I read an interesting article today regarding awkward money situations. It was a fairly long, but the key point I took away from it was this; awkward money situations with friends or family can often be avoided if you use discretion and honesty.

Tips

• Talk things out and don’t let annoyances bother you endlessly. This is especially important for married couples. It’s best to discuss finances in detail.
• Be proactive. If you have a relative who always wants to split the bill down the middle, even when they order more food than you, ask for separate checks prior to the giving your orders to the waitress.
• If a relative constantly borrows and breaks your things then stop allowing them to borrow. You don’t want to hold a grudge against them for past transgressions, but eliminating the problem at the source will put future mishaps to a halt.

What awkward money situations do I face? With the holiday season quickly approaching (ugh) I find myself worrying about our finances. Last year, my husband and I were three months into a marriage and hadn’t yet discussed how to approach the holidays. We discussed it briefly and decided our approach would be to keep things fairly even between our two families. We didn’t plan anything and the result was over-spending. That’s something I’d like to avoid this year.

So, what do we plan to do? Spend less, of course!

We talked and made our first decision as a team. We’ve set aside specific money for Christmas gifts this year. The key will be to stick to our budget. It was awkward to talk about last year, because we both kind of blamed each other for our predicament, but in the end I’m glad we did. Only time will tell whether it will save us money this year!

Read the full article here: http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2011/09/19/how-to-handle-awkward-money-situations?PageNr=1