Interesting, but with that first sig line I would have thought the answer would have been obvious.

With the second, I would have thought the answer would have been mandatory.

Well........ There was no fussing and fighting over my x-mas bonus!

A $25 gift certificate to Publix![:E]

In a  marriage, honesty is the best policy. [:)]

So, you're married to a JAPrincess, STT?

Here's how it goes in my house...

For my Christmas bonus this year, an exceptional one, I got
1. a $50 Wallyworld card, spent on ammo
2. a $20 FoodLion card, spent on food
3. a $25 Lowe's Food card, to be spent on food.

That's 50/45

She works for a nonprofit org.  I don't know if she got anything.  I doubt it.

We've been married 10 years, and make about the same $$$.

We both work side jobs.

She teaches First Aid and CPR for the Red cross for $10 an hour between 0 and 10 hours a month.

I do electrical work for anyone that'll have me for between $45 and $75 an hour, between 0 and 100 hours a month.  Some months I make $0, most are much, much better.

She gets all her side money.  If I've done well, I slide her some Bennies.  She looks at teh Bennies as a bonus everytime.  She never expects anything.  Never asks how much I made.  Never bitches because her extra $300  windfall ain't enough. I never ask what she spends it on.  She usually squirrels it.

I wish I could remember the times that I agonized over spending a thousand bucks on a toy for me and, after watching me fondle an ar, a vacation, or whatever for months on end, she said  "Just buy the damned thing".  And I didn't.  

Last week I told her about my upcoming "side work schedule".  She asked me if we were going to have to buy [b]another[/b] safe anytime soon.

Cool woman.  I think I'll go start a thread.

Well I voted to keep your mouth shut but actually you could go 50/50. Give her the food and shit as her half and keep the greenbacks. I never have had a problem with keeping a slush fund.

My first thought, exactly. Why shouldn't the two of you enjoy an unexpected windfall?

Bonus money is treated as regular income in the markl32 household.  This was decided when we both got bonus during our first year married, no further discussions needed. There are no bonuses for us this year (both in high tech).   Future bonus goes in savings/investments or towards a double mortgage payment.  Sure it’s not as glamorous as spending it all.  Someday I’ll be out of this rat race and the sooner the better.

At the risk of sounding crass, this thread and her response too it suggest you have some communication issues to work out.

My Xmas bonus just picked up all the misc parts to finish BOTH my AR projects...

A4gery:

20" A3 Gov't upper with a FF RAS, RRA trigger, and an ARMS#40

M4gery:

Aimpoint ML2, 22M68, Cantilever ext, double battery module, killflash

Pics to follow!!!

The trick is, get the wife something big too.  She's getting a new car, so dammit, I'm buying gun stuff.

Tell her the truth, but play your cards right, make sure she's getting two things:  the truth, and a piece of the action![:D]

Tell her,  share the ham for dinner,  put the clock in a good location, and then sit down with her and discuss how the two of you are going to spend or save it TOGETHER.

CJ

Thulsa Doom is correct...share the ham for dinner, but don't forget the glaze.  Ham sucks without a glaze.

Also, as a different alternative, ham makes for an interesting reactive target.

Give her the Ham and the Earth clock (whatever the hell that is).  It is your bonus and you earned it.

Option 1:
Give her $200
Give yourself $200
Give charity $100

2:
Simply put it into the savings account and use it like all of the other money you get from work, i.e., rent, food, insurance.  Yeah, not imaginative, but it literally pays the bills.

3:
Spend some of it on a surprise night out for the two of you.  Take what's left and the both of you decide how that's to be spent.

4:
Down payment on a divorce lawyer.

A very close friend's wife got a christmas bonus and she hid it from him. How he found out was he had tapped the phone, because he thought she was cheating on him.

SHE WAS and you know when she started. Right after the bonus.

Its a slippery slope.

Its all OURS at my house.

If it was me I'd tell her but you don't have to tell her how much the bonus was. Just buy her something nice so she'll know you thought of her and spend the rest on your new rifle. That will keep you both happy for the new year. You don't have to spend alot on her, women don't care about price, with them it's the fact that you thought about them that matters. Jewlery is always nice, a neckless or ring will score big points and you can normally get a deal on one during the Christmas holidays.

I cant believe the way she acted when you showed her this thread. She sounds like a spoiled bitch. IMHO. YMMV.


For what its worth I got a $200 bonus and gave it to the wife and fully expected her to put it in OUR checking account. She did as expected. She would NEVER even think about keeping or spending that money without the goahead from me.
We have enough money and she is VERY frugal.

What, did SHE earn it??!!??  Or did YOU earn it with YOUR work?

Sounds like there is some confusion in your household as to whose shorts hold the testicles and whose hands earn the money, too!

I retract my earlier suggestion.  Give her the ham and the clock and buy yourself a new toy with YOUR money that YOU earned.  

What gives her the right to more than, at MOST, her fair share which is half if you actually live by the joint property school of marriage?

If I were the husband with the not-yet-revealed bonus and my wife made that comment to me,  she'd be sleeping OUTSIDE tonight, without even the dog for company.  (The dog sleeps inside as a matter of course and is even welcome on the bed.)


Nope, I'm wrong again.   Don't give her the clock.  She doesn't need one because there's a clock ON THE STOVE.

[:D]



CJ

Not really just not afraid of my wife enough to feel I have to tell her everything.

Tj

You sir, are a pompus ass. My wife got $1200 bonus this year, and I haven't seen a "bonus" in 6 years. I won't see a dime of it. It goes into the checking for bills. Any "extra" money I get goes to the same place. We don't hide money from each other. We're in this thing TOGETHER.
AB

Wow, what an eye opening thread [shock].

For richer and poorer, share and share alike, together forever, a partnership is not built on deceit, Treat others as you would have them treat you.

I guess there are just as many different kinds of marriages as there are different kinds of people. Some seem down right cruel, I mean why bother ?

MERRY CHRISTMASS [wave]

I answered the poll to go 50:50, but after reading the responses, I am not so sure. I think it depends on how you handle your money normally.

A) If both of you work and split the expenses, then keep it.

B) If you both pool your money and draw from it as needed, do that.

C) If your income is the only income, then do whatever you do with the rest of your paychecks.

Don't know what other scenarios there may be, but I am in situation A, so I would keep it. I might treat her to something, or get something for the house that we have been wanting, but it would be my decision on how to spend my money.

[b]obviously some of ya'll are not reading the whole thread before posting. On page 2 last post I told about what's going on now, & what I decided to do.[/b] My wife & I have a wonderful marriage, & I have never hidden a single thing from my wife since we have been married. I even told her about women that have offered to be my gals, but timing played an important roll in that.
I was just feeling a little selfish about a chance to have a small wad of cash. I even made this post because like Old Painless said, I already knew the answer, I just wanted to be pushed in the right direction by some of my peers. I didn't expect that so many folks would use this as an opportunity to call my wife names, or to besmirch my marriage.
I already discussed it with her, & we ironed it all out. She was more than sweet, & more than fair about it. She insisted that I put it into savings for a future gun purchase, but I'm putting it there to save for a cruise for our anniversary next fall.

When she had her rant she told me latter that she went with her gut feeling, & without all the facts. After further discussing it, she had time to see it from other angles, & changed her view. I have been know to change my view on things as new facts or particulars come to light on a given subject too.

[b]Kar98[/b] She is of Jewish decent, but is a Christian, & without getting into it, considers herself a Jew for Jesus. This is not an invitation to argue from some of the more militant Jews on our board. Ya'll believe how ya'll want, & let us believe what we want, enough said?[:D]

Just remember that no one is perfect, & that one post about the workings of my mind doesn't let you see the total picture of who we are, our what our marriage is like. We have been married for more than 13 years. How many of you who said unkind things about me, my wife or our marriage have done so well, or lasted as long?[rolleyes]
I guess I should have gone with my gut, & told right away, & shared it with her from the second I got it. I had 8 hours at work to spend it on my wants before I got home, & let my wants get ahead of my normal sharing self. As I posted earlier, how many of you have ever sold a loved possession to buy your wife something frivolous? I sold my H&K USP when it was my only pistol to buy her sapphire earings for no special occasion, just because I knew she really wanted them.

Dude, if my wife got a bonus, she would tell me about it, but I would never even think of asking her to "share" it with me.  It's her job, she worked to get it, it's her bonus.

Based on the presumption that she (not me) worked her ass off to get it, she should also then be able to enjoy the fruits of her labor.  Otherwise, what incentive would she have to be a "shining star" at work?

I know exactly what my wife would do with it too.  She would take me out to dinner with it and at dinner I would give her some cool ideas on what she could spend the rest of it on to treat herself to something nice.  She deserves it!

Footnote:  My fucking X-mas bonus was a $30 Target giftcard.  I don't even like Target.  I'll go and use it to buy stuff to send my son in Iraq!!

there was a saying to that chist went up to this woman and she said something about her husband and jesus replied back say I know you have two. I have to look this up.

Aimless..where are you located.  I MAY need that apartment soon....!

Consider yourself lucky. I work for the county, the closest thing I get to a Christmas bonus is last year my boss handed me a phone card that has like $5 worth of call time on it. I stuck it in my wallet in case of emergency.

My wife, however, DID get a Christmas bonus, as well as a ham. Her company also took us to Cedar Point over the summer. She gets all kinds of other bennies from her work too.

When she told me about the bonus she was gonna be getting, I just said 'Wow, lucky you'. And she wanted my help in figuring out what to get. We bought some groceries with it and a couple presents for our daughter, who's stuff I couldnt find at the local store and we had to order off Amazon.

Every month, I pay the house, electric, water, phone, car insurance, and internet bills, and she pays the car, cable, and gas. We buy groceries as needed, and whoever has money left pays for them. When we've got something left over after meeting the bills, we figure out if theres something that I want, something she wants, or something we both want. We share the bills and have one checking account.

If theres something I want and the bills are paid, she'll tell me to get it. I usually dont,  because I know that the minute I do, something will come up, like my truck will decide its time for a new throttle cable, or one of the pipes in the basement will spring a leak.

If theres something she wants, I usually tell her to get it. I dont mention things like leaky pipes and such. I figure I'll pay for that kind of thing, if there's something she wants she can get it.

Luckily my wife isnt the materialistic type. She has no use for diamonds. Our wedding bands are plain silver rings. She asked for an AR-15 for our first Valentine's Day after getting married, then she wanted a pistol so I bought her a CZ-100 .40 cal for our anniversary this year. She is still trying to get me to get her an AR-10. I'm gonna try and save the money for one so that if the ban expires and isnt renewed, I can go out and buy her one, WITH the fun stuff like a bayonet lug, flash suppressor, and folding stock, and NOT have to pay $100 for a 20 round mag.

I know my post was a little off topic, and now your situation has been resolved. I'd say you handled it alright.

[b]I sold my H&K USP when it was my only pistol to buy her sapphire earings for no special occasion, just because I knew she really wanted them.[/b]

Searcherfortruth
If thats not above and beyond I dont know what is. [hail2]  

I love my wife but I wouldnt trade my last SIG. for jewerly.