For the third time in our seven year marriage, my wife has racked up multi-thousand dollar credit card debt behind my back. This third and most recent time amounted to 53K. More than the first two times combined! The rate on some of these cards is 31% and total minimum payments are more than my mortgage.

It is the single most dehumanizing and frustrating experience to a) find out that your spouse has lied to you repeatedly about a spending issue you thought was behind you and b) your back in the hole again for the foreseeable future. Oh yeah, and let me add c) my credit rating is in the tank too. She took out two cards in both of our names that I was not aware of. I now spend my Saturday’s following up with collections agencies and negotiating payment plans.

I wrote it off the first time this happened as just a mistake, the second time I almost left her but decided to work it out since she swore it wouldn’t happen again, and now a third time. I regret staying because this time around we have a two year old child and this is the last thing we need.

Here I go again, into the debts of Hell.

She also knows that my business has accounts offshore, but doesn’t have the access information (although she does know where I keep confidential documents). But that’s more for her protection in case the IRS decides retroactively that they don’t like the way I’ve structured my income from overseas clients.

Here are interesting posts and news this week from the MoneyBlogNetwork members and beyond: Five Cent Nickel has a great money saving tip — live next door to someone who’s moving. Blueprint for Financial Prosperity highlights the lengths some people

As for accounts, we have a (encrypted) spreadsheet where all the account numbers and running balances are centralized so we can figure out our running net worth at a glance. I maintain it and we run through it at the end of each month.