Boys and their toys....?

Hi Ladies

Who out there has a DH/DP who loves to buy big boys toys?

We are on one income, and are on a really tight budget. Every few weeks my DH has a great idea and just HAS to have a new toy. His latest idea is that he is going to be a cyclist, and has purchased a road bike. (Admittedly it is second hand). That took all of our leftover money from last pay. This week, hes purchased 4 cycling tops, and has also purchased a singlet. Before that he was going to be a body builder, and bought a whole lot of weights and insisted he needed these freaking pills that were $75 to make his muscles bigger. Before that he was going to start martial arts (Thank god that one passed quickly before he acted on it) and before that he was going to bodyboard and we spent over $600 on equipment.

Yesterday we had a big arguement about it, as he AGAIN insisted he needed to spend another $100 on a pump and lock for the bike. He said some pretty hurtful things and stormed out of the shop like a child because i had huffed and puffed about the items he just had to have.
The thing is, he thinks he works hard and is entitled to have/buy these things. We just dont have the money (Well, we have SOME money, but not for things like this)

How on earth do i deal with this? Hes on about buying cycle shorts, next it will be the shoes and the fluro jacket. He says hes depressed about having to work and this will make him happy. I know theres worse out there, and I guess i should be greatful its not cars or motorbikes, but GRRRRR~!!!

Sounds just like my DH!! He is a shocker for buying things cos he needs them.  Unfortunately for us he WAS into motorbikes!! (He fell off at high speed last week and is lucky to be alive - the end of the motorbike era!!)

He also used the excuse that he earnt the money so he should be able to spend it... and that if he has to go to work he should be able to do what he wants in his spare time...

Argg it is such a man thing. Don't get me started on the Bike thingy that turns your road bike into and exercise one, the exercise trainer and all the kitchen gadgets the mincer the crock pot the assorted frying pans, mixers and blenders. Now he wants a pasta maker ......

My worst one is the 13,000 spa pool that just keeps on costing after adding on another 1,000 to get a crane to lift the bloody thing onto the deck and the cost of the specail saftey gate and then the on going cost of water and chemicals.

(did I mention that I hate spa pools and have never even been in it) I would rather have gone on an overseas holiday.

There is always something else they "really need".

My DH is the same except he likes to buy musical instruments. It doesnt help that he works in a music shop. We dont even have the space. His Keyboard (which he just got because he apparently needed a smaller one to take out and play and ended up with one twice the size of the original one) lives in the doorway of the bedroom - its honestly the only place it will fit, and I am constantly crashing into it. And then of course theres the $1000 of dollars he spends keeoing it up to date and getting all the extra accessories. He tells me that if he is ever going to make money with his music he has to spend the money now on the stuff but I'm sure he can do just as well without the most expensive keyboard in the shop.
It drives me nuts, last week I managed to stop him buying a Piano Accordian cos we just dont have the space.
He's on minumum wage but is supposed to get monthly comission which he puts straight into more instruments. Hes even trying to convince me we need to buy Keira a mini drum kit.

I liek to remind him that its not just his money, and yes he has worked hard for it but I'm at home working hard looking after his kids so he can earn money for the family.
We have tried doing pocket money usually $20 each a week. It didnt work to well because he would always overspend and I would end up giving him all my money. He occasionally does extra things for cash like teaching which he also claims for himself.

DH wouldn't dare do that. He has his interests/toys though.. but we each get an allowance, we can spend that on whatever we choose, it sounds like you need to adopt something like that... money set aside that hes allowed to spend on toys but he cant go over that. Everyone wins that way.

LOL, I think *I* am the one with the toy buying problem in this household, as DH is pretty good really! Most of my buying is for Alex, but it's not all necessary stuff I have to admit!

I do have a rule though, that if I want new things then I have to sell other stuff to buy them. So I've listed some of my clothes, some of his old clothes, some toys he doesn't play with anymore etc. I basically only keep really special things if he doesn't play with them or wear them anymore, and that gives me 'retail therapy' money.

It keeps DH happy too, less clutter.

DH would never do anything like that. Anything he does buy, he runs it past me first, right down to new t-shirts! He has a tendency to be impulsive so it's good that he runs it by me as then it gives him extra time to decide if he really does want or need it. And I get a chance to talk him out of it. In saying that though, we are not deprived of new and fun things that we want. If we don't have the money there, we won't get it.

The allowance-type idea is a great one. And maybe you can sell off some of the other equipment if you can get him to think that he really won't use it again.

Thanks ladies. We've done the spending money thing before and it never worked. We'd save it up and then need to use it for something else.
Hes pretty good at running things past me first (I always say yes, except for the other day) Honestly, why ask someone their opinion if you are going to have a hissy fit if it doesnt go your way!

The thing is, he usually starts with "Darling, would you like to get your nails done or something this pay?" Then he proceeds to ask for a new toy for himself. I dont see the point in spending $70 on some nails when we could spend that on food...

AND... the other day (Sorry for the tangent) I asked if i could spend $100 on the kids clothes as they have grown out of everything. He said yes, but said i OWE him one (Not money, but in other ways IYKWIM ) his hissy fit the other day was because he had let me spend money but i wouldnt let him spend any. Um, hello? I spent money on the KIDS!!!!

lmfao...yup my DP goes through phases like that, except it's something we all benefit from, like his latest project is the garden, which use to be just a mud hill. He recently brought the house a new tv, and got sky installed...he's good though because he'll do overtime to pay for tthe extra things we get. I'm quite a scrooge when it comes to money, I hardly ever buy anything for myself, only buy things for Kahtrell, and I'm always looking for a bargain lol.

I'm on a roll and quite enjoying moaning about my DH (he usually moans about my visa but thats just not the same)

Anyway I forgot to mention the table tennis table that sits beside our car folded up against the wall !!! He brought this with the $500.00 voucher for rebel sports that I won !!!!

Actually I'm being a bit mean in my previous post as he actually bought the spa with his redundancy from a part time job he had had for 18 years. but an overseas trip would have been more fun