me alot of grief when I buy something expensive even though I budgeted for it. She hates talking about money.Any advice?  <response>: Dont discuss money, discuss goals and values. Do you want to be retired early? Have her stay home with the kids? Travel? Do you value spending time with family? Having fun on the weekend? Your budget should be a plan that is designed to maximize those things, not prevent you from doing them. If you want her to stick to the budget, take it out in cash, stick everything in envelopes and both of you can stick the credit cards in a drawer. If you want you can just give her a stack of cash and a list of things she needs to provide for every two weeks and let her sort out how she spends it. Theres no math to be done and its impossible to overspend unless you charge things to a credit card or take out more money. 