we often do 2 receipts 1 for the proper value and a show the missus one usually half price ish

Shady.

I think a lot of people need to MTFU and be more honest with their partners – are your relationships really that bad?

(apart from with camera gear of course, that doesn’t count 😉 )

She’s got a good idea. I felt guilty about the brakes I’ve just bought though, but I’d been after some for ages & they were a bargain. And I had a couple of IP payments from work. Theres usually some mitigating reason for the latest purchase. 🙂
I once sold a bike to pay for the kids nursery fees, when we were a bit short. So I figure my priorities are somewhere approaching the right direction.

I’ve got six bikes. Here’s how much they cost to buy. No idea what they’re worth.

*Kona Lavadome – bought it aged 15 in 1992. Cost c£500. Didn’t know Mrs North then
*Cotic Soul – built 6 years ago – cost c£1500
*Winter road bike – £500 – Mrs North bought it for me
*Carbon road bike – £1500
*Track bike – £160
*Fixie – free bike from friend. Conversion cost £200. Now converting it to SS cross bike – another £100.

But by god i’ve spent a lot upgrading them over the years…! 😀

I dont have a wife but my girlfriend doesnt have a clue how much my bikes are worth – She once asked why i didnt get one of the £79 bikes out of tesco because it would be a bit cheaper than the bikes i look at in bike shops. Im no rush to correct the assumption that a tesco bike is a ‘bit cheaper’!

Its important to honest with your wife, she’ll find out sooner or later.
My Mrs needs to know she’s renewing the house insurance tonight 🙂

I think a lot of people need to MTFU and be more honest with their partners – are your relationships really that bad?

Might it just be that some of us worry a little when spending £100s on a bike when maybe other things may be a bigger priority?

£100 spent on the bike is £100 less on our little boy or the wife. Yes it’s our money to spend as we please but a little balance is needed. While I spend too much on my biking interests, I do try and make sure I save elsewhere or do a little extra work to pay for it.

When I ordered my custom Ti 5 years ago we were doing relatively well financially. 6 months later when it arrived things had changed quite drastically and I thought myself lucky to get away with just a 24hr sulk for not considering the future.
A couple of years later I did overhear her bragging to one of her mates “you do know he had his bike custom made for him”.

The biggest mistake I ever made was trying badly to explain that Sundays with the family are just as important to me as Thursday night rides with the lads. That’s been twisted and thrown back at me a number of times when we’ve had a ‘disagreement’ over something.

My mrs knows, and doesn’t seem to care too much. As long as i’m still saving something, she takes the line that what’s the point of working hard if you can’t go to nice places and buy nice things.

i dont know why men would lie to their Mrs, imo if i have worked for the money i will buy what ever i want. i bought a new bike in june which cost £2,400 added upgrade of around £400 sus seatpost, chain device etc and told her straight when she asked.
she said i was selfish my reply was “get a fulltime job and u can buy what you want” haha

My mrs knows, I bought her a £500 Scott a few years ago as I didn’t like the cheaper alternatives. She knows my current ones would be about 2k new and is fine with that but she does wish I would sell old frames and parts that decorate my shed as there’s money that can be put towards a credit card bill or a holiday or her…

Conversely, I spent a lot less on bikes when my wife wasn’t working. Partly because we had less but mostly because she had no money of ‘her own’ and me spending my money on stuff for me felt like rubbing her nose in it.

We’d both decided that her staying at home looking after the kids was the best for all of us so I felt I had to understand that bike stuff was something I needed to sacrifice to make her choice not feel like second best.

Of course, now she’s earning loads I feel obliged to make up for lsot time.

Might it just be that some of us worry a little when spending £100s on a bike when maybe other things may be a bigger priority

Is it me, or is that REALLY WRONG? Staggering……

I show/tell Mrs PP what I want. If ‘we’ can afford it I can have it. She gets nice stuff too. Her bike is the most expensive in the garage.

I’ve just got a carbon 456 frame. I sold my hi-fi and borrwed a bit from the joint account until I’ve finished switching and swapping. When I have I’ll sell my old commuter and more of my hi-fi and pay it all into the joint account. I imagine I’ll pay in more than I take out, but I’m not counting. We (and I really do mean WE) just bought a CK headset (used) to put on the SS. The SS is technically her B2W bike, but we both use it, so the headset is shared 🙂

I really don’t even try and hide it. Why would I? If I have to lie about bikes what’s even the point of being married? If we can’t afford it, we don’t have it. Everything is shared.

I save money by working hard at DIY around the house where I can. And Mrs PP cooks me some wonderful food, keeps the house clean. I’m eternally grateful for that, but I wouldn’t go spending £5k on a bike on the money we earn: I buy and sell suff, and make a little profit from time to time for my bigger upgrades: I wouldn’t have been able to justify £700 Lyriks on my Pitch otherwise, but a bit of trading saw a final outlay of £30 for some used ones. 🙂

Technically i’ve never lied about how much my bikes are worth, i usually buy fron LBS, so no receipts, part ex when uprgading, and keep the same coulour scheme going so no questions asked.
The true cost of how much i’ve spent on bikes in 20 odd years is probably staggering; life is too short to worry about trivialities.

My wife resents every penny I spend on bikes [she denies this of course]. I find this particularly annoying as we have separate accounts and a joint account for households. So I only ever spend my own money.I would never dream of criticizing her choices with her money so why does she feel she can supervise my spending? Example, I told her I was going to buy a 456 frame cost £164, she went on and on about wasting money. That week she bought a pair of shoes, cost £155.
We do actually get on very well 99% of the time, it’s just bike money that causes grief! It gets worse because to avoid stress I simply lie about expenditure which of course gets revealed to cause more stress.She won’t stop me spending money on bikes so why does she bother, I don’t know!

FOG – it’s because she fears bikes are more important in your life than she is, ergo “If you really loved me you wouldn’t spend the money on bikes”.

or maybe she just wants you to buy her shoes for her 😉

Mrs HP flicks through the magazines I buy… think she’s got a thing for cyclists legs! She comments on the prices of bikes, but then the biggest adverts tend to be for the £2000-3000 bikes, so my suggestions of anything less than that have so far been met with a look of ‘boys and their toys, tut tut!’ rather than a denial 🙂

oh, and she knows the value of the current 3 for the house insurance, and found it funny when she added it up!

Mrs carlos knows exactly what my bikes cost. We have respect for each other and telling fibs about what things cost would be counter productive , she also has a couple of nice £1000+ bikes herself but they get used a whole lot less than mine and don’t need fixing quite so often.

when upgrading I tend to sell bits to help with funding the new stuff so I’m not stockpiling parts that won’t get used.

FOG my standard response – “It’s cheaper than prostitutes and cocaine.”

Mrs catfood knows exactly what I paid for all my bikes, I think she would be a little surprised if I told her what they were worth now tho.

less than hers

:FACT:

I don’t have a problem with being economical with the truth when it comes to these sorts of things. Not the missus, but my parents wouldn’t understand at all, so what’s the point in trying to discuss it. But it comes down to the persons involved really; there’s no way I can explain to my parents what a bike costs, or why I want to spend that much money, because they just don’t understand what I get from riding bikes or that as a hobby it’s fairly cheap so long as you’re not changing bikes every 5 minutes. I save money in other areas; going out, clothes, cars etc so I can have nice bikes, but spending on things like that is never questioned.

Along similar lines, I was in trouble with my Mum last night for going out on a night ride because it was minus 5 and there might be ice. There’s no way to explain that what we did was safer because the uncompacted snow was grippier than damp grass, or that 1000 lumens and snow = perfect vision, or that I’m actually reasonably skilled at not falling off bikes. Even on ice. So I probably won’t tell the parents I’m going up Skiddaw tomorrow evening to avoid the inevitable unwinable argument. I’m nearly 29 FFS. It’s odd that they trust my judgement on anything except biking because I fell off and cut my knee once.

Anyway, I’m rambling now, so to conclude; if you can’t win the argument, don’t get into it, use whatever methods necessary to avoid. Just don’t get caught!

I probably won’t tell the parents I’m going up Skiddaw tomorrow evening

do tell someone, though.

My wife was not best pleased when i bought my Stumpy without consultation, while we were supposed to be saving, a few months before our wedding.

6 months later she found the receipt stating the £1850 cost compared to the £1500 I had declared on marriage expenses. Unfortunately for me, this was half through a 24 hr race. I think i’d got mixed up with specs and prices. Perhaps.

Like some others I decided to be honest and tell my wife how much my Scott Genius was. She was completely fine with it as long as she had the opportunity to spend the equivalent amount of cash on herself.

Whilst this sounds extreme and expensive – I have to give her credit as she does allow me to ride every weekend while she looks after 3 kids. After all – I do have to justify the investment!!!!!!

I probably won’t tell the parents I’m going up Skiddaw tomorrow evening

do tell someone, though.

I just told you, do remember to come and look for me if I haven’t posted for a while!

I won’t be on my own, so I’ll be fine.

My wife is laughing over my shoulder whilst I’m reading this, she knows exactly how much my Zesty cost, and is not impressed that’s it’s worth more than our car, or more to the point since I’ve had it I’ve fractured my scaphoid and collarbone, I even asked for knee pads for Christmas, I was promptly reminded that I’m 41.

I’m not married, but I do lie to myself about how much they’ve cost 😳

My last build this year was a ti fully loaded! Wife would kill me if she knew what it cost. I’ve just started my new 29er build now and it will probably be fully loaded also! Merry Xmas all. Ha ha.

My wife knows exactly what each bike has cost me. She’s my partner, my equal. Why would I need say anything else? 😕

My wife knew exactly what everything cost – although she’s probably forgotten by now. She has her bikes as well and we discussed things in great detail when we decided we were going to upgrade the bikes. We’ve no kids so the disposable income is spent as we agree. Sometimes I’ll ask her if I can buy something, sometimes she’ll ask me. I don’t think she’s any idea how much we’ve got in savings as she’s not particularly interested – if I say we can afford something, that’s good enough. I wouldn’t lie to her and she trusts me.

Works for us.

My wife bought my bike, so she know exactly what it cost…

well she bought one of my bikes, I may have been relaxed about how second hand my latest bike is… 😉

Good thread!
I wouldnt lie to a girl about how much bikes cost/or i spend on them…
If they dont/and didnt like it they know where the door is 😆

My missus knows the cost, she thinks they are a ridiculous rip off but knows its my hobby. I am however starting to get flak for the number of bikes, as I can never bring myself to sell an old bike when a new one joins the herd. I’ve kind of agreed to a 1 in 1 out policy now 🙁

My wife resents every penny I spend on bikes [she denies this of course]. I find this particularly annoying as we have separate accounts and a joint account for households.

The key thing is to split the (household) bills so you pay for more, then you can spend what you like – and since (as a rule) men earn more than women, this should mean you’ve still the same level of ‘spend’ left each.

druidh:

The Flying Ox – Member
Having said that, I really ought to man up seeing as she taps me for about £80 a month for haircuts and nails.

What is she building?

Gold 😀

I Haven’t read the thread so sorry if its been done!

Click on the ready reckoner and fill it in to scare yourself…

http://www.singletraction.co.uk/index.php?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=101

The Enduro was a “bargain” a good few years ago. The one I just bought doesn’t actually exist :o)

Back when we had money, we put enough for all the bills, food, etc. in a joint account. Bike/snowboard/etc purchases came from personal account, so no dramas there.

Now we have ****-all money but can justify bike stuff as “business expenses”! She has a high-end Spicy so is no position to moan about mine! In fact, I will admit to a tiny bit of bike-envy.

I don’t actually know how much my individual bikes are worth mainly because they all have bits that are ages old and may well have been on numerous previous bikes. This means I can, to some degree, plead ignorance which is really nice.

I am occasionally asked how many I have, currently 6 but one is a classic (destined for sale) and a new one is in the process of being imported. This should leave me at 6 again (with only one 26er!) a significant variation from the 4 26ers and 1 29er I was running back in September. So stock is down – value is down and cash is up for the time being!

I had 7 in the spare room at one point along with a load of parts. I was encouraged to build a large shed to put them in. I’m down to the project one at the moment. What is funny is that my nippers think having bikes is normal and don’t even seem to notice. My wife does occasionally give them a bash with the hoover, which is a subtle hint to get them out of the house I think. And yes I do hoover occasionally in our equal household 😉