'Take Care of It': Man Slated for Telling Wife To Pay for His Family's Meal

The internet has slammed a man after he told his wife to "take care of" the bill at a restaurant for the couple and his family.

Posted on Thursday on the popular Reddit forum r/AmITheA**hole, the post now has over 19,000 upvotes and thousands of comments. It can be read here.

The user, Valley-Mountains3453, shared the full story in the post: "To begin, my husband and I don't share finances, it's been like this for the three years of our marriage and so far we've been doing well, though he'd sometimes try to get me to pay for him but I do it only when I want to do a nice thing for him."

The poster revealed that in the last week, her husband had received a bonus at work. Overjoyed, he told his entire family and planned for them to go out and celebrate together.

"He picked the restaurant, meals, drinks etc," explained the poster. "I naturally thought he was going to pay for all that since it's his happy celebration. But it turns out I was wrong because when it was time to pay the bill, he told me to 'take care of it.'"

She revealed that her husband continued to insist she pay the bill and said that he would explain later. "I refused and demanded an explanation," wrote the user. "He said that while yes he is the one who got the bonus, he assumed I'd want to celebrate and offer to cover the bill. When I talked about how ridiculous it was of him to assume I'd pay for not just his, but his family's meals he said that I should be happy for him instead of being visibility bitter."

The poster said that she refused to pay the bill and instead only paid for what she consumed. But her husband and his family told her she was acting inappropriately.

"His mom spam called me for hours," she wrote. "And he went off on me at home saying I spoiled his celebration."

At the end of the post, she revealed that her husband had been upset with her for days now.

Appalled by the story, Redditors overwhelmingly sided with the poster and slammed the man's behavior.

One user said: "It's common knowledge that you do not invite people to dinner and then expect them to pay for everyone else. You don't trap your spouse in awkward situations like that, either." Another user wrote: "Maybe I'm weird, but when I got a bonus, I paid for a celebratory dinner with friends."

Money can be a difficult topic for couples. A 2022 article by financial advice site Investopedia said: "While it's not the most romantic part of moving in together, newlyweds need to talk about household logistics—who pays which bill, how you will reimburse each other, and how you will work toward shared goals. Plan to sit down and discuss these logistics to ensure you both understand and agree on the plan."

In Fidelity Investment's annual 2021 Couples and Money Study, 59 percent of couples said that money was their greatest relationship challenge. While 24 percent of people said they were often frustrated at their partner's money habits, but let it go for the sake of keeping the peace.

One Redditor said: "If he planned this and expected you to foot the bill you shouldn't have been the last to know. A conversation with you was warranted before you got to the restaurant and not in front of his family." Another user wrote: "He invited you out for dinner, so he should pay."

Newsweek reached out to Valley-Mountains3453 for comment.