Hidden Baggage

July 28, 2008

I know when I can’t get away with something in front of my significant other. Usually it is about spending money. When I come home from spending time with someone, and I am usually sporting a plastic bag from a store in one hand, I always feel like I cannot bring it into the house.

I have hidden my bags quite well, stuffing them in my car before entering the house, leaving it with the person I was shopping with until a later date when we could bring it home when he wasn’t around, I’d stuff it in a different bag so he wouldn’t be suspicious, and I have also crammed it in my purse. I guess there are no lines drawn in the sand for me when it comes to hiding something I feel guilty for having.

I have made plans to act like it wasn’t mine if he caught me with it; make it out that I grab it by accident out of my friends’ car. I have spent numerous hours coming up with excuses in case I was caught or could hide it anywhere and had to bring it in.

I have to admit, half the time, it isn’t my money being spent. Usually my mom or friends by things for me and I just have to bring it in. You would think he wouldn’t get so uptight about things when I am not spending our money.

“Women tend to buy clothes, make-up and personal indulgences like pedicures, while men tend to hide big-ticket items," says Tina B. Tessina, a Long Beach, California, psychotherapist and author of "Money, Sex and Kids: Stop Fighting About the Three Things That Can Ruin Your Marriage.". "They spend more on gambling and the stock market and fantasy football and porn. They don't hide their spending in the closet; they hide it on the computer."

And after reading this little quote, my whole world changed. I had wondered why he spent so much time on the computer!