Wife Took Out A Payday Loan To Pay For Food Delivery After Her Husband Cut Her Off From Their Finances — ‘My Marriage Is Over’
Experts warn against payday loans, no matter how much you want to order DoorDash.
antoniodiaz | Shutterstock Food delivery can get expensive fast. Between the cost of the food, service and delivery fees, and the tip, ordering food on apps like DoorDash and UberEats is certainly not cost-effective.
One man on Reddit admitted that his wife has a bit of a spending problem when it comes to food delivery — so much so, that he cut her off from their finances. However, she didn't let that stop her from getting her takeout.
He cut his wife off from their finances after she spent an absurd amount of money on food delivery.
In his Reddit post, the man explained that in just one month, his wife spent a total of $1,176 on food delivery apps. Like most people, this amount of money was well outside of their budget, so he insisted that she stop this unnecessary spending, but his wife refused to listen.
Rido | Shutterstock
To fix the issue, he canceled their credit cards and moved their money from their joint account into his own.
"For the following few days, my wife kept talking about how I was financially abusing her," he admitted. "She threw several tantrums despite apparently being severely malnourished, threatened divorce, threw a bunch of the food we had in the fridge away to try and strongarm me into letting her get takeout, and even tried to guess my bank account password a bunch of times."
One day, her complaints suddenly stopped, and he assumed that she simply gave up on trying to use food delivery apps. That was not the case.
He discovered that his wife took out a payday loan to continue ordering takeout.
When taking the garbage out, the man found half a dozen takeout containers in the trash. "My wife wasn’t supposed to have access to money. I had no idea how she was affording the food," he wrote.
So, he confronted her about what he found. His wife first attempted to deny it but had no choice but to fess up when he brought out the garbage bag full of takeout containers.
She admitted — under duress — that she took out a loan so she could continue to order copious amounts of food delivery.
"Now, I thought that she had borrowed money from a friend or family member. But she had taken out one of those predatory payday loans," he continued.
Nerdwallet describes this type of loan as "a high-cost, short-term loan for a small amount — typically $500 or less — that’s meant to be repaid with the borrower's next paycheck. Payday loans require only proof of identification, income, and a bank account and are often made to people who have bad or nonexistent credit."
Experts warn against these loans as they have high fees and short repayment terms, can easily cause financial damage, and don't benefit your credit score.
"Within the next hour, I froze my credit," the Redditor wrote. "I then drove her to the payday loan place, where I paid the loan off in cash. I will now have to dip further into my savings to pay the rent."
The man is right to be concerned about his wife's excessive delivery habit.
Considering how expensive food delivery apps are, it's unsurprising that he felt the need to cut her off for the sake of their finances. Paying rent and other bills is far more important than ordering takeout, after all.
The man added that he's now seeking a divorce from his wife because of this entire debacle, which many people didn't blame him for.
"I don’t even know what alimony laws in my state are like, but I assume she’ll happily live in a cardboard box under a bridge if UberEats will bring her food there," he joked.
Financial problems contribute to around 20-40% of all divorces. Since his wife appears unwilling to compromise, get help, or change her behavior, divorce might be the best decision.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.