Going to the grocery store is an increasingly expensive proposition these days.

But in this story, an (ex) husband has hilariously outdated ideas about what food costs – so the poster came up with a clever idea to teach him a lesson.

Let’s check it out.

So you think you can feed a family on $150 per month

Several years ago, my ex-husband, our son and I (pregnant) lived in a fairly well off town.

We weren’t rich or even middle-class at the time, more like upper low-class living in a low-class apartment.

He thought he was good with money, but he really isn’t.

He has ideas because his dad is an accountant but he had no actual practical knowledge.

Classic case of mansplaining without the knowledge to back it up.

I knew we were on a budget, and for the most part, agreed to keeping down the cost of most of the expenses.

The only exception, in my eyes, was the food budget.

I would try to spend $600/month on food for the 3.5 of us, and this was still what I considered on the low end.

For example, friends of ours (just a couple with no dependents) would spend about $800-900 on groceries, while my ex-in-laws would spend $1200-1500 on groceries for 3-4 people.

We had a young child and a baby on the way.

Cutting food out wasn’t an option.

Kid is hungry, kid needs to eat.

As a pregnant woman, I did eat for my child and me, but I didn’t splurge on treats for my cravings.

Already, this is some crazy willpower.

I knew we had bills to pay, and that my financially uptight ex-husband would be upset if I ate away our food budget due to a craving.

My ex-husband would frequently complain over several years how we spend too much money on groceries.

He mentioned a couple times per month that $600 per month was too much.

We needed to reduce our food budget to $150/month.

I tried to show him grocery receipts.

I tried showing him flyers and online ads.

He still maintained that we could survive off $150 in groceries each month.

Out of touch doesn’t even begin to describe this guy.

He was adamant.

He was sure.

He was positive that I was just making things difficult.

I wasn’t the only one to tell him that he was wrong.

As I stated, I was pregnant, which means hormonal.

I’d had enough, so here’s where the malicious compliance comes in.

Me: OK, I’ve had enough of this. Tomorrow is the start of a new month. I haven’t gone grocery shopping in a week. Give me $150 in cash and I will feed us for the month.

Ex: Really? Ok! I’ll bring home the cash tomorrow.

I spent the rest of the evening searching for every single coupon I could find.

Fun fact: Americans have this system where if you spend a coupon at certain grocery stores, you could buy an item for $0.10-0.50, however, we don’t live in the US.

Our coupons pale in comparison.

I searched for all the deals.

No coupon left unturned with this one.

I wrote down a list of items we needed, what store had them for what price, and noted if I had a coupon or not.

(FYI, I generally did something similar to this anyway, but I just expanded my search to a couple extra stores.)

The following day when I was given $150 from my ex, I waddled my pregnant butt around 4 different grocery stores grabbing all the food we normally eat.

When I got home, I had spent approximately $145 of our oh-so-generous food budget on the 1st day of the month.

I was proud of myself! Sarcasm.

I mean, it’s a real accomplishment for sure.

I had budgeted so well.

I showed my ex-husband all the food I bought and all the receipts.

I placed the change in a jar on top of the fridge with the receipts inside.

He said I did well and was happy I bought so much for so little.

Later on that week, we ran out of milk.

Kid has no milk to drink or for his cereal.

Out to the store to buy some.

A week and a half later, it’s getting close to dinner time.

Ex: What’s for dinner?

Me: Nothing.

Ex: What do you mean nothing? We have plenty of food!

Me: Oh do we? I didn’t realize. What did you find in the cupboards?

Ex: opens cupboard doors, fridge, freezer, pantry door Ummmm, nothing. There is literally nothing.

Me: OK, so we have no food in the house. How much money do we have for our food budget?

Ex: (empties jar) $0.34… that can’t be right!

Me: Did you add up the receipts and see if we made a mistake somewhere?

Ex: ……………… Ok, I get it. I’ll go buy some groceries.

What a way to make your point!

And that, my friends, is how you convince your financially uptight (ex)spouse that their budgeting ideas are out of touch with reality.

Sadly, I did not convince him to increase our food budget back to $600/month, but he did agree to $500/month, which I suppose he keeps to this day, despite the fact it’s usually just himself he has to feed.

This woman pinched pennies and crushed her husband’s ego.

What do the comments think?

This person says they would’ve downgraded the menu.

Someone else says he’ll never learn if you don’t teach him.

A stay-at-home dad says it’s easy to be out of touch.

Someone else crunches the numbers.

This user says, at least this husband eventually conceded!

After he saw how few groceries $150 bought, this husband ate his words.

We can all see why he’s the ex-husband.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.