Me: Happily married to same woman for almost three decades.  Wife lost her mojo five years ago so that part of the relationship is gone.  I feed the beast these days with occasional hobbying. Man does not live by bread alone.

Recently the in-laws gave me $500 for my birthday.  Since I have every $500 toy I desire the cash sat in an envelope in my office with the intention of setting a date with with a piece of candy on my VIP favorites list.  Unfortunately I kept putting off an encounter as Catholic guilt stopped me from spending her parents gift that way.

So now the bank envelope slowly thins each week - spent on on espresso, gas, tolls, dry cleaning and take-out Chinese.

What a life...

Think of it as them paying you to stay? Guilt is a funny creature. Get rid of it.

you'd do well to keep using it for incidentals.

It would be hard to explain (don't know your circumstances) what the $500 was invested in when the wife asks.

Hard to say new lawnmower since one is not in the garage. Although you could have spent is on grass. lmfao

Just say you used it to play poke her.

Unless your wife asks you to write this down her misunderstanding of the correct phonetic meaning will allow you to develop a nasty gambling habit.

Nice in-laws. I wouldn't have spent it on a hooker either though I wouldn't call it catholic guilt, just common decency.

If she doesn't keep track of money like that, and it is your discretionary fund...spend away.  Find a lovely lady you have been dying to see and enjoy!

There are different varieties of catholic guilt.

There is the northern variety which effectively inhibits fun, which seems to be what you indulged in. It's paradigm is that guilt is connected to sin.

Then there is the southern flavor in which the guilt merely serves as a pleasure enhancer: guilty naughtiness alone makes the fun more special.

Next time your in laws give a gift I suggest you be guilty naughtily, only and check your sense of sin.

There are several South American lands whose sense of guilt is healthily checked at naughty enhancement of pleasure. I suggest you need a vacation long enough to immerse you in the cultivation of the Southern Catholic sesnse of guilt!

You're supposedly a good Catholic stepping out on your wife with pros, and you're worried about using the money from her parents?

Please, I am LMAO!!!

Deposit the money at the bank, and hit the ATM on the way out. Now the money is clean.

That, or take your wife to a nice dinner.

At first it sounds funny to use it on provider, but if the money came from considerate in-laws, I wouldn't be able to bring myself to do it.  

Just think how fortunate you are to have such caring in-laws.

You get it.  As for the money, my wife wouldn't miss $5,000 from the checking account much less $500

Last year I came home with a 55" plasma high Def TV.  I doubt she even remembers that I told her in cost $1,200 - she's not wired that way - gotta love her. I could ask her to hit the ATM for me for $300 on Monday and it wouldn't cross her mind that it was gone when I hit the machine on Tuesday for pocket money.  As long as her Visa Card is accepted all is copasetic.

Then again I have no idea (nor want to know)how much the weekly tab at Whole Foods is, gourmet dog food, fresh flowers on the tables, and all those creams and soaps and shampoos I see in the shower (trust me they don't carry that shit in CVS.  And all the vitamins and supplements that arrive every other day from one Internet merchant after another.

But the solution was simple - deposit the cash into the checking account and when I can arrange a session I'll just go cash a check.  Case Closed.

Kinda surprised about guys being concerened about getting outed by a sudden disappearence of petty cash and having a lot of splaining to do Lucy!

Get 500 out of your account, mix all bills together with eyes closed, pull out the in-laws' ones and get yourself a deposit on a ducati, spend the rest on a date.  Tell your wife you just put a large deposit on a bike. Ask the inlaws their bank account for the monthly payments and lastly get life insurance as your nice gesture of the week.