Frequent readers may recall my husband is, um, fiscally challenged. Perhaps a more apt description is to say, given the opportunity, money slips through his hands like water through a sieve. It's a classic love story: saver meets spender, saver marries spender, saver goes through boughts of wanting to throttle spender within an inch of his life. Nothing too abnormal.

Well, we all know that earlier this week DH found a great deal on golf clubs and actually put them on layaway with his own allowance. Deep down inside I did a mighty fist-pump and hissed Yeeeeeeeeessssssssssssss!!! I tasted victory, and it was sweet.

Since then, there have been a few interesting developments, and I'm now starting to think that a little tiny grey alien has taken residence inside my husband's brain and is controlling his every action.

Exhibit A:
DH mentioned in the last week or two he'd be interested in going to one of the NASCAR racing schools. We researched it, found the program he'd like, and I told him that it might have to be his birannimas present for the whole year (birthday + anniversary + Christmas) and I'd need till June to save for it. No problem. A day or two ago, though, he oh-so-casually mentioned that the more he thought about it, the more he might want LASIK as his birannimas present for 2007. Um, excuse me? He's choosing Lasik (something practical and likely to save us money in the long run) over 35 laps at Lowe's Motor Speedway riding 600 horsepower? Something's wrong.

Exhibit B:
Last night when he came home from pool, he mentioned that a friend of ours might be interested in buying our canoe. This is the canoe that is sitting in my den right now, the one we bought in September after he told me he'd wanted one for 20 years (he's 27, so I suppose it is possible he did actually yearn for one for 2 decades). The kicker? His next statement was that we could take the $500 from the boat and put it towards the Lasik fund. He actually used the word 'fund', without any prompting or pointed looks. This is supremely odd behavior for my spouse. When we moved out of our rental house in July, DH took our $500 deposit refund and bought his 6th (7th?) gun with it before I knew what happened. Now he's volunteering to sell something he's wanted for 2 decades and put the proceeds into a 'fund' for a practical birannimas present?!?? I almost checked him for a fever...

Exhibit C:
I sent DH a wish-list of camera stuff I would like for Christmas. Items, pictures, prices, model numbers, the website, and the shipping costs. Pretty up-front, but that's the way it's got to be sometimes. There were actually 2 lists: one was all Sony bits since I have a Sony camera (aka the actual WISH list). The other was a lesser known brand with decent reviews where all the bits come with a 10 year guarantee (aka the THIS'LL DO list). After shipping, the Sony list came to $90 over the alloted 'spend on Tina' Christmas money and the other list was $9 over. After reviewing the list, DH found a third option: an off-brand that had a lifetime guarantee but was waaaaaaaaaaay cheap and had no good reviews that I could find. DH's argument was that he could get me more bits for the buck, so to speak. I asked him if he would buy a cheap pool cue just because it had a lifetime guarantee as opposed to a well-made cue that cost more, and he promptly said 'No!'. After a few seconds he asked if I would be happy with the Sony bits; I of course said "Yes, but it's more than what the house has allotted for my Christmas gift". "I'll take care of it" he said...

Is it possible, just maybe, that my husband is starting to see the 'method to the madness', so to speak? That one must consider value over price, that owning something does not mean it brings you joy, that there can be greater satisfaction found in a practical life-changing choice than in most frivolous splurges?

Part of me wants to believe that there is actually a shift taking place, but the other part of me thinks this might just be a phase and things will revert back to pre-alien normalcy at any moment.

Dammit man!