A woman who says she and her husband have been struggling financially for a number of years was surprised and confused when her other half picked her up from a week-long work trip in a "lovely, plush" new car, rather than their usual "old banger".
At first, she just couldn't understand why her husband was being so cagey about it, but was later horrified to learn that he'd taken a loan from an elderly lady they both know.
According to this woman, their old car had been supposedly booked in for an MOT some weeks before, but she soon realised her husband wasn't telling her the complete story.
Taking to Mumsnet with her dilemma, the unnamed woman wrote: "My first question was 'where did this come from?' to which he replied really sarcastically 'a garage'.
"I then asked where he'd found the money to pay for it, and he said a loan. He was obviously getting really angry so I didn't ask any more initially."
Once her husband had calmed down a bit, he claimed that their original car had failed its MOT, and so he'd borrowed some money for a new car from pals. Although he told her how much the car was, he "refused point blank" to state the amount he'd borrowed.
She continued: "A little while later, I discovered that not only that the car was more than he'd said, but also that he'd borrowed much more than the cost of the car.
"I also found out that the previous car had never even been for its MOT, but had been traded in for the new car. The biggest shocker to me was that the new car had arrived on the Saturday (a day after I'd left on the work trip). He'd not mentioned any of this at the time despite speaking to me on the phone every day."
After pressing him further on this, he told her he didn't have to tell her the amount, and continued to lie about how much the car had cost, all while proceeding to be "horribly angry" at her for a whole week.
Explaining where the money had come from, the exasperated wife continued: "He has borrowed money from an elderly lady we know. He does her gardens for them, currently about four to six hours a week. Apparently, he will be working the loan off, and I wouldn't have thought she'd charge him interest."
One fellow Mumsnet user advised: "He sounds like a lying, manipulative abusive scumbag. He has no intention of paying this woman back. You really need to get away from him! Good luck - it sounds like you have got the measure of him."
Another commented: "Cars are a joint financial burden in our house and as such a joint decision. I would go mad ifmy husband bought a car without involving me and would expect the same reaction if I did the same. It's too much of a financial impact to not be a joint decision.
"If we were in a situation where cars weren't so expensive relative to our income (lottery win etc) that would be different. Even then, I would expect honesty if I spoke to him about it."
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