You have to hand it to Zamira Hajiyeva. She’s a great little budgeter. The lady really knows how to stretch a dollar, or in this case, a British pound.

Zamira, whose husband Jahangir was a banker in Azerbaijan, has come to the attention of British authorities due to her spending habits, according to reports from the British press.

As if it isn’t bad enough to have your husband question you about your shopping habits, now the government is asking the same thing.

It seems that there’s a discrepancy between the family’s income and the outgo – in this case, (among other purchases) $21.1 million spent over several years at Harrod’s, the luxury British department store.

Zamira’s husband had been head of the International Bank of Azerbaijan for 14 years until two years ago when he was found guilty of fraud and embezzlement. He is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence.

What makes Zamira worthy of recognition as a budget wizard?

Well, there are the two Houses in London she bought for $15.2 million, the country club near Ascot for $13.9 million and two other properties in southeast England valued at more than $29 million.

And there’s the infamous Harrod’s spree.

On his $71,000 salary?

All of this came to the attention of the British National Crime Agency (NCA) which started an investigation into how she could afford her purchases. The UK has a new law which requires folks to explain how they acquired significant assets when their reported income doesn’t seem to line up.

NCA took Zamira to court under an Unexplained Wealth Order, which forced her to answer questions about her finances. Under the new law, the police can seize property and assets valuing over $66,000 that can’t be explained based on the owner’s income.

The laws were created to prevent money laundering in the UK. The case is still making its way through the court system and more details about Zamira’s spending are expected to surface.

Could it happen here?

Money laundering is illegal in the U.S. and law enforcement can and does subpoena information when there’s a case to be made. A few years back we learned that certain federal agencies monitor some credit and debit card transactions.

We all have a purchase history as we visit Amazon and other sites. And then there’s our ISP (internet service provider) which sees everything we do online. The pieces are all there but with 300 million of us to track, who’s going to monitor all those bits and bytes?

In this particular case, it was the excessive spending at Harrod’s that seems to have precipitated the investigation. Authorities learned, for example, that she used 35 credit cards issued by her husband’s bank to fund her Harrod’s purchases.

We can all learn from Zamira. If you drop $21 million in one department store, someone is going to ask “What’s in your wallet?”