Fortunately, I have five easy, straightforward ways to help you and your partner budget today. Let’s go through each section, and when you finish reading, you should know how to budget together like pros.

1. Have fun

With 73% of cohabiting or married American couples claiming that decisions about money cause stress within their relationships, it’s important you and your partner make budgeting fun. 

One easy way to do this is to imagine budgeting as a game. Every time you save something as small as 15 cents, celebrate. Work toward a goal you’ve made together, mark the money you’ve saved on a handmade chart and never view budgeting as a chore. When you reach your goal, reward yourselves with candy, ice cream or whatever else you’ve budgeted out of your everyday life. These small actions and perceptions can take the stress out of budgeting and make it fun for you and your loved one. 

2. Go on free dates

When Friday night rolls around, expensive dates are often expected, but that can be difficult when you are budgeting. An easy workaround is to choose date activities that are free: 

• Walk in the park.
• Go on a picnic with a blanket, PB&J sandwiches and juice boxes.
• Visit a free museum. 
• Search for the most unique item in an antique store. 
• Create a scavenger hunt in which you compete with another couple.
• Stargaze.
• Make a snowman.
• Volunteer and serve the community. 
• Snuggle and watch a movie at home, with popcorn or treats reserved only for that occasion.

Choosing free dates doesn’t mean you can’t ever have an expensive meal or go to the movies; you’re just choosing to do these expensive activities less often, like every month instead of every week. With a little bit of creativity, you can save money during date night, keep your budget and enjoy time together.

3. Track memberships and subscriptions

On average, Americans spend $219 on subscriptions each month — about $2,628 every year. When you’re trying to save money as a couple, subscriptions and memberships can slowly eat away at your finances. 

A straightforward way to budget is to track your memberships and ensure you aren’t subscribing to sites or apps that you don’t need, use or forgot to cancel. You can even choose to unsubscribe from most of your streaming services and then limit yourself to your favorite (or most-used) platform. This way, you and your partner can watch everything available on that one streaming service, and after a few months, you can unsubscribe and watch everything available on the next platform. By tracking your memberships and ending most of your subscriptions, you can budget and save money. 

4. Have a half-price mindset

When saving money and budgeting, the half-price mindset is essential to making sure you are getting the best deals. A half-price mindset simply means you commit to never paying full price for anything. Instead of going to an expensive store to get clothing, go to a thrift store. Wait for sales, like Black Friday, or buy Christmas or Valentine’s decorations a day after the holiday for next year. If a store shows a certain price, look online and find a cheaper price for the same product. Use Groupon to plan events or look at Facebook Marketplace when you want to buy a new couch. 

Be patient with the discounts found online; often, online shopping gives you even better discounts the longer you wait. When you keep this half-price mindset, it will help you both budget and save money.

5. Keep yourselves accountable

Of those who make goals, only 8% actually accomplish them. One reason why is that they have a support team that keeps them accountable. You and your partner are a support team, and you can help each other keep a budget. This might mean you need to set a time to talk about budgeting or simply create an environment where open communication about money is allowed. It means talking about buying things, especially big-priced items. 

This doesn’t mean you are allowed to critique one another or point fingers if one of you relapses or you believe they could have budgeted better. That would take the fun out of budgeting (see tip No. 1) and cause unnecessary tension. And let’s be honest: You might be the one to mess up the budgeting a couple of times, too. Make sure you hold each other accountable by helping each other when you fail and working together to budget.

Though budgeting as a couple can be stressful and sometimes difficult, it comes with many benefits. You can get out of debt, finally save up a down payment on a house or simply have money for a rainy day. You can finally travel to the city, buy the gear for camping or check something off your bucket list. Saving money and budgeting can help you alleviate stress, and with less stress, you will feel closer and more intimate with your partner. With all these benefits, it’s clear budgeting isa key factor in relationships. Choose today to budget with your partner, and you’ll be surprised when you both become pros at at the process.

Amy Cook is the founder of Stage Marketing, a full-service content marketing agency based in Provo.