He's done it again!
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| Thu, 05-19-2005 - 10:29am |
When dh got his most recent raise, he lobbied hard to increase our personal spending allowances from $10 to $50 a month (each). After much agonizing, I agreed. Then he lobbied to each keep $250 of his bonus money as spending money. He also was so disappointed when I suggested spending our entire tax return on items on our priority list, that I eventually agreed to let us each keep $200 for personal spending money.
I admit, I've managed to find uses for the money. I've bought garden supplies (mulch, compost, hoses, sprayers, sprinkler, shovels, etc.), plants (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, fig tree, elderberries, bee balm, and on and on), an occasional fast food meal or milk shake, clothes (at yard sales), housewares (yard sales), toys for the kids (yard sales), books (yard sales), took the nanny and kids out for a (unreasonably expensive) meal, and so on. I have spent all but $150 of my personal money (over the course of nearly five months).
I'm not proud of that, although I am glad I have some in reserve at least. And it *was* supposed to be fun money, and it has been fun.
But dh has gone and done exactly what I feared--he's spent all of his plus some. In fact, he's even managed it despite having been given an extra $50 in April because of accounting errors on my part. He went to Maine on a business trip earlier this month, and while he was there bought various things. Before going, he did not think he would have spending money up there, but because of the "extra" allowance, he had some money sitting in our joint account. I sent him the amount for him to withdraw, but the email was lost. He blames me for not having sent it again and so he didn't know how much he had. He spent just over the amount he had available.
THEN, he has failed to plan for the fact that he is going to see an old friend and watch the new Star Wars movie tonight. How could he have spent $650 in five months, and not have ANYTHING left for a movie with an old pal?
The thing is, he still thinks he has money, because he ended up putting his purchases in Maine on his business credit card, and it has not been paid back yet. He thinks the $40 sitting in his account is his to spend tonight. Arrrrrrghhhh!
I'm trying to get ahold of him to tell him this, but he's not answering his phone (may be in a meeting). I think maybe I should tell him he can't go up to see his friend tonight or the movie because he doesn't have the money for it. He would be devastated. But shouldn't he be held accountable for overspending?
I'm so irritated. I told him, when he lobbied for higher spending allowances, that I didn't think more money would make him happy. And it's been true. He's done nothing but mope and whine about how now that he gets an allowance his co-workers "make" him go to lunch with them, and how now that he has the money (for about 15 minutes before it's gone), he wants to buy this outrageously expensive special keyboard but it's not being manufactured any more, and how I'm not keeping him up to date on how much money he has so he can't be blamed if he overspends.
I'm also irritated because I have asked him to keep a buffer of $20 in our joint account to cover surprises (which seem always to occur). Then he started paying for things out of his paypal account, and so I thought I didn't have to worry about it any more. But of course, things came up anyway and I ended up having to cover them in the joint account. I think when he gets his next allowance, I'm going to simply hold it and tell him he can't withdraw the money this month. He'll have to wait for his next allowance, because I'm holding this one for a buffer.
Thanks for letting me vent. I'm so dang annoyed. I want to talk to him and chew him out, but perhaps it's best that I'm able to vent here first.
Thanks.
Heather

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Hey, everyone...this is quite the post. What's with the 2002 Dodge Rams, thats what we have parked in our driveway as well!! We also have a paid for $20,000 boat that gets used 2 months out of the year, a brand new paid for $7000 4 wheeler (DH had to have for hunting) it gets used 2 weeks in the month of September, 1952 willys jeep hotrod (DH built from the ground up probably has $10,000 in it over the past 4 years)hasn't been driven yet, paid for 5th wheel trailer (DH used to live in it when he worked on the road), oh yeah and an old beater pull trailer (DH had to have for hunting)! Oh and I'm just as bad traded paid for car for a 2005 Dodge Dakota 5 months before DH quit his job so we have that nice monthly payment now!
We have been married for 22 years and it seems like we have just been chasing all of these materialistic things. We are out of cc debt, but still are paying student loans for sons college, and two vehicle payments as well! Duh, we are pretty slow learners! My DH always justified buying this crap as an incentive to work, yeah, that makes lots of sense!
cindylee
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