Dear love and life, my wife and I have been married for five years now. We have only one child as we both agreed to live within the realities of our pockets.
Our problem is with money for soup. Before the birth of our little angel, three years ago, I could afford to give her N5,000 for soup every Friday. But now, I can only afford N3,000.
I’ve explained to her that times are hard. She never listens, all she does is grumble about the money. One Saturday, while I was expecting vegetable soup loaded with stock fish, she brought me fish stew with fishes the size of fingerlings.
Her attitude recently has been making me suspect she’s tired of this marriage due to my inability to give her ‘enough’ money for soup.
Please what can I do?
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Dear Anonymous Writer,
It is indeed a challenging time to live in Nigeria. The economy is currently not as vibrant as it used to be over a decade ago and therefore, living in the country is quite difficult for majority of Nigerians.
But in spite of all these challenges, a human being must SURVIVE in order to live. It is the survival instincts that has kicked your wife to challenge you over her and the child’s living condition, especially on the quality and quantity of food.
Unfortunately, inflation is one of the major setbacks that is currently affecting the country’s economy. Staple foods and fruits are pricey, sometimes beyond the estimated budget of an individual. Yet, man must survive!
To resolve this issue over the food issue in your family, I advise that you do not just tell your wife that “times are hard.” No wife and mother would want to listen to that kind of excuse. It, therefore, behoves on you to convince her beyond doubt why you cannot provide more than the amount you are currently offering her.
Find a good time when she is in a good mood, call her for a proper discussion and inform her of your monthly income. Also dissect how you allocate money to each budgeted item so that she will understand why your hands are tied in respect of the funds you provide for feeding.
However, I will also advise that you critically re-examine your budget list and if there is any area in which spending is not of “utmost importance”, you should strike that out and re-allocate the money to food. In addition, I also advise that you temper your expectation on the type and quantity of food as provided by your wife. In reality, it is what you provide in terms of money that she will present as the finished product of a cooked meal.
GCN
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