Quote Originally Posted by Rich Engelhardt View Post
The two edged sword....

When we first got married (32 years ago), I did all the bill paying.
I let a credit card bill go one month and got tagged a $10.00 late fee.
I blew it off - but my wife had a conniption over it.
Ever since then, she's the one that pays the bills .
(Best $10 I ever spent in my life!)

The downside is that she goes through each bill with a fine tooth comb.
I can't sneak anything past her so I don't even try.

She's got me trained pretty well though. All she asks when I buy something is if I shopped around for the best price.
I had the same checkbook experience. It took several deliquent notices and late fees but now my wife pays the bills. However, she has learned how to monitor both the checkbook and credit cards on-line. So there is no slipping any of those expenses past her. However, cash is not tracked so I simply need to save up cash and pay for tools that way. In general I simply tell her after the fact, and that I used my "tool fund".