To recap last Friday’s entry, my roommate’s financial situation is not all that and a bag of chips. This I know, and I’m sympathetic. If she pays her rent a few days late because a check needs to clear, I accept that.
But I think she’s trying to take advantage. Before paying her rent, she said “Feel free to say no, but since I’m gone most of this month (she’s away for a 3 week fellowship), can I pay less rent?”
I didn’t even know how to respond. Clearly, the answer was no, but I felt like I had to have a reason why. So my answer was “Sorry, no, I’ve already budgeted for the month.” Our rent includes utilties, so it’s not like our overall bill is less because she’s gone. We do have a cable bill, which she won’t be using, but again, we aren’t getting charged less because she’s gone. If she had suggested the idea of subletting, that would be one thing, but I thought it was pretty ballsy of her to even ask.
Now, if she were showing signs of real financial hardship, maybe my answer would have been different. But knowing that she spent her week going to some pretty pricey D.C. bars did not make me sympathetic to her plight.
So if your financial situation is not so great, remember that your friends might be willing to help you out where they can. But don’t take advantage of their generosity.
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
The rule with everyone I’ve ever lived with is if you don’t want to pay for time you’ll be away you find someone to live there. Your (or her) decision to go away shouldn’t increase your roomates rent.
That’s a totally ridiculous request. I mean, maybe she could get $10 off for not using water/power, but that’s about all that is remotely reasonable.
I’m glad you told her no.
I agree – it is not a reasonable request. Good for you for standing up for yourself. That just gave me an icky feeling. I think you’re right that she was trying to take advantage.
I absolutely agree – it is not by any means a reasonable request.
I am currently trying to find a way to have my “roommate” move out. She totally tries to take advantage of the situation by consistently paying utilities late. There are times (like right now) where she is actually months behind on the rent, and she won’t even explain why. You have to ask her about it!
That’s ridiculous – but I wouldn’t suggest she get someone in there for the time she’s not there…you could end up running a hostel! I picked up lunch for a friend the other week, but drew the line at agreeing to a 5-day a week carpool (we DON’T work near each other) to save her money – who would ask such a thing: “Pick me up and drop me off at work so I can sell my underwater/expensive leased vehicle that’s killing my finances” Girl, take the bus. It goes lots of places. Are they (my friend/yr. roommate) really that clueless about boundaries?