Regardless, I will receive pushback from W when she responds to my email. I don’t need to send it until tomorrow morning; I might just use the draft below. I incorporated a combination of the input I received. It’s nice because daughter’s birthday is about two weeks away so I don’t have to decide right away if I am going to attend. Here’s my revised response. Hell if I know, it’s a toss up. Please keep in mind, the kids are starting school soon and W will take advantage of me with everything, she’s going to have her plate full so I need to be cautious on what I agree to.
I am just not sure about the “we’ll never get to where we want to be”. It might be perceived as pursuing. Please let me know what you think?
"You mentioned they are starting school soon and the kids “need some things”. I am more than happy to help out with the kids supplies, please provide me the list and I will work on getting them.
W, it's important to me to turn around our financial situation. Part of that requires me to earn more money, but the second more important part is to create a budget of what we can afford and stick to it. If we cheat on that budget, we'll never get where we want to be. If you'd like, another option would be for us to sit down with a financial advisor to review the budget and see how we might come up with more money between the two of us. I am fine with either option, just let me know.
I also don’t know your thoughts regarding daughter’s birthday however I think it would be a good idea for us to keep it economical. Please let me know what you would like me to contribute, I can then look over my budget and see if it’s within reason."
