They say money is the root of all evil. I don't know about that, but at the very least, we can probably agree that it often makes things weird.
A few days ago, a woman who goes on the internet by the nickname Hailstorm493 submitted a story to the subreddit 'Malicious Compliance' about the time one of her former college friends offered to pay for her because apparently, she was too drunk.
However, after the Redditor sobered up, she was asked to pay back the $15 and took offense over the request, as it was not how she envisioned the "deal."
Money is known to put unnecessary stress on our relationships
Image credits: Viktoria Slowikowska / pexels (not the actual photo)
Which is exactly what happened between this woman and her college friend
Image credits: Liza Summer / pexels (not the actual photo)
Image source: hailstorm493
Conflicts over borrowed money are relatively common between friends and family
Image credits: Karolina Grabowska / pexels (not the actual photo)
We contacted Hailstorm493 and she said her friendship with the girl in question came to an end soon after the whole ordeal.
"We had known each other for over 3 years at the time the story took place," the Redditor told Bored Panda. "We were friendly enough to hang out when we were on holiday from school, and before the incident, I would have said we were good friends."
"We never fully moved past the disagreement and our friendship was never really the same ... She became very weird about money in the last few months of college and ended up being a 'closeted racist' as my other friends and I would describe it."
"I am black and she is white, and she let slip one night some prejudices that she felt about an African guy that I was best friends with," the author of the post recalled.
Borrowing money from friends and family is quite common. For example, a 2023 survey of 1,100 UK adults found 60% of them have done so at some point.
The most common reasons for this were:
- to cover a bill, such as a mortgage or utility payment (37%)
- to buy food at the supermarket (26%)
- to fix something important (23%)
- for a deposit to buy/rent a house (16%)
- for a car to commute or for work-related journeys (15%)
- to have a day out (e.g., buy food, drinks, or travel) (14%)
- to pay off a payday loan (11%)
The list also included covering the costs of starting a business (9%), paying for a holiday (9%), buying clothes (8%), buying furniture (7%), and paying for a professional work-related course (7%).
However, as we learned from the Reddit story, such affairs can damage relationships, or even end them completely if something goes wrong.
The survey also revealed that problems are relatively common, with two-fifths (41%) of those who have lent money to or borrowed money from friends and family experiencing various issues afterward.
More than one in ten argued or disagreed over the amount borrowed (11%) or about the time of paying back (12%). 7% even said they stopped speaking before the money was repaid and they hadn’t received the full amount they agreed to back.
Younger people are the most likely to run into these things, as more than half of Gen Z (56%) and Millennials (52%) who have lent money to or borrowed from friends and family got into disagreements later.
This Reddit story exemplifies that even seemingly straightforward transactions can go south, so the fact that its author wanted to stay away from it in the beginning is completely understandable.
"I think she wanted to publicly appear to be helpful but did not want to actually pay the bill," the woman said about her former friend. "One commenter summed it up perfectly, stating that if she wanted to be magnanimous she could have just paid and that be the end of it, but waiting until weeks later to ask about repayment of something that was never asked of her was ridiculous"
As more and more people commented on her story, the author of the post joined the discussion too
