Adebayor's started so well for Man City
The Housekeeping
31 year old Nick from Manchester surprised me today. He admitted he gave his wife a weekly housekeeping allowance. (Not sure why I used the word admitted - it's not as though he was shoving cocaine up his nose or stealing the knickers off his saucy next door neighbour's washing line - both of which you would only ever "admit"). Giving an allowance to your wife reminded me of my own parents and grandparents, and it struck me as old-fashioned which is why I smiled when Nick told me cos he's so young. I suppose it has to be that way if one works and the other doesn't or has a part-time job. There was always tension in my house if my mum and dad had had a row - would he or wouldn't he hand over the 80 quid to her on a friday so she could do the weekly shop?
Witholding it was his rather pathetic trump card but he was too witless to realise that my mum was quite smart for a delicate lady from Bury and often she'd kept a bit back from previous weeks so she could actually feed her 3 kids or buy that fab pair of shoes in the sale.
I swear there was a time when he hadn't paid any of the leccie bills, the house was freezing, the telephone had been cut off (Rochdale 76165), and he wouldn't give my mum any money to buy food; the cupboards were seriously bare. During the inevitable argument over what the chidlren were going to eat he looked round the kitchen and spotted a half-empty fruit bowl cradling a couple of withered lemons and announced "there are lemons, what more do you want?". You had to laugh.
I'm curious to know how many people like Nick there are, under 40, male or female who give their other half a weekly housekeeping allowance? Sounds like it's continuing down the generations.
My Father used to give my mother all of his hard earned cash and she would then give him his "pocket money"! Had he not given her his wages our cupboards would have been bare on a regular basis.
Me and my partner have a joint account into which goes each of our salaries.
Over and above that we, due to her, have another account, in her name, which we use for holidays, furniture, weekends away and whatever else takes our fancy at the time.
I'm not a materialistsic person and leave her to it. I trust her implicitly.
As now the MD of a Commercial Debt Recovery business I ought to have known better but I used to give my now ex wife carte blanche access to my account, and she certainly used it!
The most classic was nearly 10 years ago having paid over a thousand pounds for her birthday party, including at her request (sorry demand!) a disco live band and food etc I handed her 150 quid more to buy herself something nice to wear to her party! She came home with a 175 quid pair of shoes and a 250 quid dress!! A lot of money now let alone then when my income was quite a lot lower than fortunately it is now!