Woman Reveals Rich Husband Insists on Shopping at Food Banks to Save Money
Published June 7 2023, 3:23 p.m. ET
Let's face it — every marriage has its fair share of arguments, but at the end of the day, the couple still loves each other. However, there are some disagreements that take things way too far.
On June 6, 2023, a woman took to the "AITA" subreddit to share some insight into the conflict between her and her uber-rich spouse. The original poster, who goes by the handle u/AITAThrowaway012020, said her husband insists on shopping at food banks to save money — and let's just say fellow Redditors weren't too pleased with him.
Read on for more details.
This uber-rich husband insists on shopping at food banks to save money.
The woman first provided context, revealing that she and her husband have been together for 17 years, and overall, things have been great between them. The OP noted that her husband earns more money than her and is the main provider. Their household income is over $200,000 annually, while the average in their town is below $50,000.
She then went into the story, stating that an ongoing issue they have is her husband's frugality; he frequently visits food banks and insists on shopping at one to save money. The OP said, "He intentionally looks disheveled and uses our beat-up car to blend in, even though he's never experienced food scarcity."
"I've explained to him the need for food donations in our community, even showing him social media posts from local food banks, but he remains indifferent," the Redditor continued. "The unfortunate part is that since we're never short on food, most of what he brings home ends up getting thrown away."
On the day she posted, the Redditor discovered their fridge was full of food that "clearly didn’t come from our regular grocery store." She confronted her husband, who confessed to going to a food bank after seeing a social media post about a donation of fresh food.
"People on social media were already asking if any was left, and there wasn't. I showed him these comments, but he brushed them off, claiming people should have gone earlier," the OP recalled. "Exhausted by the situation, I packed a bag and went to stay with my brother for the weekend, asking for space to think things over."
The wealthy husband has since accused the OP of "overreacting" and "being vindictive" while also threatening to go back to the food banks regardless of her feelings. The OP revealed her husband's family is calling her an a-hole and demanding she stops "interfering with his choices."
In the end, the OP asks the well-known question: Am I the A--hole?
Reddit users were enraged over the OP's rich husband's behavior.
As expected, fellow Redditors deemed the OP's husband the a-hole.
The top comment, which received nearly 36,000 upvotes, reads: "NTA. This is completely unhinged. A man making 200k while married to a woman with a trust fund going to a food bank is unacceptable. I couldn't live like that, and I also couldn't live with someone controlling how the money was spent. You are absolutely not wrong to want space. I would want permanent space."
"I cannot conceive the level of entitlement here. That food is designated for people who literally cannot afford to fill their bellies and the bellies of their families. My family needed those donations when I was young, and as soon as my parents started doing well financially they started giving back as much as possible," another person said.
They continued, "It makes me sick to think of someone dressing in dirty clothes and conning food out of the bellies of people that genuinely need it. YOU ARE MARRIED TO A CON MAN. How does he not see how disgusting this is?"
Although one Redditor assumed the OP's husband has trauma about food, others thought otherwise.
"Some rich people would do this not out of a poverty or trauma mindset but out of a wealth-hoarding mindset. They don't tip at restaurants and they always want a bargain," Reddit user u/grmplestiltskn replied.
The commenter added, "They see their frugality as the virtue that brings them wealth and often perceive poor people as wasteful (and therefore deserving of their poverty). If his family is like this, too, they probably think taking from a food pantry is resourceful in an Ayn Randian way where self-interest is the only rational way to live."
