I know this sounds really devious and sneaky, but surprisingly this is advice I got from my grandmother who's been married for over 50 years!! When I talked to my other grandma about it, she agreed & she was married for 49 years before my grandpa died!! I thought about it a lot and after a lot of debating I decided to open a savings account on my own. My husband does NOT know about it. I opened the account when I was back home in North Carolina and its in my name and my son's name so there aren't any monthly fees or a minimum balance. I opened it with about $50 of what I considered "my" money. (Money I got for my birthday from family) Ever since then I've had the quarterly statements sent to my grandma's house and she forwards them to me. I think the main reason I want to keep this a secret from my DH is not to be sneaky but rather for my own security. Don't get me wrong, I love my DH more than anything and I'm sure we'll be together for a very loooong time, BUT if for some unknown reason in the future something happens between us and we split, I'd be up the creek!! SO, that's one reason. The other is, if we do stay together like I think we will, I think it would be awesome to surprise him one day with nice trip or something special for us when our son goes off to college.

Just so everyone understands I'm not stealing money from our family budget to squirrel away money...the only money I've sent off to the account is money I've received as gifts from family and money I've earned by sending in for rebates and things like that. (We're talking $25 at the most here and there)

So....(deep breath!) What do you all think and have you ever done this before??

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Mommy to Dakota, Wife to James
Proud Air Force Family

I have considered doing this exact same thing. When things got really bad between my DH and I, I realized that if I left, I have no money to leave with . Things have since gotten much better, but I still think about it.

So yes, I think that this is a great idea!

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I've stashed money away because my dh was a big spender (still is really) and I used it as a cushion for our finances. I knew he would freak out if I was putting money in savings and would worry that it needed to be kept in the checking acct. But once I was established he realized it was a good thing.

As far as any other reasons, that is a personal decision as only you know what your circumstances are.

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Proud mommy to adorable Kinsley

MY BLOG!

I found out my dh was doing it, and was planning to use it for xmas, but we had to use it for bills when xmas came. He keeps saying he wants it back. I hope he's doing it again.

I do it, but not in that way, and it's frustrating - like him, every time I do get a stash, something happens and I end up using it for groceries or necessary expenses. I use change left over, or $ from my surveys. I was bummed because I recently had to deposit $91 worth of survey checks I was squirreling away.

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Make someone's heart smile today.

The Really Needy, Special, Networking and Talking Mod

No, I have cash stash that I put extra cash in but DH knows excactly where it is. I trust him completly with if something were to come between us he wouldn't leave me with nothing.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

Nope, never have and never will. No reason to.

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~Happiness is a large family~

I have a stash, but don;t really consider it secret. I usually put coupon money in a jar for emergency spending and then also pull out $10-20 when i do a big grocery shopping and put that aside for gifts for DH. Dh doesn't know how much I have "hidden' but he knows its around if we run into a pinch

I don't stash cash or have a secret bank account and am pretty sure my husband doesn't either. He's not a detail person; if you looked up "absent-minded professor" in the dictionary, his picture would be next to the definition.

Now, to my family story. My husband's aunt saved $100,000 in a bank account over about 40 years and finally told her husband about it when they were in their early 70's. He was evidently so happy about the money that he wasn't even mad that she had been secretly saving it. She is now in her late 80's and he has passed on, but it is a great (and true) family story. She's quite a character.

No I don't. DH does but not secretly (anymore). He keeps a stash but I know where it is. I didn't know about it for a while and one day we needed a chunk of change to pay something and he went upstairs and came down with hundred dollar bills. I was shocked. I was upset that he had all that money and I didn't even know about it. He told me it was his money he earned from mowing his grandmas and football and Nascar bets he won so he stashes it and uses it when he wants something big or when we need it. I didn't mind that he did it but I sure didn't like the secrecy of it all. I feel he should have trusted me from the beginning and told me about it.

No, never have and never will here either. I just can't imagine being dishonest with my husband. Sorry, that is how I see it. But, thankfully, he doesn't give me a reason to be.