On this week’s ‘So You Think You’re an Adult?’ segment, one woman said her long-term boyfriend’s financial strictness is a nasty surprise. 

“I moved in with my boyfriend a few months ago,” she told Moncrieff. “We’ve been together two years. 

“Overall, we get on well together but there’s one thing I’m really struggling with: he’s so tight with money.” 

She said the very first night they moved in together, he showed her a spreadsheet of all their financial outgoings and criticised some spending choices. 

“If we run out of milk or he buys a takeaway for us on the way home from work, he hands me the receipt where he’s written how much I owe him for it – sometimes it’s as little as 92 cents,” she said. 

“I’ve tried saying to him that before we moved in together, we were always able to even things out in a general sense, but he says it’s important that we budget fairly together. 

“It’s really giving me the ick.” 

'Nothing more unappealing'

Writer Sophie White simply said, “yuck”. 

“I think there’s nothing more unappealing than this,” she said. 

“On the whole milk thing... if I were her, I would give him 37 cents, and then I would siphon off like two eighths of the carton. 

“Say something like, ‘this is the only milk I intend on consuming’ and maybe that be a jumping off point to open the discussion.” 

Stressed young couple arguing over budgeting. Image: samuel wordley / Alamy Stock Photo

Broadcaster Declan Buckley said it should be “brilliant” when you have a “domestic account that will save you money”. 

“[But] being snarky about it isn't great,” he said. 

“What the woman here needs to do is say, ‘I’m willing to contribute what I believe [is needed], if it's not enough, you knock yourself out by budgeting - That's not the person I am. That's not what I'm ever going to be’. 

“If [he] can’t get that, then they have a problem.” 

Ground rules

Declan said the couple need to “find a way to work in a new dimension”, and the woman should set “ground rules” if “doesn’t want to get involved in the details of [finances]”. 

“Maybe he just came from a flat where everybody was really tight,” he said.