Girlfriends and wifes, how do YOU cope?

My wife used to ask me "When are you going to be finished buying and selling .. and when are you going to get rid of all those darn boxes?"

As I upgraded, the complaints were replaced by spontaneous dancing and comments like "good" when she came up to visit me in my listening room.

Finally, my wife started complaining that the speakers at her exercise dance class were so bad she didn't want to go to dance class anymore.

My recommendation ... keep upgrading.

When my wife and I frequent antique shops/malls, she will let me know where there are any LP's that I may have missed. Also, she will unplug my system when thunderstorms are in the area if I'm away. She knows how much it means to me, and supports me, as long as I don't want to spend too much money. I really have to verify the need to spend big bucks.

I'm one of those rare mythical creatures-the audiophile wife.

I love all the equipment and was into audio long before I met my husband.

I do miss being able to have my couch in the living room, though instead of in the garage because there isn't room for it.:)

Carolyn

I manage it by having separate finances that we don't have to justify to each other. We have the shared accounts, where bills are paid from, and groceries, and other shared expenses.

But then we also have our own accounts that we do as we please. If she buys some $500 shoes, I don't care - it's her money. If I buy expensive hi-fi equipment, she doesn't care, it's my money.

Purchases that come from the shared checking or savings accounts require us both to agree and approve of the purchase before hand. But purchases from our own separate accounts are purely our own.

Do your marriage a favor and take control of the finances - have joint accounts for joint expenses and separate accounts for individual expenses.

I'm glad I'm single! ;)