Broke pocket man driving me to cheat

Dear Pastor,

I am 24 and I am living with my boyfriend, but he does not allow me to have any privacy. He searches everything I have; even the mail that comes to the house.

He opens every letter that my mother sends to me. He goes through my cell phone. When I asked him why he has to go through everything, he says that we are living together and I shouldn't be hiding anything from him. I tell him that I did not grow up that way and I have never gone through his cell phone. I suspect he has other women.

Our relationship almost broke up because my mother said something in a text that he did not feel she should have said. He cursed my mother for the whole day; he said he did not want her to come back to his place. I asked him how he can consider the place 'his' when so often I have to call on my mother to help us pay the rent. It was when I asked my mother for money to pay the rent that she asked me in a text what happened to my worthless man.

My mother is 60 years old and still working. She wants to stop working, so she is tired of assisting us. We are living in a nice area and it is a nice two-bedroom place, but we can't afford the $35,000 rent. I saw a place three months ago and the rent was for $30,000. I told my boyfriend that we should ask the landlord to reduce our rent and the landlord said he could get more for the house, so he cannot reduce the rent. We are living above our means, but my boyfriend doesn't understand what that means. So many times I have been tempted to cheat. Every time I can't come up with the rent, I cry, but nothing is bothering him. When I was leaving home to go and live with him, my mother told me to stay home and eat crackers and salt fish, but I didn't understand. Now I am really suffering.

I have never cheated on this man, but I cannot say that I am not being tempted. I know why some women have to cheat; they do so when there is no money and the bills must be paid. I have one child. He is four years old and he is living with my mother. My father is dead. I don't know what I would have done without the help of my mother. Recently she told me I should leave this man and return home, but I am ashamed to go home.

Please tell me what I should do; help me make the right decision.

E.T.