In a marriage, it’s important for husband and wife to agree on big financial decisions, such as buying a house or buying a car.

What would you do if your spouse wanted to buy a car, but you knew you could barely pay your monthly bills as it is? Would you agree to go car shopping, or would you shut down the idea of getting a car?

In today’s story, one couple is dealing with this exact situation, and the wife is second guessing her decision about what to do.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for telling my husband we cant afford a new car?

I (28f) just had my third child husband(35m) 8 weeks ago.

My husband works a blue collar job and I left my job after my pto ran out on maternity leave. This was something we both agreed on and contemplated the whole pregnancy.

There was just no way to afford childcare in the city I worked in or the city we live in (an hour away), afford gas, and after school care for the 2 older kids(6 & 10). We discussed many times what me being a SAHM would look like and what we’d have to sacrifice.

They really thought this through.

He agreed that since I’ve been managing the money the 8.5 years of marriage that I should continue to manage the income.

This isn’t like I decided one day out of the blue to quit my job and that I would control everything.

He acknowledges that he isnt good with money and knows that in the past I’ve had to hide money from him to make sure I can pay the bills.

He actually wanted me to quit when I was 30 weeks pregnant but I wanted to work as long as I could and use all my pto and sick time since maternity leave isnt paid at my job. I worked in retail finance.

They hardly have enough money to scrape by.

That savings account is only half what it was 2 months later because my husband bought expensive parts for his gaming PC without my knowledge and I had to transfer from savings to cover the negative balance.

I’ve had to continually say ‘no’ to his many requests that, to me, seem like irresponsible financial decisions.

Right now we are basically house poor; meaning all our bills are paid and we have a food budget, but there’s little to no money left over for luxury or extra expenses.

For example: if our monthly bills + food budget were $2,000, his income is $2,050. Very little leftover money is the point here.

Her husband wants to make another expensive purchase.

Okay, onto the problem.

Last week my mom traded in her old minivan because the transmission went out. She got a great deal on a slightly used vehicle.

Three days later my little sister (19f) traded in her car for a used Kia.

Me and my husband have two vehicles, both old and both have small problems but still very much good for now.

Well, my husband wants a new car now.

She explained why they really shouldn’t buy a car.

He went to a used car lot and talked to someone without me and showed me pictures.

I showed him the budget and explained that regardless of how low the payments are, we CANNOT afford any monthly payments. In 6 months he should be able to have a take-home car from his job and then we won’t need 2 personal cars and it’d be reasonably okay to trade one of ours in for something used.

He said he understood and we agreed to wait until he has a work car.

That was 3 days ago.

He still wants a car.

Today he came home on his lunch break and said he made an appointment for us to go to a car dealership on Saturday.

I said no, that what he was doing feels like a betrayal to me and a childish reaction to other people getting new cars.

He just said he loves me and walked out of the house to go back to work.

Did I overreact? Am I the jerk for continuing to tell him no to a new car?

She’s right. They can’t afford a car, and if he’s getting a work car he can bring home, they REALLY don’t need another car.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

It’s pretty simple, really.

This is good advice.

She really needs to prevent her husband from having access to the money.

Is he her child or her husband, because he’s acting like a child!

Finances can cause a lot of problems in marriage.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.