Haven't paid myself in 8 months and my partner is at her limit

Bootstrapped. $15k MRR, growing 8% month over month, but every dollar goes back into hosting + the one engineer I hired six months ago. I haven't taken a salary since last August.

My partner has been supporting both of us. She's not unkind about it. She just asked me last weekend what the plan is. "When does this turn into income or do we keep going like this forever." I didn't have a real answer.

The honest answer is: another 12 months until we're at a number where I could pay myself $50k without slowing the business. Maybe 18. I don't know if that's a real plan or self-delusion.

If you've been here — what did you tell your partner? What did you actually do?