£150 on a phone??

[Rixera]

We are skint. OH has just spent £150 on a phone. That is 10x our food budget!! His old phone broke so I suggested he check out a cheaper contract on Tesco, mine is £7 a month, phone included. He said he was doing that, the purchase needed a bank code to be authorised... Since without a phone he had it texted to mine. I saw the amount. £150!!

He needs a larger data package as he needs Google maps for work and uses his phone but you can get that without paying anything upfront for a phone! We will be able to afford it- have a little in savings. But what the fuck?? I check the financial situation with him before buying new shoes for our DD, we are that level of skint. And he's just bought a £150 phone!

AIBU to be outraged, is he BU to have bought it without running it by me?

His money, or joint money?

We have separate accounts, but I'm not working atm, so have a household budget.

It isn't great but a phone isn't a luxury these days and he would likely have paid out more overall on a contract. It he is paying monthly AND paid extra, then that was senseless.
Another note, how is your food bill only £15 a week???

He is paying monthly and paid extra. It is senseless!
Ha, we eat very cheaply. Tinned everything, beans, cheap pasta, frozen veg, go at the end of the day when everything is reduced. While I'm out of work & he's minimum wage this is just life.

£150 upfront is massive on a contract he must have got a iPhone or another expensive phone.

Or just got an awful deal.

If it's a new contract he should have 14 days to return.

I agree with the PP, that is an awful deal if it's £150 upfront. My DP has just got the latest iphone, £50 upfront and £40 a month so he could definitely bring it down a lot.

He's got 14 days to return it. Get him to return it and then get him to get a better deal.

So my partner and I have a joint account (which we contribute to equally monthly) and out seperate accounts. Provided we put what we need to into the joint account to cover bills etc then we can buy whatever we want out our personal accounts.

So are you saying you now can't buy food because you partner spent out of the joint account?

If that isn't the case then it is his money and YABU.

I've just got a s9 for an upfront price of £10 and a monthly price of £22.50 for unlimited minutes, texts and a sh#t load of data off bt

If it’s his money and not from a joint account then yabu.

Wow that's a big UFC for a handset. What are the monthly payments and how much data does he get?

I was thinking it was simfree and not too bad. On a contract he's a muppet.

We don't have joint accounts, he is honestly too bad with money. Benefits paid into my account (I am disabled) and wage goes into his. He pays rent & utilities, I pay food, phone line, insurance etc. I top his account up monthly, so anything between £250-350 goes into his from mine, depending on bills & what he's spent on food while at work or travel.

We are not married and have never combined finances, but if he spends £150, at the end of the month he'll need from me the usual money plus £150. It drives me mad but I'd rather that than have nothing of my own in case he spends it and I'm stuck without food/travel money for weeks. It is from his account but if either of us go over, both of us will be short.

He won't tell me what the monthly payments are so I'm guessing they're also bloody expensive. Have opened online banking for him to see there's no way to break even at the end of the month if he buys it...

You pay him 250-350 per month out of your benefits?? How can you afford this? As your share of household bills, or to cpay bear his overspending?

If the latter, that’s bonkers.

*Cover his overspending

You've got bigger problems than this phone OP, but you know that.

This can't continue for both of your sakes, he needs to see what he's doing and he can start by returning the phone and getting himself a better deal.

As for household bills- we are in the south east and our rent is £1060pcm, so housing (disability rate) goes into that.

I do feel like he would overspend if it was all in one place as he would feel rich by having a larger number in the bank if you see what I mean. Right now it's generally controlled, but I do grocery shopping otherwise he picks things up that look 'interesting'.

It’s utterly selfish given the situation- I’d tell him to return it during the “cooling off” period it would have come with.

Blimey-what phone is it that he had to pay that much extra for?

It was something Samsung. He's grumbling and has cancelled the order with a 'fine, I'll get a crappy one then'.

Lord. He's a good partner otherwise and he does work really hard in a horrible job with an eventual fab career trajectory... But when it comes to money he's like a teenager.

I would have agreed that it was a big upfront cost for a phone but after looking at contracts for the past 2 weeks for my new Huawei, it doesn't seem high anymore. A lot asked for £350, and some £800. Ridiculous!!

But yanbu if you can find a cheaper dealer, given your circumstances.

OP look on mobiles.co.uk, they're part of the Carphone Warehouse but source direct from supplier so can do cheaper contracts. He can probably get an S9 for a decent price.

Op if it's Samsung s9 or s9 + which are the latest have a look on but they have really good deals and silly low advance payment. If he's paid that he's been mugged off

Meant look on bt

Sorry to bother op but the most expensive advanced payment for a s9 + was £50. I paid £10 for a s9 that was off bt 😁