I Buy Top-Quality Turkey for Myself and Steam My Own Cutlets, While My Husband Gets Out-of-Date Pork—After 30 Years of Marriage, Two Grown Children, and Doing All the Housework, This Is How I Make Sure He Only Eats Budget Food

Im fifty-seven now. For over thirty years Ive been married, and all these years Ive done the laundry, cooked the meals, and kept our home running smoothly. My husband and I have two children, both of whom I brought up and saw through school myself. I was always running around, much like a busy bee, just to make sure our children never missed out on anything and looked as smart as any other.

Throughout our life together, my husband never really put in much of a shift at work, and when retirement age finally came, he just put his feet up at home and gave up on work altogether. Meanwhile, Im still working, helping our children by looking after the grandchildren, and keeping all the housework ticking over.

Ive asked my husband more times than I can count if hed consider taking up a little jobsecurity guard, anything reallybut he always replied that we were getting by well enough without him bothering for a part-time gig. Hes not daft when it comes to food, either! I barely have time to cook, and sometimes Ill come home from work to find hes eaten the best bits, leaving me just a bit of soup.

Once, I had a chat about this with a friend over a cuppa, and she suggested I cook separately: buy the cheap stuff for him and keep the good food for myself. So I went home and told my husband the doctor said I needed to follow a special diet, so he ought not to touch my meals.

Now I stash my own food away, and if he pops out to the shed, I sneak a few biscuits or chocolates. I hide the sausages and cheese at the back of the fridge where he never looks, and when hes not about, I help myself to what I fancy. One advantage is that weve got two fridges: one for general groceries and another for jarsbut I tuck my own supplies into the second one.

Anyone who knows men will understandthey never spot a thing. I buy decent turkey breast for myself and make steamed cutlets, and as for him, I use the nearly-expired pork, throw in some spice, and hes none the wiser. I get cheap-as-chips pasta for him, but buy myself proper durum wheat varieties.

I dont see anything wrong with what Im doing; I certainly dont feel guilty. If he wants to eat well, he can jolly well get a job. At our age, divorce is rather daft, isnt it? Weve spent most of our lives together, we share a housewhats the sense in selling up now and splitting the money down the middle?