Every year on tax time my wife gets upset at me. She wants $2000 for our son in cash because of the child tax credit. The problem is we don’t have that kind of cash on hand, and are always in debt.

Before I was married, I did a great job of saving. Right now I have $2700 in the bank account and $5500 in credit card debt. This is an ongoing thing as I’m paying for both of our cards, cars, insurance, etc. Every year I’ve taken out of the retirement accounts that I had before we married, to help pay for our debt. I’ve now closed two accounts in five years, and gone through over $65000 in withdrawals. I’ve always told her we need to spend less but she views this as me putting pressure on her and me being cheap and me being ridiculous.

She recently got a part time job working about 20 hours a week so we can have some savings for our sons college. When we submitted her W-4 she was angry that I had put withholding on her paychecks. She accused me of stealing from her. I called a friend who is a CPA to help me fill out her W-4 but she thinks we’re both plotting to take her money.

Today she mentioned she hasn’t forgiven me for stealing from our son. She wants $2000 for each year that we’ve been together for him and that she finds it ridiculous I don’t give it to her from our tax returns. It really hurts me that she thinks I’m stealing when really, I’m just paying off credit card debt after credit card debt. I’m horribly lost and in a hole financially. I want to save for our son. What do I do?