Milk = sex Cow = you Buy = marry Any further questions?

It means stop having sex with him until after your married.

It means dump him.

How do you not know what that means?

It means he doesn't see any benefit to himself to getting married, since you do everything he expects you to do without it. I'd say this officially makes it a "change the dynamic" situation, including a VERY long talk about his priorities, because this is a HUGE red flag.

To take a more modern view of what your boyfriend means versus the old school one that other posters are saying, nowadays there is no benefit for a man to get married, in fact it's the exact opposite getting married nowadays makes a man incredibly vulnerable. and if divorce ever happens really screwed in every way possible, it does not benefit a male nowadays to get married.

"Not buying the cow, when I can have the milk for free" means that he's getting all the benefits from being married to you (cooking, cleaning, sex, comfort, ...), without any of the responsibilities, so why would he pick up the responsibilities? Him saying that to you, means that he either thinks that you are too stupid to understand what he said or too meek to do anything about it, like he can do whatever the **** he wants and you'll never leave or he really doesn't care that you leave. None of those are good options. You need to leave.

After five years, this is the *first* indication that he's not marriage material? You haven't had a single meaningful conversation? No clue that he's an immature douchebag? You should have figured this out four years and nine months ago. Sorry, OP, YDI.

if what he ever does propose respond with " nah why would I buy the whole pig just to get a little sausage?"

It means he’s an asshole who compares women to cattle. If he’s not interested in marriage and that’s what you want, it’s time to move on. Wasting time in a long term relationship with someone who doesn’t want to marry you is the #1 reason people who want to get married don’t end up doing so.