Shutterstock
It’s one of those uncomfortable topics that can really drive a wedge between a couple…
I’m talking about money, of course, and if you’ve ever been involved with someone who spent cash like a sailor on leave for a weekend, then you know it can be pretty frustrating.
In today’s story, a man opened up about why he had to have a serious talk with his wife about her spending habits.
Check out what he had to say about this conundrum.
AITA for telling my wife to not spend this week because of overspending on the weekend?
“My wife and I are both 37.
She has a habit of overspending. Not on expensive items or anything, but on several $30 – $40 purchases that typically exceed our available budget for non-essentials and recreation and clothing.
She has acumulated a ton of debt by using payment plans on Affirm and Klarna.
This is out of control…
It’s gotten to the point where I have to work 2 jobs just to keep us barely afloat. She just cannot keep track of her spending.
The last few months, she has been seeing a therapist to help her with her spending addiction and trying to get to the bottom line of why she feels this compulsion. To her credit, she has made great improvements since then. Not a complete 180, but progress.
Fast forward to this past weekend.
She is salaried and doesn’t work in the summer, so she got a 3-week full time job. She herself said that she was going to use the check to pay off as much of the Affirm and Klarna as possible.
Great!
Day 1 after depositing the check, she buys $25 worth of items on TikTok. Day 2, we go visit my brother-in-law and his baby, my wife’s first niece. On the way there, we stop by a store and she buys a present ($17) for the baby.
Next day, she goes thrifting with her best friend, and she did get some stuff that she needed. Even though we were already past the usual budget, I was okay with all of those extra purchases BECAUSE of the extra check.
I figured that she worked for that extra money, and I’m not gonna sweat it if a small chunk of it goes towards some of that stuff.
On top of that, our brunch date was more expensive than we were expecting, and I had to buy 5 quarts of oil for her car because it has been leaking.
If we’re being honest, we would have to go with no recreation to be able to make up that debt. But she’s not disciplined enough to commit to it properly.
This morning, she calls me while I’m at work to ask me what time I’m coming home tonight.
This is starting to get old for him.
Before the conversation is over, I ask her if she could please not buy anything else until my paycheck comes in because of how much we went over budget over the weekend.
I explained to her that the stuff she bought I was okay with, and I told her why I was okay with those purchases (the extra check).
Her response?
“I knew it was too good to be true”.
Oh, boy…
When I asked what she meant, she said she just had a feeling that I was gonna throw it all back in her face.
That she was so happy to buy a present for our niece and for buying some pants that she needed, and not I’m making her feel bad. I said that she took the whole thing completely wrong.
I told her I wasn’t even referring to the gift, but more so the TikTok stuff and the expensive brunch and the oil. But her mind was already made up.
Every time this type of conversation comes up, I try to clarify what I meant, but she thinks I’m just backtracking because I saw her reaction (which is sometimes true).
AITA for even bringing up the budget the way I did?”
Let’s see what readers had to say about this.
This reader said he’s NTA.
Another individual agreed.
This person shared their thoughts.
Another Reddit user spoke up.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who is annoyed that her brother is making their mom’s international trip all about how broke he is.
And this reddit user weighed in.
I don’t think this guy did anything wrong at all.
It sounds like he needs to get her to walk the line…
Or they’re gonna have some big issues.
His wife clearly has a major spending problem…