HE CALLS IT OUR MONEY

Dear Delyara, My husband checks every purchase I make. Coffee. Gas. Tampons. A birthday gift for my sister. He receives an alert on his phone and asks what I bought before I have left the store. He calls it budgeting. I have no bank card in my own name. My paycheck goes into our account. He gives me cash for groceries and asks for receipts. If the total is wrong, he spreads everything across the kitchen table and makes me explain each item. Last month I bought a sandwich because I had missed lunch. He said, “So you can afford to waste money now?” I apologized. Yesterday, I found out he has a separate savings account with more than thirty thousand dollars in it. When I asked, he said it was for our future and that I wouldn’t understand investments. We have been married nine years. I know his blood type, his mother’s medication, the password to his work computer, and exactly how he likes his eggs. I do not know how much money I’m allowed to call mine.