Hard work = money = bills get paid. Of course I love you, Maiyuu!

So, I’m being mean to poor little Maiyuu, am I?

A cautionary word to foreigners inclined to judge: even harmless looking Thais – those who don’t have use of the farang’s ATM card – can end up causing mischief.

I don't mind giving Maiyuu the benefit of the doubt. He probably deserves it, as he does most things for the sake of us both as a couple.

But the phone purchase still came as a shock, as I had advised against it previously, and I thought he knew better than to get into hire purchase debt.

Some readers say I swing drastically from one mood to the next: keen on the boyfriend one moment, talking about leaving him the next.

Maybe I did go over the top yesterday, venting about how his purchase of an I-Phone might bring our relationship to an early end.

I can see now that if had not bought the thing on HP, he may have missed the chance to own one, as we do not have that kind of cash lying around.

‘You are the only one who spends money in big chunks,’ Maiyuu reminded me today – B6000 for a pair of glasses recently, B10,000 (or whatever) every time I buy a new computer. He has a point.

Maiyuu and I had a small argument today over his I-Phone, after he caught me in an unguarded moment looking stressed.

He knew why I was worried: money. And he knows what set it off: his I-Phone purchase on tick, which we must now repay at a rate of B900 a month for the next two years.

It’s not the price, which is cheap. It’s that we could probably find some other use for that money over time. In a month, I might need to visit the dentist, or the computer might break down again. What then?

Maiyuu has offered a solution. We shall start a separate savings plan, by putting aside B1000 a month to meet such incidental expenses. He has also – sound the trumpets! – decided to get a job.

Last night he stayed at a friend’s place to attend a housewarming ceremony. While there, he spoke to the sister of one of his gay friends. She runs a coffee shop in town, and has agreed to take his bakery produce for sale in her shop.

Maiyuu hasn’t gone into fussy, farang-style details, such as how much baking he will sell, or how much he is likely to earn. That’s all for the future, or – I suspect – the never-never.

However, he did give me this other piece of welcome news:

‘You won’t have to pay for the phone. I shall pay for it out of money I earn myself.’

Excellent. Bring it on. It’s about time my boyfriend found himself a job. I don’t love him so much that I can tolerate such eccentric conduct with the finances. He spends with impunity because he doesn’t have to pay the bills.

Now that he has agreed to find that B900 a month himself, we’ll see how much he really wanted that phone – or whether he thought the boyfriend would simply pay for it without complaint.