Budgeting as a feminist issue

[GreasedPiglet]

Please excuse my unrefined ramblings!

I've been wondering about budgeting recently, and in particular about how this often seems to be part of wifework in lots of households (including mine, which I previously thought was quite equal).

It seems like a huge feminist issue to me:

1. Often, no one teaches us how to do it (I know this will hopefully change in the future).
2. Women are somehow expected to do this (or it wouldn't get done?).
3. Financial difficulties limit choice for people, particularly women.

I suppose I feel like there's a need for more education / help etc., and that this could help a lot of women. I love MSE, but I'd also like to see public talks and drop in sessions etc.

Oh, just to add - it was great to see MN doing a Q and A about pensions recently, but then I think only 10 of the questions asked were answered. It feels like there's a need for much more of this kind of thing, given the non-ideal pensions situations that a lot of women will find themselves in.

Good topic! I know some people think that maths in school should include more on financial education and Martin Lewis has written a textbook for schools.

I was terrible with money for many years. I think many of us are. In relationships, there is a lot of pressure on women to manage money - especially the food budget and childcare. Looking forward to reading what others have to say, Greasedpiglet.

Interesting wee snippet in More or Less the BBC radio 4 programme from the 17th May. Caroline Crisco Perez on Gender Data Gaps from 16.3 minutes in.
WWW.BBC.CO.UK/sounds/play/m00050rd
Talking among other things the way the government pays universal credit and how this impacts women.

I'm inclined to disagree that this is a feminist issue. I manage the money in our household because I am better at it than my husband however I know multiple couples (my sister included) where the man is in control of the budget. It is about finding what works for your family.

I do agree that more needs to be done to educate all children from a young age how to budget properly.

In my grandparent's era, the man managed the money.
Often, he'd give "housekeeping" money to the wife, and deal with all the finances.
I don't think we want to go back to those days.
You can see on Relationships and AIBU than in plenty of cases men still control the finances.
Of course if can be a burden, and neither partner should have an unequal share.

Growing up, my Dad received pocket money from my mum. All his wages were handed over on a Friday night, and if he had overtime payments his pocket money was upped by half the extra.
As did my Grandfather. Maybe this was a regional custom. But was not unusual to me growing up on the east coast of Scotland, and was likely a working class solution to make sure that the family came first and money wouldn't be lost to drink or gambling.

I don't agree that budgeting and finance are unsuitable topic's for feminist discussion. Money the holding and control on a macro and micro level is fundamentally political.
Money in households can be used as a means of corrosive control in abusive relationships.

Hepte, but surely anything that disproportionately affects women is a feminist issue.

The financial textbook that nettie434 mentioned can be downloaded as a pdf for free from this link:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2018/11/financial-education-textbooks-funded-by-martin-land-in-english-s/amp/

Growing up, my Dad received pocket money from my mum. All his wages were handed over on a Friday night, and if he had overtime payments his pocket money was upped by half the extra.
As did my Grandfather. Maybe this was a regional custom. But was not unusual to me growing up on the east coast of Scotland, and was likely a working class solution to make sure that the family came first and money wouldn't be lost to drink or gambling

Same in our family, and we’re from a village in the Home Counties. Deffo working class though (grandad a navvy, dad worked in the rag trade, nan and mum both cleaned).

I’m a bit shit with money but terrified of debt, so DH has almost all the bill direct debits from his account. He also does the food shopping, because I can’t cook for toffee, and cooking with ingredients someone else chose is annoying.

Mum and Nan used to pay all bills over the post office counter, so at least technology has lightened that particular load.

Don't know about the UK, but girls' domestic science schools used to teach all this stuff. It was a system that ironically recognised that housewifing was a skill that required training.

*in Australia, that is

Yes to Mum handing out the money.

My mum (Midlands) was very bemused when her new husband (Yorkshire mining family) handed over his first pay packet as that was his norm. She has handled the money ever since, Dad hardly ever uses his debit card and carries absolute minimal cash.

People all deal with money differently and their own background has a huge impact. As I said my Mum deals with all the finances, but my in-laws had very much separate money, and talked about her money and his money. The other big difference is my parents never spoke about money or what they want/ had in savings etc, yet the in laws talked about it all the time.

Growing up, my Dad received pocket money from my mum. All his wages were handed over on a Friday night, and if he had overtime payments his pocket money was upped by half the extra.

It was pretty much like this in all the units in my large extended family.

When my mum went into hospital a few years back, we had to teach my Dad how to use his debit card. He had never needed to use it or been on the inside of a bank in nearly 80 years.
Money was never a source of arguement growing up, plenty of other things, but never money.
I

I haven't observed that there is an overwhelming pattern one way or the other on this. I tend to think that everyone should really learn to deal with these things.

I'm terrible at it myself. My husband manages most of the bills and such, mortgage, insurance, and taxes, I manage household expenses and children's expenses. I'd actually struggle if he was hit by a bus or something, but I seem to lack the right kind of brain. I struggle with administrative tasks generally.

@GreasedPiglet I disagree that it disproportionately affects women. Every family handles their budget differently. I don't think there is an expectation on either gender to be better or take control.

I think I'm thinking of the countless threads that I see on MN posted by women who are spending a lot of time trying to trim their budgets. Sometimes I wonder whether their male partners are spending as much headspace on things like this.

I realise that MN is probably a slightly skewed dataset 😄.

And the other unfair situation seems to be after maternity leave, with lots of women saying that they can't afford to go back to work, as if paying for childcare is solely their responsibility, and as if their longer term financial future shouldn't be considered.

I think you can probably get 1000s of anecdotes of women managing all the budgets, but I still don't think it disproportionately affects women.
Someone posted up above about a Yorkshire mining background, and my family is working class Yorkshire too, but traditionally the men managed the money.
When my grandad died we had to teach my grandma how to pay bills, use a debit card, write a cheque, because he had done it all.