Financial Makeover: 5 Things I Learned about Money upon Getting Married

I was never really good at handling money.

It's something that I've never really been proud of, but it's a problem that I've been grappling with for years. I get easily lured by sales and massive discounts, and most of my window-shopping sessions always morph into impulsive shopping sprees. I used to splurge on new outfits practically every week when I was still single, justifying every purchase as an "investment." I always told myself that I'm actually saving a lot of cash since I only "limited" myself to discounted items. Case in point: I actually bought a secondhand gadget on impulse because of a big discount. Never mind that I actually didn't even think I needed one before I stumbled upon the said item on sale.

Even though I feel an adrenaline rush whenever I go shopping, there were times when I would ask myself if certain purchases were actually worth it. There was a particular instance last January when I went shopping almost every day because all of my favorite boutiques were on sale. My then-fiance (who barely shops for anything) asked me why I wore new clothes every time we went out, and I admitted that I have been going on a shopping spree for the entire week. When he asked how much I've spent on new clothes, I gave him a partial amount--which already made him respond with utter shock. He finally got me to spill the beans and lectured me on how it was ludicrous to spend a lot of money in a week's time when I haven't been updating my savings account.

Now that we're married, my husband has made it a point to curb my insane spending habits. After all, we have to make major financial adjustments if we want to eventually buy our own house and build our savings account. While we still have a long way to go, it's never too late for a financial makeover. Here are five revisions that we made upon getting married:

(Photo by Images_of_Money via TaxBrackets.org)