{"id":341693,"date":"2025-10-29T22:10:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T22:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/341693\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T22:10:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T22:10:16","slug":"man-wants-to-cut-back-on-spending-so-he-and-his-wife-can-save-up-for-a-down-payment-on-a-house-but-his-wife-doesnt-want-to-stick-to-a-budget-twistedsifter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/341693\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Wants To Cut Back On Spending So He And His Wife Can Save Up For A Down Payment On A House, But His Wife Doesn\u2019t Want To Stick To A Budget \u00bb TwistedSifter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Woman<\/p>\n

Pexels\/Reddit<\/p>\n

You can make $20 million a year, but that doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t need to make a budget and stick to it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Imagine being married and concerned that your wife is spending too much money instead of saving up to buy a house.<\/p>\n

Would you try to get her to stick to a budget or ignore her spending habits?<\/p>\n

See why the wealthy man in this story is concerned about his family\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\n

My wife and I make about 400k per year. She makes $220k plus some bonus, I make $180k plus minimal other income.<\/p>\n

Our after-tax income is $19k monthly plus another 19k throughout the year, plus another 10-20k in spring.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yet the two still encounter financial strife.<\/p>\n

\n

We live in the DC area with 2 kids in public schools. No significant debt (other than 20k credit card debt incurred by my wife).<\/p>\n

Every month we spend more than we make.<\/p>\n

In September so far we spent 20k (without any vacations or major purchases). And by \u201cwe\u201d I meant mostly my wife.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

His wife spends a lot of money on things that aren\u2019t essential.<\/p>\n

\n

Normally, I would say that she is entitled to spend on whatever she wants. But the problem is that we have fixed obligation, such as rent, after school activities, food, utilities.<\/p>\n

She contributes about 25% of those, and then she says she doesn\u2019t have any money for the rest.<\/p>\n

I end up paying for 75% of our mandatory expenses. She spends her money on restaurants, shopping for clothes, and other things.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Saving up for a home takes commitment.<\/p>\n

\n

So instead of saving money, we are currently depleting our savings.<\/p>\n

Those savings were supposed to be for a down payment for a house.<\/p>\n

I insist that we should stick to a budget of about $18k per month and control our (her) discretionary spending.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She doesn\u2019t agree with him and won\u2019t budget herself.<\/p>\n

\n

She says that I am controlling and suffocating, and there is no joy in life if she can\u2019t freely spend. She says that we can use the savings to cover the bills.<\/p>\n

Rent is $6000 (she pays half) Utilities and other monthly fees $1000 (she pays 0) Groceries are 1700 (I mostly pay for those).<\/p>\n

Restaurants are $1200 (mostly her) Child activities $2600 (I mostly pay) Amazon shopping $1000 (she shops, I pay).<\/p>\n

Child care 995 (I pay) Cleaning 550 (I pay) Auto payment 450 (I pay) Credit card interest fees $500 (she pays) Pets $900 (I mostly pay).<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He wants to stick to a budget, but she doesn\u2019t. Maybe buying a home isn\u2019t important to her. They need to get on the same page about their financial goals.<\/p>\n

Here is what folks are saying on Reddit.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not romantic, but it\u2019s important.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

Exactly. I don\u2019t get sharing all money in one account.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

Good idea. This will be helpful.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

I thought gambling and drugs.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very different way of life.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

Spending more than you earn is never a good idea.<\/p>\n

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.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pexels\/Reddit You can make $20 million a year, but that doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t need to make a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":341694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[41632,3232,64,7550,18075,255,14442,213,168282,1399,67,132,68,258],"class_list":{"0":"post-341693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-aita","9":"tag-budget","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finances","12":"tag-marriage","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-picture","15":"tag-reddit","16":"tag-relationship-problems","17":"tag-top","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-wealth"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115459747561188156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}