How to buy items for the boat...without the significant other knowing?

[gumby]

Get her good and drunk. Then tell her it was her idea. It is how I got my wife to marry me.

[IDBoating]

Hmm... not to give anyone marriage advice, but "keeping secrets" has been the first step toward divorce for quite a few people I've known. It sows the seeds of mistrust in her mind, which leads to suspicion, which leads to her (mis)interpreting everything as negative by default (I call that "crap colored glasses"), and you start swirling the drain.

I'm not nearly smart enough to keep track of lies, so my policy has always been to be completely open and honest and upfront about everything. My wife does the same in return. No secrets about anything. It's been working quite well for 38 years this month, meanwhile we've watched lots of friends wonder "what happened?" as they sign their divorce papers. It almost always starts with communication problems. Given that, I sure wouldn't intentionally create communication problems!

Just my $0.02. YMMV (Your Marriage May Vary). Disclaimer: I am not a marriage counselor nor a divorce attorney, I have zero stake in the success or failure of your marriage. I care a LOT about mine, though, which is why I practice what I preach!

[KoolAid]

Get her good and drunk. Then tell her it was her idea. It is how I got my wife to marry me.

LOL!

Great advice ID. Communication is the key.

[D&P Powell]

No secrets about anything.

I agree wholeheartedly with your post IDBoating. I may be mistaken, but I think the OP message was more of a joke or tongue in cheek statement than a real request. I responded (as I believe many others have) with a joke as well. I would never promote or encourage some of the responses (including my own), and I would venture to say some of the respondents were joking as well. Just my 2 cents.

[talltigeguy]

On the difficult matter of conflicts about where to spend money....

I bought the 2002 21V without telling my wife, and brought it home for Christmas. Bad idea. I ate crap for 6 months before she saw it was a great idea. It still comes up occasionally in the heat of any argument. It is a longer story than that, but you get the idea.

We still sometimes disagree on how much love the boat, boating and accessories get. I still always tell her, even if it does not please her. She understands my passion most of the time, and sometimes doesn't. Not telling her and showing up with a high dollar accessory gets me in trouble way worse than the times when I tell her upfront and get some heat for it.

[UNSTUCK]

On the difficult matter of conflicts about where to spend money....

I bought the 2002 21V without telling my wife, and brought it home for Christmas. Bad idea. I ate crap for 6 months before she saw it was a great idea. It still comes up occasionally in the heat of any argument. It is a longer story than that, but you get the idea.

We still sometimes disagree on how much love the boat, boating and accessories get. I still always tell her, even if it does not please her. She understands my passion most of the time, and sometimes doesn't. Not telling her and showing up with a high dollar accessory gets me in trouble way worse than the times when I tell her upfront and get some heat for it.

Great story. That sounds like a great Christmas present to me.

We try hard to talk about ALL of our out of the norm spending. With our luck if we tried to be sneaky it would happen at the same time and we would spend twice what we thought.

[IDBoating]

We have always had an informal "discretionary spending threshold". Right now it's around $100. Below that, just take care of business. Above that we discuss unless it's an immediate crisis. Generally we err on the side of discussing everything, regardless of amount.

There's absolutely no chance I would surprise my wife with a multi-thousand (or tens of thousand) dollar purchase like a boat. She's violated that rule only once, when she bought me a brand new Nissan Pathfinder back when SUV's were real SUV's and not just relabeled mini station wagons. She bought it for our anniversary, stored it in a neighbor's garage overnight, and when we opened the garage door coming home it was there with a big red bow on the hood. There were some tense moments but it was hard for me to get angry, since for our anniversary I had just taken her on a DC-3 scenic tour of the Idaho Panhandle and the ride back to the airport was so turbulent she was barfing into every bag she could find. We were coming back from the airport when I first saw the Pathfinder with the bow on its hood... what am I going to do, get mad at my freshly barfed-out wife? One of our more interesting anniversaries!

[Hammertime]

I agree wholeheartedly with your post IDBoating. I may be mistaken, but I think the OP message was more of a joke or tongue in cheek statement than a real request. I responded (as I believe many others have) with a joke as well. I would never promote or encourage some of the responses (including my own), and I would venture to say some of the respondents were joking as well. Just my 2 cents.

It was a joke... but seriously should I ask my wife if she wants to meet my girlfriend?

[IDBoating]

It was a joke... but seriously should I ask my wife if she wants to meet my girlfriend?

My favorite toast: "To our wives and sweethearts... may they never meet."

[james001]

Please do not hide your purchases from your spouse. That's a red flag as a man. I always have my invoices in check. If you want to appear it as 75% off, then you would need to ask an expert financial person. The person would cost a little bit in the first place unless he is your friend. I am not into financial kinds of stuff but I did this when I was single, I forgot the process but if you have time to ping me then I will look it out for you. I'll forward you the file and you study the existing excel formula there that I have made. I don't want to explain that further but the formulas present on the excel sheet should help you adjust it based on the discount that you want it to appear on your invoice.

[james001]

Please do not hide your purchases from your spouse. That's a red flag as a man. I always have my invoices in check. If you want to appear it as 75% off, then you would need to ask an expert financial person. The person would cost a little bit in the first place unless he is your friend. I am not into financial kinds of stuff but I did this when I was single, I forgot the process but if you have time to ping me then I will look it out for you. I'll forward you the file and you study the existing excel formula there that I have made. I don't want to explain that further but the formulas present on the excel sheet should help you adjust it based on the discount that you want it to appear on your invoice.

[talltigeguy]

Please do not hide your purchases from your spouse. That's a red flag as a man. I always have my invoices in check. If you want to appear it as 75% off, then you would need to ask an expert financial person. The person would cost a little bit in the first place unless he is your friend. I am not into financial kinds of stuff but I did this when I was single, I forgot the process but if you have time to ping me then I will look it out for you. I'll forward you the file and you study the existing excel formula there that I have made. I don't want to explain that further but the formulas present on the excel sheet should help you adjust it based on the discount that you want it to appear on your invoice.

I believe that there are certainly grades of dishonesty and no dishonesty should be tolerated in a marriage. Faking a 75% off receipt is still a recipe for marital problems, and is a sign that there already is one.

[sandm]

tall, he's just looking out to help ya. if you ping him he will be more than happy to help you with any excel sheets that need attention. and he will probably even help you out with that long lost inheritance from your second uncle twice removed in quatar that owes you 1.34million..... for a small fee

[NICKYPOO]

Just to get away from the marital advice...

This could be a tough one. It is devious, underhanded, and dishonest. Recalibrate the speedometer so that it reads 2mph slow. Now when everyone struggles to keep up while surfing, you will need new boards. Need more ballast. Need more tunes for inspiration. Every time you pick up a new item, dial the speedo back a little closer.

[Pokahontas]

Hi, lmao I create invoice for my business almost every day and i'm an old hand at that task. In your case recommend u use software as saldoinvoice. You can create bill here, add a commany, tax, a logo and another nessasery for you. Enjoy !)