I'm step-mum. I earn quite well. DH's income has halved after being made redundant multiple times during covid.
DSS Mum was working part-time and has now resigned.
She has advised DH that she is waiting for her benefits to come through.
DSS is going to secondary school this year and will need a whole new uniform.
DSS Mum has been telling DH that we need to buy him his new uniform this year (comes to about £300/£350 when factoring in blazers, logo'd PE Kit, shoes, etc). She's also mentioned that DSS wants a PS5 for Christmas.
We save monthly for his school clothing as we contribute as and when he needs new shoes, etc. We also save into a Birthday/Christmas pot to a set budget per person so we can make sure we have money to do it. We don't have PS5 money.
DH contribution to the household is about 1/4 of our household income and so if DSS wants extra it's always me picking up the bill. I know we're a team but I'm getting frustrated with the exes demands.
For context we have 5 kids between us and his ex assumed we'd leave our home to DSS in it's entirety, amongst other ideas that involve me contributing huge amounts of my earnings/savings/property to DSS.
DH and I do talk about this, and he is mostly on the same page but he doesn't see that I always end up spending out for the expensive DSS things.
Sorry it's long. Needed the anonymous rant.