I suspect your wife might be more amenable to preparation purchases if you stop referring to her as
wide.

Seriously though, generators have many uses beyond backup power for one's home. If your wife handles the checkbook start saving your allowance and purchase one with cash. As many have posted since Sandy, consider the tri-fuel or the inverters first and work up to something larger with more power as funds allow and your wife's normalcy bias recedes.
Most people don't need CPR training until a family member needs his/her life saved when they fall down right in front of you. A generator is similar. By the time you need it the time has already passed to get it.