Money

K and I are having our first big argument about money.... And it sucks big time. Her car's A/C is broken and she has a leak that would need to be fixed before her birthday because of emissions requirements. To fix the A/C, it would be around $1,700 and to fix the leak, it would be around $800. Her car is not worth more than $2,500 so it doesn't make sense to fix it now. Especially sucks, because we just put about $1,000 into the car with new tires and brakes... Which she pushed for and I didn't want to repair just yet, but then I also pushed to keep this car for another 2 years until after we got married. Ugh.

Now... The buying of a car issue. She has an extreme emotional want to buy an SUV. Every time I bring up not getting an SUV, it comes back to her dream, that it is something that she has wanted since she started driving. I get it, I truly do. She doesn't want to spend money (each time she says it, I hear in her statement that she doesn't want to spend HER money even though she isn't explicitly saying that) on something she wouldn't be happy driving. She also used a low blow tactic of saying that it will be easier with a car seat and children if we have an SUV (still doesn't make it a necessity, plenty of people use sedans and quite frankly if she wants to throw that out there, then I would rather go ahead and buy a minivan).

I got really frustrated with this and just threw, "want versus need. What do you need? A reliable car with A/C" back at her... She hasn't responded after being very engaged in our texting conversation. I know she is pissed at me, but she has never had to struggle with money and make hard decisions about what really is necessary in a purchase... I'm not sure how this one is gonna end, but I'm not looking forward to our in person conversation tonight. Also, I'm willing to bet $20 that she will work late tonight to avoid coming home to talk to me but, will blame it on work after coming back from our trip.