Coupons and clearance and credit cards OH MY!

Before today's topic, let me give you a little bit of background (very helpful that my fellow blogger and I are in fact, related so I only have to do this once) Growing up in a household with 6 children you quickly realize the value of money. Especially when the father of those 6 children is an accountant and financial planner and a man who when he is told the price of something often stammers "AMERICAN DOLLARS?!?!?!" with eyes bugging from his head. And the mother of said 6 children is the queen of bargain shopping...ask to see the closet of our youngest brother's former upstairs bedroom. Clearance rack scores for birthdays and Christmases to come, odds are pretty good she was in labor with at least one of the six of us at a garage sale and she has been known to haggle with the fine folks at Target. So my sister and I are no strangers to the ways of frugality and budgeting. We are familiar with penny pinching and belt tightening. We cut coupons and online sales are cause for overly excited phone calls of an immediate nature. Yet we still panic when our husbands enter into the financial world.....


You all know by now my sister and I have talked every aforementioned topic to death. Today is no exception. We both have admittedly come dangerously close to shitting ourselves when our husbands sit down to check the bank balance. We break out into hives and start sweating in places you don't talk about at parties. Which is weird because neither one of us go nuts with the debit card. In fact, I don't even USE my debit card. My husband and I instated a "cash only" policy several years ago that works quite well for us. (although we need to come up with another term "allowance" sounds so juvenile) Despite my lack of debit card usage everytime he logs onto bankofamerica.com I find myself cowering in the corner like a frightened puppy *and see above for details about hives and sweating. Why is that? I haven't gone hog wild online shopping. I didn't go on some crazy Target spree buying all sorts of unnecessary crap (well, I probably did, I just used my cash for it). Which I guess in a way is good, I no longer have him questioning every.single.thing.I.buy.

"What'd you spend $60 on at Target?"

"What'd you get at Old Navy?"

"Are groceries REALLY that expensive?" (not necessarily I just know of a few friends who like the ol' hey-Miss-cashier-add-an-extra-$30-to-my-total-so-I-can-get-cash-back-trick)

"You went to Target again?"

My fellow blogger treated herself to a pair of shoes and had no sooner GOTTEN IN THE FREAKING CAR when her husband called to ask about the charge to the debit card. Damn online banking assholes. They have all ruined the lives of women everywhere. Men everywhere are rejoicing while women are making voodoo dolls and cursing their names. I was on the phone with a girlfriend the other day as she was walking in to Kohl's and she said her husband's radar was probably going off as she passed through the doors. She swore that her phone would ring as soon as she swiped the credit card.

Now I know that this will be one topic where we don't have all of our readers going OH MY GOD YES THAT IS SO MY LIFE! Because I could count several of my friends who I know in fact hold the proverbial purse strings. Their husbands are so financially inept that they couldn't hold onto a quarter found on the ground in a parking lot long enough to keep their family afloat so the wife had to take charge. I also know in some families the husband and wife have completely separate accounts and neither knows what goes on (hmm...you could be onto something there...) I mean, don't get me wrong, I DO know what he does with our money. I know all about our investments and IRA's and savings and all that crap but he prefers to be in charge and I'm ok with that. He LIKES knowing where every friggin single solitary itty bitty teeny weeny penny goes every damn friggin month. And he likes knowing the status of MY "allowance" (seriously people...find me another name for it...I'm not 11) When I left to go to the grocery store the other day he asked if I had money. Yes, I have money jackass. I can budget. I know how much I get at the beginning of every month and I'm fully aware of how many days are in each month. Therefore I know how long that money needs to last me. Admittedly things have gotten a little dicey towards the end of the month and I've had to get VERY creative in the pantry but that's where my upbringing has come in handy...thank God for coupon clipping and clearance racks...