How a woman spent $70k on a shopping spree while her marriage was ending

After her marriage hit the rocks, a woman went on a six-month shopping spree and ended up spending about $70,000 on home furnishings, a holiday and designer items.

- 

Her behaviour made her ex-husband cry foul as he described her over-50 expenses as “extravagant and flagrant withdrawal of funds” that were made without his consent and so should be returned to the matrimonial pool for sharing.

But the wife countered that these items “were incurred in the ordinary course of the family’s lifestyle” and were not “artificially inflated to deplete the matrimonial assets”.

For instance, she said over $20,000 was spent on household furnishings because she and her two young sons had to move to their new home after the split.

Another $10,000 was spent on their kids so that they could go for their holidays and other leisure activities, such as going to the concert of their favourite rock band Coldplay.

She also struck back at her ex-husband by asking him to refund $12,000 that he had spent buying cryptocurrency for his brother.

RULE OF SPENDING DURING DIVORCE

When a divorce is imminent or in progress, warring spouses do not have a free hand in spending their money because all matrimonial assets that they have at the time are up for sharing.