Jackie, Greg gives me a very generous shopping allowance.  I do have to buy groceries and household items out of it, but I still have about &#036;700 a week left over, that is just mine.  We too have a joint checking acct. but we each have our own American Express accounts.  I put the cruise on my Amex and then bought a money order with the cash I had saved from my allowance...I normally pay my Amex bill online and it comes out of checking, so he knows how much I have charged on mine every month, but I really didn&#39;t want him to know how much I had paid for the suite as it was a gift from me to him.