Most people have heard of a shopping addiction, but baby carriers probably aren’t the first item you think of for someone to spend crazy money on.
He skipped his hobbies and grinded away at a stressful job to build up an emergency fund, only to find out his wife had quietly racked up credit card debt behind his back, and spent it almost entirely on baby carriers, of all things.
For a decade, this man has been married to his wife, and they currently have a three-year-old son. Their annual household income is approximately $150,000, due in part to his extremely stressful job in corporate America that requires him to work insane hours.
The federal poverty level for 2026, considering a family of three, is $27,320, so they’re well above that, but as we know, the cost of everything has risen lately, meaning six figures isn’t quite doing it for them.
“To get our family ahead, I’ve made major sacrifices: I quit golfing (my only real hobby) because it was too expensive, and I’ve been incredibly frugal to build a $30k emergency fund,” he explained.
“I thought we were a team. We had monthly financial meetings. I thought we were finally secure. The discovery: A credit card company called me yesterday. It turns out my wife has been hiding $35k in credit card debt accrued over the last two years.”
“She spent it almost entirely on high-end, collector baby carriers (Artipoppe, handwovens, etc.). She claims she can maybe resell them for $10k–$15k, but even then, we are underwater by $25k+ on items our son can’t even use anymore. I doubt we will get even 10k.”
Two years ago, his wife grew distant and stopped being affectionate with him, which he credited to her being postpartum and her not getting enough sleep due to their son.
His wife has been taking medication in order to help her insomnia, and since he found out the enormous secret she’s been keeping, she says the insomnia was because of the amount of debt she got herself into.
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The entire time that he’s been skipping out on hanging out with his friends to save cash and working his heart out at his job in order to make that $30,000 nest egg, his wife was opening up various lines of credit behind his back.
That emergency fund he built up won’t cover the debt his wife has gotten herself into.
“I feel like I’ve been living a lie. I was proud of our $30k cushion, only to find out we actually have a negative net worth because of a hobby I didn’t even know was happening at this scale,” he said.
“I need perspective on: The addiction/meds: this feels like a clinical issue. How do I support her recovery while also protecting my own sanity and finances? How do I get past the fact that I sacrificed my hobbies while she indulged? I just don’t know what to do.”
Well, baby carriers are a bizarre thing to be obsessed with, but I guess shopping addictions come in all shapes and sizes. I looked up Artipoppe baby carriers, and they can easily run you over $1,000, depending on which one you want, so did she buy 35 of them?
At the height of when they came out, they did go for thousands of dollars and were sold out, but the resale values on them dropped in recent years.
Where has his wife been stashing all these baby carriers that they’ve been out of his sight? Are they hiding in a garden shed? Does she have a storage unit?
I have too many questions and too few answers on this one, but one thing is for certain: he needs to make sure his wife gets treatment for what she’s recklessly blowing money on.
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
