h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have just begun living with my new husband (we got married, then lived together, which is old fashioned, but defintely interesting!)

Over the past five or six months since we got wed these are the few items we have had rows about.

1. Bills. Oh for heavens sake, get a joint bank account and pay them out of that! It is the best way! (We worked it out after three hours yelling and 36 hours of sulking!)

2. Cleaning. In an ideal world we would pay for someone to do this, but unfortunately this is impossible. This is still an area of contention as on the planet my husband comes from all the housework is done my women and men get to sit and watch the telly. I am slowly teaching him that on my side of the galaxy husbands had better get their backsides a-cleaning or else the fun in the bedroom stops for extended periods. He is getting the message with remarkable speed!

3. Cooking. No trouble in our house as I love it and he hates it!

4. Dishes. Ah, slightly more tension here. I like them done immediately and my hubby seems to think that if they sit and moulder for a few hours they will be easier to clean. Again, I am changing his opinion. Amazing how it can be changed when he is trying to wash a tin with baked on, burnt on lasagne!

I think that is about it at the moment. But I am sure there will be other things as we progress!

The £10 a week that we spend on our cleaner (his mum) is the best money I've ever spent - I'd quite happily go without all sorts of other things to keep that feeling of coming home on friday to a clean house.

Amen! Roommates or no, it's such a pleasure to come home to a spotlessly clean house that whatever budget I might have for fun stuff always includes money for a cleaning person at least one day a week. I can give up a few beers for a cleaner house, with the added plus that it impresses anyone you might bring home...