Mary Branson’s husband, Brian, loves to splurge on his motorcycles.

“It wouldn’t be my first choice, because motorcycles make me a little nervous,” she says, “but he is constantly personalizing his cycles, adding a little piece of chrome here or a piece of leather there or a new headlight or a button or a lever.”

She says she’s learned not to give him any grief because his spending takes attention away from her penchant for Internet shopping.

“He teases me that I don’t have to leave home to go into debt,” she says.

Dan Kissel says his wife, Kelly, sometimes but not too often objects when he buys hunting gear.

“When she buys something, it’s usually for the house, and that’s just fine. My decorating taste isn’t as good as hers,” he says.

Not all couples are as tolerant of each another’s spending habits as the Bransons and the Kissels, both of Evansville, Ind. In fact, money is the No. 1 thing couples fight about in America, according to a study by the Center for Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver.

All it can take is something like a husband’s daily habit of plunking down $3.60 for a large latte to bring on a spousal sermon on “wastefulness.” The wife’s addiction to expensive handbags also can mean marital discord.

Disagreements over spending keep divorce rates high, say counseling professionals. But, says Kissel: “Couples who pick at each other for buying certain things should look at it in the long run. It’s usually not worth the trouble of arguing over. It’ll take care of itself.”

Dan Schultz, also of Evansville, says he and his wife, Terri, have found that maintaining their own accounts is helpful. “She’s got things she likes to spend her money on, and vice versa. It works out great,” he says.

Paula Werne, also of Evansville, says her husband, Gary, doesn’t buy anything extra but books about history, the military and farming.

“I always tease him that I could stay home from working if he didn’t have to buy so many books,” she says.

“Basically, we’re both frugal. But he’s so easygoing, I could probably get away with buying anything and he wouldn’t care,” she says.

She believes the bottom line should be: Don’t buy what you can’t afford.

“If you can’t afford it but buy it anyway, don’t bicker about it,” says Werne, who has been married 20 years.

She recalls once overhearing a young woman in a grocery store telling her male companion, “Let’s get some fresh mushrooms.”

“He told her, ‘No, we can’t afford them.’ She was begging him, and he was being such a grouch that I almost gave her $3,” Werne says.

She would advise newlyweds to save for things they want to buy. “Don’t sneak around buying things and leaving them in the car trunk until the other spouse has gone to bed,” she says. “The sneaking around could lead to more strife.”

Before marrying, couples that include both a spendthrift and a penny-pincher should stop and ask themselves what they are doing, Werne says.

Jennifer Mason, an education coordinator with the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of the Tri-State in Evansville, says not every two people have the same values.

“There usually are sharp differences, so it’s important that couples discuss, negotiate and compromise in money matters,” she says.

A couple can be frugal to a fault, the Wernes found. They began their marriage fresh out of college with absolutely no money while trying to keep their farm afloat, she says. They paid in full for everything.

But that resulted in their having no credit history for emergencies. This began to worry them, so they bought a car with a low-interest loan.