Boyfriend keeps having blow out fights with me over my food purchases

My boyfriend (40m) is constantly yelling at me (29f) about spending too much on food.

For full context, we live together, he pays the rent and I take care of all of the cleaning. He makes about half a million a year, I make 5 figures and work 9 hours days in finance.

I don’t like to cook during the work day and I hate the idea of coming home and spending the few hours I have off from work before bed preparing food for the next day, especially because I have to go into an office which just makes the day feel so much longer than when I worked from home. I had a habit of ordering delivery for this reason, it SEVERELY upset him. He orders delivery too but he feels he has the right to do this because he pays rent and I don’t.

Okay fine, I humored him because although I think I have every right to order delivery if I can afford it, it’s not a bad idea to not be overpaying on these delivery sites. I started getting groceries but foods that didn’t require cooking, things like canned tuna.

Except then he started a fight again over the tuna, this wasn’t good enough apparently because the tuna I bought was too nice, too expensive. It’s individual mercury tested to be safer, I think it’s worth paying more for your health, especially in America where healthcare isn’t free.

He doesn’t agree with this, won’t stop lecturing me about how he eats cereal and peanut butter sandwiches when he buys groceries because he cares so much about saving money. When I point out that he buys other expensive items that aren’t food, he hand waves this away and says he has the right to because he makes more money and pays the rent. I barely even buy clothes, my two vices are skincare and ubereats. I still sage about a third of my paycheck, I dont think I'm that bad when it comes to spending even if i could be better.

The worst part about this is how AWFUL these arguments get, over things like fancy tuna. He screams at me, calls me an idiot constantly, throws things (not at me, but in the vicinity) Even if he’s right that I’m “disrespecting” him by buying food that I shouldn’t be allowed to have because I couldn’t afford it without his paying the rent (his reasoning, not mine. Also I could definitely still afford this tuna, my lunch in total cost 8 dollars) I just don’t think the level of anger and meanness he is displaying is justified. He says it's my fault and that i make him act this way because my food purchased are just that disrespectful. It scares me, I don’t understand it. He insists everyone would agree with him but I just don’t see it.

I told him I think i need to move out because i just cant be happy living under a microscope like this, everything i do is wrong somehow even when i try to discuss it objectively with numbers. i asked him what he felt was an acceptable number to spend on lunch, he said 10 dollars, i pointed out that my lunch was 8, he said it doesnt matter because i could have bought cheaper tuna.

am i the asshole?

Posted Jun 13, 2024, 6:27 AM UTC

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