How do you purchase REQUIRED equipment?

[rstofer]

I would just buy it. We both have our revenue streams and I am in charge of financing for 4 divers. If I want something or if one of the others needs something, I just buy it. No questions asked, no explanations given!

Richard

 

[Sas]

Ok so your 2 year old antique regulator needs replacing with the latest "Easy Breath" regulator with shiney new sticker on the front. The price is only $$$$$. But, life cannot go on until it is in your kit bag?

Do you:

1. Ask your significant other if you can purchase it and live with the answer?
2. Hunt for 6 days or forever, whichever comes first, for a great deal on Ebay and convince yourself that saving $2 was worth it?
3. Buy it an nervously watch the mail for the package and CC bill so you can intercept them before your significant other finds out?
4. Buy it and claim it was on sale for only $20.
5. Break your 1 year old antique so you have no choice to buy something new?
6. Drop LOTS of subtle hints about what you want for Christmas?
7. Divorice and then realize you have no money left?
8. My significant other dives, and I HAVE to be the bad guy and put the breaks on the new toys?
9. I ask and then continue to dive with my antiques
10. Other, please specify...

10. Other. (and often 6, but he is refusing to buy me any dive gear for my birthday in a couple of weeks saying it will only be replaced by something shinier in six months ) Me and my partner do not share finances at all. As long as I come up with 50% towards our bills, he doesn't ask any questions. I don't think he wants to know what diving costs me...

So yea, basically neither one of us knows what the other earns or spends (he spends little from what I can see, unless he has some coke habit I haven't noticed) though if one of us asks about it, it's always an honest answer. But generally, I have no interest and he doesn't seem to either. It's a nice arrangement.

Occassionally he has asked about something out of curiousity. Like I bought a doubles set up not long ago and he was going through and asking what each bit cost. Each time I told him it was followed with 'WHAT? OMG how is that possible for just that little thing???'

 

[vladimir]

My girlfriend doesn't yet have standing to complain about my purchases, but she is okay with any scuba gear. She does get visibly upset when I buy shoes though: E. Vogel Custom Boots & Shoes

 

[tfsails]

I too subscribe to the "better to beg forgiveness than ask permission" theory. So far, I have all my body parts and most of my sanity. I work in a dive shop, so I get the goodies at a discount. My lovely bride and I do not share our money (never have, and it works!) so she doesn't give me too much grief about it. Then you can throw in my purchases for my three other expensive hobbies... Maybe I AM lucky to be alive!

 

[Nemrod]

I just go down in the basement and drag out a bunch of my various dust covered treasures, pop them on eBay and generate a few thousand dollars pretty as you please and then spend twice what I generated on eBay and then explain to my lovely and actually very sweet and gentle wife how I saved her money by selling old junk that was paid for twenty or more years ago to buy new junk. And then I also put on a pitiful look and tell her that she is going to have to bust loose with some new money because I have sold everything I have and nothing is left, uh huh, hmmm. Except for-----.
N

 

[Hoomi]

#10 - Other.

It's never a matter of "asking permission" or "sneaking it past her" when I buy something. I pay the bills and monitor the budget, and her attitude is, if we can afford it, it's okay. We've both reached a point where we eschew using credit cards unless it's absolutely necessary (working on paying off the cards we have, and it's easier to do when not adding more to them), so some things end up waiting until we've saved up the money for them.

I really doubt my wife and I would have lasted 30 years so far as a couple if we played subversive games on each other over money and purchases. I don't care how cool a piece of gear might be, it ain't worth more than a harmonious home.

 

[N2DeepInAz]

Open a 'scuba' checking account at a bank your significant other doesn't know about, sell things on ebay and put the money into that account for scuba gear!

Works for me and she's none the wiser!

 

[Sas]

Actually, this thread just reminded me, I heard about a guy who used to pretend he always had to fill up his car twice a week with petrol for work when it was really only once. He kept the other cost of the fill (about $60) aside and would save up over time for various bits of dive gear.

But yea, personally, I'd rather be in a relationship where I don't have to lie about what I get up to and where my partner is reasonable about hobbies/finances/etc.

 

[Charlie59]

How about the old "that old thing, no I've had it for years" trick. I just take care of it really well.

 

[driftwood]

10. It's a safety issue and besides the LDS charges so much for an annual service that I can sell the old one, pass the annual service cost on to the next owner and only spend $$$'s more.

My wife MADE me get a Spare Air when I was first certified. After she was certified, it was sold on Ebay. Give the safety card a try.