I usually tell my wife the real price of gear I take down to the Man Cave. But... I always have the total for my wife’s non-essential spending for the most recent quarter on hand. She is a sport-shopper, spending thousands on stuff we don’t need, because, you know, it was ON SALE! So, when she asks how much that new DAC costs, I tell her, "less than you spent at Kohl’s for the last three months." Boom. That’s the end of that conversation.
This is pretty funny and probably true for most of us
"MY BIGGEST FEAR IS WHEN I DIE MY WIFE WILL SELL MY HI-FI SYSTEM...
...FOR WHAT I TOLD HER IT COST. " :-)