My friend Hillary wrote a funny post yesterday about how she arrived home from a weekend away to discover that her husband had purchased a 52″ television and hung it on their bedroom wall. (Go read it. I’ll wait.)

As you’ll see, the point of her post is not so much about having a television on the wall, but the fact that he made such a large purchase without her knowledge. I read the post to my husband and he (jokingly) told me that he didn’t see a problem with making a purchase that big. I knew he was joking because this is a man who is so frugal that he runs nearly every purchase by me, including whether he should buy a block of cheese if it’s not on sale. I’m not even kidding.

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(I usually try to use the term “spouse” in my titles to make any male readers I have feel included but based on the comments, I’m pretty sure that men do not read this column.)

(If there are dudes who read, feel free to set me straight.)

My husband likes to shop. He is no way a metrosexual (Not that anything is wrong with that) but he hates when his clothes are worn and/or outdated and likes to remedy the situation.

He also loves to help me shop. A (large) part of it is likely the chance to watch me strip in the change room. Aside from the free show, he also has valuable input. He has no problem telling me if something is just not working and he also has no problem telling me if (he thinks) I look HOT. He’s pretty much the most perfect shopping partner ever.

As if his shopping prowess with me was not enough, he has extended his awesomeness to our three children. With me back in full-time employment and him working part-time around school hours, he’s been the One In The Know when it comes to the kids’ clothing needs.

In addition to “The Basics”, he set out this past week in search of an Easter dress for our dear daughter. He emailed me a photo of said dress (I silently squeed), then proceeded to buy it, as well as some other necessities (Her shirts were all starting to look like tube tops).

I know that my husband is a rarity in our circle of married friends, but maybe it’s just because we live in a small town where many couples fall into more “traditional” roles.

How does it work in your relationship? Does your husband like to shop? Or is it something akin to being lashed with a wet noodle?

I came across an article over at Divine Caroline titled, “When “I Do” Means “I Want” – The New Rules of Registry.” The article explains what items are appropriate…and what items are not. The stores mentioned in the article that have registries was pretty varied and a little mind-blowing.

As someone who got married nearly ten years ago (Woo!) our options for registering at the time were The Hudson’s Bay Company (I’m Canadian. Holla!) and IKEA. My husband and I had both spent a number of years living on our own before we met, so we didn’t necessarily need anything.

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I came across an interesting article titled, “Big spenders tend to marry big savers, researchers find.” In the article there was the following quote:

“They found that people who generally spend less than they would ideally like to spend, and those who spend more than they would like to tend to marry each other.”

I found this point quite interesting.

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Nataly sent me this link for an article titled, “Is marrying for money worth it?”

Base on the title, I thought I could ramble on about how I truly believe that love is not merely a feeling; it is a commitment. I thought I could debate the point that based on the number of people in the world who come together via arranged marriages, and subsequently are deeply in love, that an argument for marrying for money could possibly be made.

Then I read this quote from a book that they cited:

The book contains a lot of other advice that the average mother wouldn’t care, or dare, to hand down: that sexual fulfillment is dependent on discovering yourself through masturbation; that it is imperative to marry young, while you have the seductive powers of the sexually attractive and fecund; to be aware that men are prone to trading up, “once you no longer have great skin or look great in jeans”.

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