My high-earning husband wants healthy food but gets mad about how much I spend on groceries. What do I do?

For Love & Money is a column from Business Insider answering your relationship and money questions. This week, a reader struggles with their husband's anger about grocery prices, despite being a high earner. Our columnist suggests the husband take over grocery shopping responsibilities as a form of a reality check. Dear For Love & Money, My husband makes a high six-figure salary, and he still fusses with me about buying organic milk. The other day, I sent him to the grocery store to get a few items we needed. I usually do all the shopping because he tends to get caught up in how significantly prices have increased since he was a bachelor shopping for himself 20 years ago, and he ends up criticizing my shopping and how I can do better. Sure enough, he just about blew a gasket over the price of milk. The thing is, he's very health-conscious and choosy about what he puts in his body. Additionally, we have some special needs in our family that require rigorous ingredient reading and sourcing of higher-quality produce. I do my best to get the best prices I can by shopping largely at Aldi, but we still end up spending a bit more because of the dietary requirements, which he himself acknowledges. These little fights and criticism over things we actually need, and the hefty prices that are outside of my control, spoil an afternoon for me. It feels like there is no way to communicate with him because sticker shock eliminates all rational dialogue. Sincerely, Longing for Logical Conversation Dear Longing, I can empathize with both you and your husband. On one hand, your husband is indignant over the high cost of groceries these days - a grudge I also can't seem to shake. On the other hand, I feel your pain. Trying to explain to someone still emotionally stuck in 2005 - when a carton of eggs and a loaf of bread were just over a dollar each - that grocery costs not only rose steadily over the years but then skyrocketed during the pandemic is the pinnacle of domestic frustration. I say that because for your husband to emotionally exist in 2005, twenty years after the fact, means he must have been closing his eyes, putting his hands over his ears, and screaming, "La, la, la, I'm not listening." Meanwhile, you alone have been covering grocery shopping for your entire family, on pain of his childish antics getting even louder should he see the prices for himself. And the only thanks you get for carrying this significant chunk of household responsibility alone is him periodically telling you that you must be doing it wrong. Your husband's ignorance seems a bit willful. He agrees you need higher-quality - and therefore, higher-priced - groceries. Yet he seems unwilling to shell out the money to pay for these necessary items. What's more, your husband makes a high six-figure income. No matter how unfair the current prices may feel, your...

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