A Classic Friend MVWR
MVWR was a friend I met in the dorms this past year. I always wondered why her roommate couldn’t stand her and treated her so poorly. I found out. We moved in a two bedroom apartment, which I found by myself and it was a joint lease. So when we moved in, she immediately suggested we take bubble baths together and have sleepovers in each others rooms. NO!
Then we went to Walmart to shop for apartment appliances. We needed a microwave, toaster, silverware, trashcan, trash bags–all the things that are “joint” purchases for the whole apartment. My part of the total was $300. She said, “Oh well I’ll let your take care of this stuff and I’ll decorate the apartment.” At first, I left it, not wanting to create a fight but was hoping she’d pay me back half. So three weeks later, she paid me (barely) half back. Then came grocery shopping time and she told me that I should buy the groceries and she would drive us to Walmart. The mega store is less than a mile away and we have a free bus and I again said no. She constantly ate my food, used my detergent and didn’t pay for anything. She said I should pay the electricity and she pay cable. I wanted to split it, but she refused to give me her Social Security number, so I couldn’t put her name on the electricity.
So by October, we were falling out. I already didn’t like her too much. She was obnoxious. She would beat on my door constantly when I tried hiding from her and would always invite herself to where ever I went. I never liked hanging out with her and there about 10 people at the university that liked her. She stopped paying her rent and since it was a joint lease, we were equally responsible. My rent was paid in advance so she used my surplus to cover up her lack of payments. There was nothing the apartment people can do, nor did they care.
She has now left for the summer and I’m sure she’s going to screw the people she signed a lease with next year because she’s not coming back. She didn’t have money issues–she just wanted to screw me over.
I found bits of this a little confusing, but I would take her to small claim court if you’ve had to cover her rent and bills. I would probably also warn the next people, so they can force her name onto the utilities.
Yikes…talk about not having boundaries. No boundaries, no respect for other people. That’s messed up.
Good story.
Not a bad story, but holy terrible writing! This was boring to read, even though it was definitely worst-roommate-y.
I just want someone to explain how you can barely pay half of something. Does that mean it was like 20.01 and she only gave 10 dollars?
I agree about taking her to court, especially since it seems like she was screwing you over just for the sake of screwing you over.
Is the first complaint that you were worried she wouldn’t pay, but then she did? Uh?
I’m also concerned about the quality of writing of so many of these posts. Concerned mainly that most of them are written by people who have at one point attended University and what this means about the quality of our education system.
She’s terrible without a doubt, but you can’t assert yourself when neede. reaing this it seems like the only time you put your foot down was when she wanted bubble baths together an sleepovers. Were you too polite to bring up money?
She said she wouldn’t split half the electricity bill did you just keep quiet after that? Was the value equal to the bill she was paying?
You went to Walmart together- did you discuss beforehand that you’d split all items bought? If not why not tell her you’ll get appliances again another time when you both have your half. Why keep quiet and then say she’s screwing you over? She took advantage of you because she could. Sorry I left my sympathy-for-the-passive card at home today.
Get a backbone.
^my ‘d’ button doesn’t work well… ‘scuse all missing ‘d’ typos
oh god, I just read more…
She invite herself to where you were going. Wouldn’t this be a good time to say ‘no’ or tell her why you won’t hang out with her because she doesn’t fufil her monetary requirements. You had to hide from her?
This can’t be the first time this has happened in your life.
^mmm, I love when you ramble without using the letter ‘d’
@Ellere, my litmus test is whether or not they can do multi-variable calculus and statistical analysis. So far the state of the education system is dismal.
Her ‘d’ button does not work. I thought I’d just repeat that.
@OP, You should get a back bone from the butcher shop and stick it to your tail bone. Why? Because Republic says so.
Maybe the rent was too damn high
Is it weird that OP spent so much at Walmart that “her portion” was 300$? Presumably meaning that they spent close to 600$ on things like a microwave, toaster and trash can? Because my toaster and microwave, combined, were like 30$. Maybe. You can buy that shit for 6.75$ at Walmart! Did this apartment come with six kitchens?
Maybe she meant she paid that amount and expected roomie to cough up half. I’m still not sure how it can add up that much though, unless neither of them had come into the house with anything of that sort…
“I always wondered why her roommate couldn’t stand her and treated her so poorly. I found out.”
Umm why didn’t you approach the former roommate before you signed a co-lease with this girl if you had already picked up on a bad vibe between the pair of them?
@hellcat. you can get a microwave for less then $30 in America?? o.0
You can’t even buy a BROKEN microwave that cheap in Australia. We spent over $300 on our one.
Man, I moved into a shared living situation once and a couple people took it upon themselves to pay for the decorations for the entire place and buy all the kitchen supplies. They wanted everyone in the house to pay, but when it comes down to it, THEY are the ones who were going to keep it. Why should everyone else pay for it? I just straight up don’t get splitting the cost for household supplies unless it’s like sugar/butter/flour/toilet paper/paper towels/cleaning supplies, where it doesn’t make sense for everyone to have their own and won’t be kept by someone (presumably, since it will get used).
Rita – It’s because south of the equator the microwaves go the opposite way.
Rita, I have a girlfriend who’s sister lives there. She comes to the states once a year to visit, and shop. She gets her clothing for the year and anything else she can think of to ship back because it’s so much cheaper here.
I don’t understand why people split the cost of things like microwaves, fridges, stoves, etc. when the person they are sharing with is just a roommate. Um, eventually, one of you is going to leave. Who is taking the shared items?
If one person is leaving on bad terms, it just causes way more drama than it should need to.
Hell, when I moved in with my girlfriend of two years, I was hesitent to buy shared items in case it didn’t work out and I’m in a committed relationship with her!
So, basically, don’t buy items and split the cost unless one of you is ready to pay the other person their half when one of you leaves.