Finance

"Okay," Freddie said tiredly one evening as him and Sam sat at their kitchen table in front of his laptop, going through the family's finances. "If we move another five hundred into each of the kid's college funds…that puts our savings here…but then we have to take out for our bills this month, and then we have to pay for the oil changes for both our cars and for the window Tyler broke playing football in the yard, which really puts our savings…here? That can't be right."

"What?" Sam yawned.

"Our savings is a lot lower than it should be," Freddie frowned. "There must be some mistake. Let me look at our credit card statements again."

"Can't we just do this tomorrow?" Sam moaned. "It's late and I'm exhausted!"

"It's not like you're helping," Freddie mumbled under his breath as he scrolled through the statements. "Ah-ha! I found the problem. Why is there this huge charge from some ticket website?"

"Oh, last week while you were on that business trip, I took the kids to an MMA fight," Sam said.

"What? Sam, the tickets for that match were like, quadruple the normal price!" Freddie pointed out. "Why would you think it was okay to spend that kind of money?"

"It's no big deal, I wanted to have some fun with them," Sam shrugged. "We still have plenty in our savings."

"But what if there's some kind of emergency and we need that money you spent on those tickets?" Freddie said. "You know I worked really hard after Tyler was born to draw up a budget for us to make sure we were always financially set!"

"And we're still fine with our money," Sam said. "We'll just spend a little less this month or something, it's not that big of a deal."

"It is a big deal," Freddie said. "I mean this isn't the first time you've done this, Sam."

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean you always go and do this!" Freddie said. "You spend money and don't ever think about our savings. Last month you made us go over our budget and the month before that you did too! And probably the month before that!"

"Last month the only reason we went over was because I had to bail my mom out of jail," Sam said, narrowing her eyes. "Sorry for not letting my mom rot in a cell just to stay inside your precious budget."

"But we would've been fine even with paying that bail fee if you hadn't gone and spent all that money on yours stupid novelty catalogue!" Freddie snapped. "I swear…it's like you just look for ways to waste my money."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Your money? I have a job too! I make money for us too!"

"You only work part-time," Freddie mumbled. "From home. I'm the one busting my butt everyday at work."

"Well you know what? I don't have a choice but to work from home part-time because I'm the one who looks after the kids all day!" Sam hissed. "I drive them everywhere, make sure their homework gets done, I cook for them and you! You think it's easy even trying to work from home when you have a four-year old hanging on your arm all day long?"

"Sam, all I'm saying is that-"

"I know what you're saying," Sam said darkly. "You think you do more around here so you should get to control all our money. You think I just sit around all day watching T.V. and stuffing my face with junk food figuring out how much of your money I can spend."

"That's not what I said," Freddie frowned. "You're putting words in my mouth."

"No I'm not," Sam said, getting to her feet. "You came in loud and clear."

…..

That night Freddie slept down on the sofa, knowing Sam was probably still fuming up in their bedroom.

When he woke up the next morning and went into the kitchen, the kids and Sam were already awake. Sam was at the stove making breakfast, and she didn't even look over at Freddie.

"Morning, daddy!" Ashton said brightly. "How come you were sleeping on the couch?"

"I, um, fell asleep watching T.V.," Freddie lied, not wanting to alarm his eight-year old with his and Sam's fight.

"Guys come on, you're gonna be late for school," Sam said, handing the kids their lunches. "And wouldn't be a shame if I failed at the one easy job I do and got you there after bell," she added under her breath so only Freddie heard her.

"Sam," Freddie sighed. "Can we-"

"You should go or you'll be late too," Sam said. "And wouldn't that be the end of the world? You know, since you're the glue that holds this family together."

Freddie sighed as Sam and the kids left.

She's overreacting, Freddie thought to himself. All I said last night was that she needs to watch what she spends. I mean she would be pissed if it was the other way around and I was the one spending all her money.

And then suddenly, Freddie heard himself.

"I-I guess…I guess I did sort of imply that I thought I was more important than her," Freddie said slowly. "Because I make more money than her…But-But she…she. Ugh, she's right. I acted like a total jerk last night, making it seem like she has it so easy."

Truthfully, he knew how hard it must be to stay with the kids all day long. He loved his four children more than anything in the world, but they could be nightmares sometimes! Jason constantly destroyed parts of his room entertaining himself with his own science experiments, the twins could argue back forth with each other for hours and Tyler didn't seem to know the meaning of the words 'sit still'. Freddie didn't doubt that if they were to really tally their hours of labor per week that Sam would trump him by far.

He shook his heads. He really wished he hadn't said what he did to Sam last night. He didn't think he was any better than her, and he hoped she realized that he only said what he did out of the heat of the moment.

"Okay Tyler," Sam said, walking into the kitchen later that afternoon with the four-year old in her arms. "Since I can't leave you alone without you getting into something, you're just gonna have to sit in here with me while I work. Got it?"

"Mommy, I'm bored," Tyler moaned as Sam set him in a chair at the table, where she had her computer set up.

"Well you should've thought of that before you decided to scribble all over the wall!" Sam said.

"I'm hungry!"

"I'll make you lunch in a little while," Sam said, typing away at her computer, knowing if she didn't get her script edits in by the end of the day her boss would kill her. "Just please sit while mommy finishes this up."

Suddenly she heard the back door open and Freddie walked in, carrying a bouquet of flowers.

"Hi daddy!" Tyler said as Sam simply pursed her lips. "Play with me!"

"I can't right now, Ty, daddy has to get back to work soon," Freddie said, rustling his son's hair. "I just wanted to talk to mommy. Can you go watch T.V. for a little bit?"

Freddie waited until Tyler ran out of the room before her handed the flowers to Sam. "I, um, got you these."

"You sure we can afford those?" Sam asked coldly. "After all, I'm constantly screwing up the budget."

"Sam, I'm sorry," Freddie sighed.

"Sure you are."

"I was wrong to say that you-you waste all my money," Freddie said. "We're married. There's no 'my money' or 'your money'. It's 'ours'. And-And even if I made a million dollars more than you do, I-I don't want you to ever think you're not as important as I am. Heck if it wasn't for you, I couldn't do anything! You take care of the kids all day, plus work, plus you do everything around the house…I'd never be able to do all that."

"No," Sam mumbled. "You probably wouldn't…"

"I-I just wanted to let you know, that…I didn't really mean those things I said last night," Freddie continued. "You know I'd never think I was better than you. I just…said it."

Sam shrugged. "Whatever, let's just forget about it, okay?"

"No, I don't want to forget about it until you know how valuable I really do think you are," Freddie said. He pulled out his Pearpad. "So today at work I made a little chart…"

"A chart?" Sam scoffed. "What's a chart got to do with anything?"

"Just listen," Freddie said quickly, pulling up a bar graph. "Okay, you see this blue bar? That's me. It shows how much I make."

"Yes, I get it, you make more than me," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Maybe according to our paychecks," Freddie explained. "But here, look at this red bar…that's you. If we add up what you make from working part time, what you would make if you were paid for childcare if you worked for a daycare service times four kids, plus you would make if you were paid for housekeeping, you would out-earn me by a long shot!"

Sam stared at the graph. "Wow," she said softly.

"You see?" Freddie said. "Sam, without you, this place would fall apart."

Sam gave him a small smile. "Yeah…it kind of would, wouldn't it?"

"Totally," Freddie agreed. "Now do you see? I-I know I'm not more important than you. The whole point of a marriage is to go through our life together, not worrying about if one of us is doing more than the other."

Sam nodded. "Yeah…I-I guess that was somewhere in our wedding vows."

"But, um, maybe I can start to ease up on our budget," Freddie said. "We're fine with our finances. It wouldn't kill me to be a little bit more flexible."

"And-And maybe I could try and cut back on what I order online from those stupid novelty stores," Sam said slowly. "I mean, I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a little extra cash to put away for the kids' college funds."

"We'll both work on those things," Freddie said. "Deal?"

"Deal," Sam nodded.

"So…are we good?" Freddie asked.

"Yeah," Sam smirked, finally taking the flowers from Freddie. "We're good."