tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post5230504372099513785..comments2024-03-12T22:31:46.500-04:00Comments on What Would Phoebe Do?: Women: never the right age, and always shopping all wrongPhoebe Maltz Bovyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-13825186658007847482018-08-02T20:23:13.220-04:002018-08-02T20:23:13.220-04:00There's an old tradition, isn't there, of ...There's an old tradition, isn't there, of women managing household finances--in a way that tends to give them all the responsibility and none of the freedom that comes with money.<br /><br />I've noticed this with online conversations about personal finance. Often when the husband works and the wife doesn't, the wife will take on the duties of managing household finances. Which is reasonable, but when they don't actively pay attention to equality, as most couples don't, it results in a sort of double standard for frugality: the man gets to buy whatever luxuries he wants, because "he needs them for work:" fancy car, lunch out, drinks with coworkers, golf, first-class travel. Meanwhile the woman doesn't feel entitled to do even as much as go to a restaurant by herself, and spends a lot of her time in high-effort/low-return financial strategies like making her own laundry detergent, cloth diapers, or visiting 4 or 5 grocery stores a week to use her coupons. She's picking his suits up at the drycleaners' and shopping at the thrift store for herself.caryatishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01759272678349135369noreply@blogger.com