Fun with scissors

Besides getting control of our grocery budget, the hardest part of staying on budget is the unexpected expenses.  There are a lot of those when you have a large family and some of them are quite unexpected.

DD2 & DD3 decided, along with a friend of theirs, to cut their own hair.  DD3 did some serious damage and took off about 18 inches of her beautiful curly hair.  After I got over the intial shock I groaned when I thought about the cost of three hair cuts when are funds are so low.  Luckily the girls friend's mom use to be a hair stylist and told us not to worry about her daughters.  Since the incident happened under our roof I felt bad asking her to cut my girl's hair too.  Grandma M saw the damage on Facebook and offered to take DD3 to get it fixed so that was awesome.  DD2 is in the foster care system and we are suppose to get permission before we cut her hair. Since the damage was minimal I decided it could wait until I got ahold of her social worker.  It shouldn't cost to much at the local supercuts but I have to figure out where the money is coming from.  At least I am only paying for 1 and not 3.

I am going to have to have another sit down talk with DW about that it means to be on a tight budget. DW is always on board when I talk about budgeting and watching our spending in theory but in practice she struggles.  First I was noticing charges from gas stations and fast food joints and we had a sit down about how we could afford those expenses and she promised to stop.  Now I am noticing that approved charges are becoming more expense when she is the one picking it up.  For example, she went to pick up my prescription that has a $25.00 copay and the charge on our debit card was $32.00. 

I am beyond frustrated. If she had told me directly after the fact that she purchased some unneeded items I would have been annoyed, but for me to discover on my own that she is sneaking purchases is ridiculous. I am trying to formulate the best way to speak with her about this as we have had a lot of trust issues in our marriage and I am trying to make sure I stay on point and not let the past rear it's ugly head.  How do you talk to your spouse about money?