Money management

My lunch was tasteless.
Give me more money and I can cook a better lunch.
Are you kidding? It is your job as a housewife to manage the money I give you. It is easy to be a housewife. You don’t have to work, just look after the house.
I can’t believe you are saying this. I want to go to work.
No. I married you to make my life good, not hard. The wife’s place is in the house. But you are useless. My lunch is trash. Cooking is your job.
You only bring home 8000 a month. How can I buy good ingredients with that much money?
You should not complain about my salary. You don’t pay for anything.
What are you talking about? We have to pay tuition fees and clothes for Riya. Let me go to work.
No way. My salary is more than enough for our family.
Things are expensive now. Both women and men work, not only the husbands.
So what? I have a good job. You should not spend so much. Just stay at home and cook my lunch.

Hi Maya, I heard that you can’t manage the money my son earns. He says your cooking is not tasty.
Yeah, what can I do? He doesn’t let me go to work. We don’t have enough money.
I have some idea how you can save money.
How?
My brother is a cook at a restaurant. He can give you free dinner in the evenings, which they cannot sell.
What? The food left in the restaurant goes to homeless people. How can I take it?
Don’t worry about it. My sister works in the market. She can give you vegetables for free. I will tell her.
What?
My old friend sells clothes. I will tell her to give you clothes for free.
No, no, I don’t need your help.
Don’t worry, just leave it to me. You can save a ton of money.
No. It is not right asking for everything for free. I don’t want to do that.
Why? Friends and family are to help. They should never ask for your money.
Are you kidding? It is not helping each other. How can I help them? No way.
It is fine. Don’t worry that much. I do the same and I save a lot of money every month.

How does the story end? Which is your favourite version? Why?

1. The wife accepted the free food and clothes from others, but after a while people got angry with her. She could not even buy from them anymore.
2. The wife sent back the free food and clothes to people and made her mother-in-law angry.
3. The wife accepted the free food and clothes from others, but then went around and paid for everything. Where did she get the money? She took up a part-time job and didn’t even tell her husband.

• Can you come up with different endings? What would be a sad ending? What would be a happy ending?