Spouses take on finances...

A mom was talking to me today about how her dh was confounding her, lol. She told him to take out $100 in cash for spending money for 2 weeks and not to touch the debit card. He replied that he hates being broke. She was like hello? The bills are all paid, we have food for 3 months in the house, you have cash in your pocket and we have an emergency fund. How are we broke?
That made me think about it and really, my dh is the same way! He says things like "we can't afford to live" when all our bills are paid and we have food for the month. He thinks not having money to do whatever he wants means he's broke.

For me I feel secure knowing we have all our bills paid and good food on the table plus a small but growing savings account.

Is your DH like the guys at the beginning of this post? Or are you?

My SO is just like this. Never mind the fact that before taxes we make almost 150k, which is pretty good IMO

I'm like this. Bills paid. Food gas budgeted and we still have extra I'm like "uhhhhh we are soooooo poor" but I just hate money. I want the mind set that if my bills are paid and there's enough for food and gas plus extra then life is great.

in between? I hate having to watch my account and budget...but I don't consider myself "broke" unless I'm behind and can't pay what NEEDS paying.

but..when I was married... towards the end we were stable... and I could spend without even really thinking about the account (unless it was extravagant)

knowing I have $100 to last me 2 weeks would make me nervous. (not knowing how much is in the bank account) is that for gas too?

Monday I had $150 for the week...and it made me anxious knowing that's for gas, snacks, fast food, etc spending money. It's not too little really...but knowing if I spent it frivilously... and something came up I'd be tight made me nervous. (yes, I have savings, but that's for either a TRUE emergency, or moving expenses this summer)

SO is the same way. We do go out to dinner quite often, and buy random things. But one thing in particular he wanted was Manson tickets, and they're like $80 a piece. Well, after paying the bills and doing whatever we wanted... we didn't have another $80, lol. And he got all bitchy saying he never has money and blah blah blah   So I ended up giving him $60 because I felt bad.. and he blew it all on lottery tickets   Never again  

I'm like that. Lol

we live on less than 700 a month. :-) that's gas, bills, whatever the kids need, petfood.

Quoting Punk Rock Princess {EBFT}:" A mom was talking to me today about how her dh was confounding her, lol. She told him to take out $100 ... [snip!] ... on the table plus a small but growing savings account. Is your DH like the guys at the beginning of this post? Or are you?"

oh, my ex husband was like that no matter how much we made. but he'd flip backa nd forth. He'd waste money without talking to me (blew a thousand on hobbies on himself)..but then would complain like we were broke if I took kids to get haircuts. he was selfish...but also legitimately seemed to think we were going to be in teh poor house sometimes, even though our income was fine, and little debt

Quoting :" we live on less than 700 a month. :-) that's gas, bills, whatever the kids need, petfood."

Jesus. We make close to $3k and I feel like we struggle sometimes. Granted, all of our bills are paid and never late... but after buying groceries, gas, etc... there isn't much wiggle room.

Im like that. We have a decent savings that will cover our bills for over a year, and we have spending money left after bills, but I hate finances. I always feel like we should be careful with money even if it may seem like we will be perfectly fine at the time.

Yes but if you think about it, money controls everything. We not only depend on it for survival but also for entertainment ect. Think of the days when money didn't make the world go round... people didn't need to pay for electricity or heat, people grew and prepared their own food... people socialized and existed without it. But now as the working class thrives it's just become a way of life, people don't even think that we don't really need money at all to survive, but that we choose to be "civilized" and basically slaves to the dollar because it's just what we've become accustomed to do. So when you make what seems to be all this money but you are giving it all away to basically just survive, it does seem like you are being gipped because no one should really have to pay to live. I mean in the grand scheme of things it's pretty ridiculous. Worst invention ever imo. It makes people grumpy too.

Well, if we didn't have enough to live off of for several months in an emergency fund and we didn't have our son's college fund started already then he would consider us broke despite having all of our bills paid, food on the table, etc. We don't even count the money we spend on bills as money. We don't see it and for most things that money is taken straight from our account (with the exception of my car, our phone bill, and utilities which all get paid accordingly every month). We like to adopt the mindset that unless all of these things are accounted for and then some then we don't have money to throw around (a.k.a. "broke"). Fortunately we aren't broke by that definition  

Quoting :" we live on less than 700 a month. :-) that's gas, bills, whatever the kids need, petfood."

how? do you live with parents? why have a pet with such low income?

Quoting :" we live on less than 700 a month. :-) that's gas, bills, whatever the kids need, petfood."

How the hell do you do that?

That is pretty much rent and electricity...and SC is cheap as hell to live!

Quoting Mama❍Moon:" Yes but if you think about it, money controls everything. We not only depend on it for survival but also ... [snip!] ... to live. I mean in the grand scheme of things it's pretty ridiculous. Worst invention ever imo. It makes people grumpy too. "

That was quite a random tangent