Sorry guys, but all the "you earn the money, you spend it" responses are completely asinine. Just because a person has a job that makes the money does NOT make that person the smartest manager of that money. And it absolutely does not absolve a person of the responsibility to treat their spouse as a partner - a woman who stays at home for the kids rather than taking a paying job does not then become slave labor or something like that. Welcome to the 20th century.
To the OP, my wife is pretty similar. She's supportive of my bass playing but watches every penny we spend, and I'd say it's a good thing she does. Some of us, if it weren't for our wives, we'd be living out of an old Pinto with seventeen basses in the back seat. I would say to tell her what it is you want and why you want it. Stress to her that you don't want to mess up the budget but you think you're doing well enough that you'll be able to afford it. Then lay out a budget for how you're going to set aside money to pay for it -- X dollars per month or whatever.
When you said a B-15, I assume you meant the Ampeg amp, not the cheap ESP guitar? It seems to me the issue there is that you already have a head and two cabs. I would consider selling the existing setup to help pay for the B-15, unless you've got a really good reason for having both. That's likely to be a sticking point with her -- if you're not a professional musician, what do you need two amps cluttering up the house for?
I put aside just a few bucks a week for music. I throw all the stuff I want onto an Amazon wishlist -- it's kind of like window shopping, eases my GAS, and then if anyone is looking for a birthday/christmas/father's day gift idea, they know where to look. And we have an agreement that any gig money I make, half becomes a contribution to the general budget and half goes to my gear fund.
One other thing you might try doing, if you have the time, would be to take on other outside work to pay for gear. If the budget is set on existing income, then you have a stronger case that if you go make $500 on some temp job, it's not needed for the budget and you can use it for gear.
To the OP, my wife is pretty similar. She's supportive of my bass playing but watches every penny we spend, and I'd say it's a good thing she does. Some of us, if it weren't for our wives, we'd be living out of an old Pinto with seventeen basses in the back seat. I would say to tell her what it is you want and why you want it. Stress to her that you don't want to mess up the budget but you think you're doing well enough that you'll be able to afford it. Then lay out a budget for how you're going to set aside money to pay for it -- X dollars per month or whatever.
When you said a B-15, I assume you meant the Ampeg amp, not the cheap ESP guitar? It seems to me the issue there is that you already have a head and two cabs. I would consider selling the existing setup to help pay for the B-15, unless you've got a really good reason for having both. That's likely to be a sticking point with her -- if you're not a professional musician, what do you need two amps cluttering up the house for?
I put aside just a few bucks a week for music. I throw all the stuff I want onto an Amazon wishlist -- it's kind of like window shopping, eases my GAS, and then if anyone is looking for a birthday/christmas/father's day gift idea, they know where to look. And we have an agreement that any gig money I make, half becomes a contribution to the general budget and half goes to my gear fund.
One other thing you might try doing, if you have the time, would be to take on other outside work to pay for gear. If the budget is set on existing income, then you have a stronger case that if you go make $500 on some temp job, it's not needed for the budget and you can use it for gear.
