Making the money stretch

Maiyuu has gone into a sulk, after I questioned him rigorously about our finances.

Maiyuu holds the ATM card to my main bank account, and has responsibility for paying bills and buying most of the groceries.

Yesterday I flew into a small panic as I thought I would not be able to get through to next pay day without an injection of funds - and I hate asking him for extra money.

Maiyuu transfers B6000 to me every two weeks. I live off that until my next pay day.

Most of the time, I manage, but lately I have lost two part-time teaching jobs. Prices in the market where we live are also going up.

The husband and wife couple who make several servings of food for us every night - which usually keep me fed through the next day - closed her shop inexplicably a few nights ago, which forced me to buy food from a different stall nearby.

Normally I order from the same couple every night, and Maiyuu pays the bill at the end of the month. In their absence, I had to start paying nightly food bills myself.

I also suffer from vagueness. I find it hard to remember on which day I get get paid. The boyfriend, of course, never forgets.

I sent Maiyuu several insistent text messages, asking where it had all gone. It was hours before he replied, because he was busy at work. By then I was contemplating drastic schemes, such as cancelling the ATM card.

I asked him how much he normally pays for various bills, and worked out how much he should have left. I under-estimated almost all the bills, because I do not pay them myself, and forget to look when they come into our home.

I am pleased that I didn't cancel the card, as he would regard that as a gross insult, and pout for days.

When he finally called, I felt relieved. He set me right about pay day. It falls sooner than I thought. I can probably make my money stretch.

The husband and wife couple who makes our food have also re-opened their shop today, after a two-day break over the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival inexplicably became a five-day no-show. I should tell them that their unexplained absence almost caused our divorce.

The boyfriend has refused to give me any more money, saying he has spending commitments, including a pair of work shoes he has ordered for me.

As I left work, he was still feeling hurt that I questioned him so closely in my text messages, and that in my crude attempts to draw up a household budget, forgot to make any allowance for his own expenditure.

'Do you expect I can just live off thin air?' he asked angrily. 'As it is, I have had to go back to work more often, to earn money to meet my expenses, as sometimes there is virtually nothing left by the time the bills are paid.'