Her Husband Dropped Over $1,000 On Takeout In The Last Month While She’s Been Having To Make Drastic Lifestyle Changes
I love takeout as much as the next person, but it’s not worth going into debt over. Unfortunately, this 32-year-old woman’s 28-year-old husband has taken up a spending habit with takeout that they can’t afford, and he never told her about it.
She and her husband welcomed their first child nine months back, and she then became a stay-at-home mom, so their income changed, yet she was certain they could make do.
Her quitting her job was something they had talked about, as they hesitated to put their child into a daycare program.
During her pregnancy, she crunched the numbers and was pleased to see they could live on a comfortable level with her husband being the sole earner.
His income can alter, so she did all of her math around the base money that he earns. Yes, they have had to cut costs on some things that they didn’t exactly need to be spending money on, but their groceries, bills, and mortgage payments were not a stretch to cover.
They had additional money to spend on fun things or save, so really, she was right about them not having to change their lifestyle much with her staying at home.
Prior to her giving birth, they had one joint account and two different bank accounts (which is where their salaries went).
They always put money into that joint account to make payments on shared bills and their mortgage, but after she had their baby, her husband kept on putting his salary into his own account.
From there, he deposited $800 each week into their joint one, meaning she had a little less than $300 to spend on utilities, groceries, bills, and such after covering the mortgage.
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“It wasn’t enough. Formula for the week is $80 alone, as a reference,” she explained. “So I have been stretching our budget as far as it could go.”
“I’ve deferred bills. I’ve avoided leaving the house to save on fuel (which meant skipping playgroups for our daughter). I buy nothing for myself except the occasional small treat during grocery shopping, like a chocolate milk.”
“I walk around the house all day in my underwear to avoid turning on the air conditioning, trying to lower our electricity costs (we live in an extremely hot and humid area). I eat fruit and instant noodles during the day to cut down on grocery expenses.”
Over a month ago, she questioned her husband about changing his salary to go right into their joint account instead of his personal one.
She just wasn’t getting why they were having to make drastic lifestyle changes when that’s not something she had accounted for.
She was worried that she had done her math wrong on their numbers, so then her husband said he would deposit his salary into their joint account.
She started to see her husband moving money into his personal account, but she didn’t do a deep dive, as she had no reason to not trust him.
But even after all that, she still was having a tough time finding out why they were financially falling short. She even got a remote job to help offset their costs. She even quit seeing her psychiatrist as they no longer had the money for it.
Well, today she got around to digging into where all their money is going, and it turns out her husband blew over $1,000 in the last 30 days alone on takeout.
She is so upset, as she’s been pinching pennies and complaining to her husband about having to severely cut back, when all this time he’s been spending his heart out on food, of all things.
“What really irks me is that, in the past, he’s made me feel guilty for minor purchases, like occasionally shopping at Kmart or Target for things we need or could use,” she added.
“I used to spend maybe $150 a month on baby clothes, toys, or small household items. If we were low on funds one week, he would point to these transactions I made as being the cause.”
But here her husband was, making her out to be the issue when the real culprit was his fast food. He grabs breakfast, lunch, and snacks out, and that’s adding up to be exorbitant spending.
She’s hurt, she’s furious, and she’s doing all she can to keep it together while her husband is making her out to be the villain here for realizing where the money is going.
What advice do you have for her?
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