How many of you guys have ask before you make a major purchase?

[DavidV]

My wife is good with money. I pay the bills and she manages the house. I don't think she usually knows how much we have in the bank but if I have paid the bills and tell her to take it easy she does. She socks away cash to do things she wants for herself that are not really in the budget. I am working on an outside project right now and the only question she asked was "can we afford it?" And I said yes....if we do the work. And we will. Things are a little easier than they were a few years back when we bought our house....I remember then that every time I paid the mortgage I would get a cup of coffee or a beer and walk around the yard looking at the place....amazed that I was able to pull it off for another month. Back then we didn't spend a dime without it being in our very strict budget. I wrote down every candy bar I bought.

 

[Danno77]

My mom is an accountant, so I come by it honestly, but...
I made a 15 minute powerpoint presentation with a spreadsheet and charts projecting our estimated Personal Financial Statement data for the next five years before the purchase and after the purchase. I made sure to place careful consideration for the estimated travel time involved and used the national reimbursement rates to figure automobile expenses. I used an exponentially derived trendline to estimate my earning potential over the next 20 years and estimated our net worth at the time of our retirement. After doing all of that, she still won't let me get a Fiskars.

 

[Rustaholic]

My mom is an accountant, so I come by it honestly, but...
I made a 15 minute powerpoint presentation with a spreadsheet and charts projecting our estimated Personal Financial Statement data for the next five years before the purchase and after the purchase. I made sure to place careful consideration for the estimated travel time involved and used the national reimbursement rates to figure automobile expenses. I used an exponentially derived trendline to estimate my earning potential over the next 20 years and estimated our net worth at the time of our retirement. After doing all of that, she still won't let me get a Fiskars.

Therein lies your problem.
Just buy the axe.
Which one do ya want?
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=tools&field;-keywords=Fiskars+Axe

If she throws a fit tell her you can return it if she wants to use what you have now to split the wood.

Personally they do not look that much better than any of the double bit axes I own.
It is all in the wrist action.
A wood splitter is way better.

 

[Tony H]

My mom is an accountant, so I come by it honestly, but...
I made a 15 minute powerpoint presentation with a spreadsheet and charts projecting our estimated Personal Financial Statement data for the next five years before the purchase and after the purchase. I made sure to place careful consideration for the estimated travel time involved and used the national reimbursement rates to figure automobile expenses. I used an exponentially derived trendline to estimate my earning potential over the next 20 years and estimated our net worth at the time of our retirement. After doing all of that, she still won't let me get a Fiskars.

Just buy it and dirty it up say you had it for years !

 

[daveswoodhauler]

My mom is an accountant, so I come by it honestly, but...
I made a 15 minute powerpoint presentation with a spreadsheet and charts projecting our estimated Personal Financial Statement data for the next five years before the purchase and after the purchase. I made sure to place careful consideration for the estimated travel time involved and used the national reimbursement rates to figure automobile expenses. I used an exponentially derived trendline to estimate my earning potential over the next 20 years and estimated our net worth at the time of our retirement. After doing all of that, she still won't let me get a Fiskars.

Did you really do a powerpoint presentation, or are you just pulling our chains? Thats crazy talk

 

[Tony H]

We talk over most anything over 200.00 and we have several accounts we keep funds in for different things.
Regular montly expenses

large purchases .... remodeling , appliances , vehicles and so on

personal spending

My wife buys tons and tons of small stuff and I buy more of the big stuff like Tractor, 4wheeler but she knows I hate to spend money so I wouldn't even consider it unless we need it.
She did / has given me crap about the 4wheeler but now we have had it for a few years she sees it never gets used for trail riding but gets used a ton to plow the drive , work in the yard , and haul wood.
All along we both are toy people (heck she bought the boat) so we have lots of stuff and I want to build another garage to put it in.

 

[Beowulf]

I make the money, she guards it. I do longterm planning/investing, she allocates day to day stuff and does the accounting.

We discuss major purchases and typically know the same answers before the discussion; we both know how the other thinks and try to make accomodations (she is cheap!! I like to buy cool stuff.)

The definition of "major" has crept up over the past 14 years, from things over $100, to maybe things over $500-600 now. (funny how many saws you can buy in that range)

We seem to have hit a balance where I don't feel deprived and she doesn't worry too much about being broke. Neither of us like debt nor want to be dining on Sr. Vittles in our golden years.

 

[Capt]

My wife doesn't mind.

I am really into bird dogs/ bird hunting and dog trials. I just ordered a new Mountaintop Custom Kennels dog box for my truck, set me back over 4200 dollars. The dogs I but aren't cheap either, I have been known to spend upwards of 2500 bucks on a bird dog. She really enjoys all of our dogs, and as long as it is for the dogs, she is all for it, no questions asked.........

She was a bit hesitant when I bought our stove last year, but after a few days of using it, she'd never go without using it again. She even tells me to put more wood racks in and helps me stack and carry wood. Gotta love her!

 

[mariacw]

We discuss it. I am becoming more and more miserly over the years. Hubby asked me what i wanted for my birthday, on may 8, and we came to the conclusion that I would just go pick out a mp3 player on my own. I still have not done yet because honestly I would rather have the cash in the account. We just got a new t.v. in March. We both work in the fireplace industry and this just is not the time to spend for us. Our situation works though cause I would have never paid that much for a tv but I have really enjoyed it and am glad we got it.

 

[ROBERT F]

Its a constant battle here. I make majority of money, and then when book balancing time comes around, its where the hell are all the receipts for this stuf?? had to take the plastic away from her! no big purchases, but LOTS of little stuff. She has a job, but her pay goes to her car and????? together 2 years before found out that she had a school loan that hadnt been paid on in years Her parents were horible with money, and so is she. It's getting better though, as she can finnally "talk about it without fear of getting yelled at". issues. deep deep issues~!!