It can be difficult to manage money, especially when you have a young family.

With double the number of mouths to feed, and all the extras that come with having kids, it can feel like your money is flying out of your bank account quicker than you can earn it.

So what happens when you both have different ideas of how to spend any spare money that you do have?

The guy in this story found out, to his detriment.

Read on to discover how his relationship – with his wife, and with his bank account – fell into disrepair.

AITA for being strict about managing our money and not allowing my wife to pawn her necklace to help her sister pay off debt?

I am 28 and from the Philippines, and have been in a bit of a financial bind recently, trying to manage our family’s finances as best I can.

My wife (also 28) and I have two kids: a 7-year-old son and a daughter who will be turning 1 soon. I’m the only one working, and I earn about $850 a month.

After paying bills and groceries, money is tight.

In January, I received a total of $828.

I paid $234 in bills in total and gave my wife $144 to budget for the first two weeks.

The rest, I kept as savings for our daughter’s birthday, with the plan to add more in the upcoming paychecks.

But this didn’t go as planned.

Unfortunately, we didn’t manage the $144 well, and by the next paycheck, we were down to $54 in savings.

On January 10th, I noticed my wife only had $28 left, and by the 12th, she was down to just $5.

When I asked how that happened, she got upset but said not to worry because it was all spent on us.

At this point, I had to dip into the savings I set aside for our daughter’s birthday to cover expenses.

Let’s see how this tough situation continued to develop.

Fast forward to later in the month, and I decided to take control of the finances for the next paycheck.

I told my wife I would be handling the money for the next two paychecks so I could keep track of everything.

I told her she could still take money from my wallet, but she would have to let me know how much and what it was for.

She got upset, saying I don’t trust her and that I was being selfish.

A few days later, I discovered she was planning to pawn her necklace to help her sister pay off her debt.

I tried to open up a conversation by asking about her sister’s situation, hoping she would tell me about the necklace.

Eventually, I directly asked if she planned to pawn it to help her sister, and she admitted it.

Read on to find out how this guy reacted to his wife’s plan.

I told her I was against it because we were already in a tough spot financially, and we needed the necklace for our daughter’s birthday.

That led to an argument, and she said she’d rather not celebrate our daughter’s birthday than not help her sister.

I tried to explain that it’s okay to help others, but it can’t come at the cost of our own financial stability.

She became really angry and said she wasn’t willing to understand or give me a chance to explain.

She accused me of not trusting her and being selfish, and we’ve been at odds since then.

Yikes! Let’s see how this guy reacted to his wife’s response.

On top of all this, she’s been acting childish in this situation.

She insists on not touching our shared money, which we are supposed to spend as part of our budget, but then complains about having it difficult.

When I called her out on this behavior, I made it very clear that she needs to grow up and be more responsible.

I’ve been feeling hurt because I feel like I made my plans clear and that I’m just trying to keep us financially stable.

But I’m wondering if I’m being too strict about managing our money and not allowing my wife to pawn the necklace to help her sister?

AITA?

It’s clear that this young family are working hard to be financially stable. It’s also clear that family is important to both of them – but that their priorities are in different directions.

It’s tough when only one partner is working, because it means that they’re responsible for the family’s financial direction.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this.

This person agreed that beyond their finances, this couple need to work on their communication.

And others encouraged them to recalibrate their priorities – together.

While this Redditor gave the couple a clear reality check.

This couple need to learn to manage their money, and to work as a team.

He needs to work on his priorities – and so does she.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.