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Its a little weird for me in my marriage. My wife makes much more than me, more than twice my salary. She also has a 12 yr. old girl, now my stepdaughter. I pay half the utilities, buy half the groceries and cover half the house mortgage. She covered most of the wedding and honeymoon which was pretty expensive. Lately she has wanted me to put more toward the mortgage to help cover property taxes. She does sometimes let me slide a little on bills if I have an unexpected bill like dental work or car repair or the like. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing. For instance half the groceries. I don't feel feeding her daughter is my responsibility. If I made more money ok but I don't and I have trouble covering all my expenses so I'd like that to go away or be tempered somewhat. Maybe I could buy basics but all the breakfast cereals and snacks and chips and cookies and crap I never had to buy when alone should go. We talked about it and she didn't mention it for a while but now its back. Also the extra money toward the property taxes. The house is in her name (she purchased before the marriage) and I already make half the monthly mortgage. I really can't afford a couple hundred more a month and again, she more than doubles my salary. I'm not looking for a free ride, I'm a man and want to earn my way but if the situation was reversed and I was the big money maker with a child I would ask somewhat less of her financially. She puts a fair amount away into savings for her retirement and for her daughters college fund but with what I have to pay I have nothing left to put away and sometimes worry about my future. I mean, I never wanted the big house and before we got together my needs were pretty simple. In marrying her my bills have actually gone up. She likes to go out to nice restaraunts and take trips and a lot of this I just can't afford and still cover expenses. I've tried to bring up some of these issues and how I worry about my future but she gets upset. She says she's just putting aside money for OUR future and it doesn't matter whos name the house is in because it will always be our home. I told her one never knows what will happen, we might get divorced one day or there might be an untimely death and suddenly I'm out on the street with no savings and no home. This conversation did NOT go well so I dropped it. I don't know, I just think the partner that makes significantly more should bear a bit more weight if the couple is going to live the lifestyle of said partner. I'm going to sit her down and have a long talk about budgets and my reality sometime in the near future.
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