AIBU to expect DH to pay for all meals out?

[ElphabaTheGreen]

I do all the cooking at home - all of it, unless it's cereal or toast, as DH can't/won't cook. DH and I both work full time and we have two DSs - 3yo and 16mo. This means that I do a shit-load of batch-cooking to cope, including taking annual leave from work to cook if the freezer starts running low. DH does do the washing up, but it isn't nearly as time-consuming as planning, shopping for and preparing cooked-from-scratch meals all week.

At the weekend, we eat a couple of meals out as a family - nothing outrageously fancy. Usually just Frankie and Benny's or something equally kid-friendly and unglamorous, but it gives me a welcome break and the DCs like the change of scenery and the opportunity for chips.

Now, DH earns twice as much as I do. We have a joint account that we pay bills from which we contribute to proportional to our pay, but eating out gets paid for by DH. He's been getting increasingly huffy about this, with arsey sighs when he pulls his card out, then today he said I should pay for some meals out. I've told him in the past that if he expects me to pay, I really can't afford it, but I'd be happy to cook something a bit special instead so long as he keeps the DCs out of the kitchen. He thinks I'm being tight but I'm honestly not - in the past year, my new purchases have amounted to three pairs of the cheapest jeans from M&S and three jumpers off Amazon. DH has bought himself a midlife crisis classic VW campervan.

Given the amount of cooking I do, and the amount he earns in comparison to me, AIBU to expect him to pay for all meals out?

I bet your children would love to go camping in the new van. We have had some great holidays with a trailer tent, my youngest first went camping at 6 weeks old, we went for 4 weeks and it was great. He lived in a vest and disposable nappy and I was breastfeeding, two year old was looked after by older kids on the site and had a wonderful time running round. Hardly any washing, simple meals. Happy days.

Glad you have got it sorted and glad he is going to be putting in more, that is the only reasonable outcome tbh. I still think it is only fair that you both get the same amount of personal spending money at the end of it. It's hardly fair that he can put so much away there is enough to pay a chunk of mortgage and buy a camper van yet you've struggled to buy a few bits of essential clothes over the year!

Sounds like a great resolution OP :)

As long as you're both happy with the situation (and it sounds like you've thought about it in depth more than once and are more than happy with it) that's all that matters really :)