23-year-old woman living with 7 roommates refuses a 25-year-old housemate’s demand that she pay extra rent just because her parents have money: ‘He started making all these jokes about me being rich and snobby, I never lied about how I grew up’

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Etai Eshet • Editor
May 2, 2025 1:00 PM EDT

Call me a lone wolf, or perhaps just the last surviving keeper of basic sanity, but even when I was 20-something, living with 7 other 20-somethings in a house that smells like microwaved leftovers and collective financial anxiety is already a full-contact sport. Now add the emotional gymnastics of having to downplay your bourgeois backstory every time someone brings up their tragic public school lunches, and you've got yourself a sitcom premise that's one twist away from a diagnosis.

In this self-appointed commune of ramen economics, the only thing more taboo than scheduling bathroom time is admitting your parents have degrees and a functioning savings account.

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  • You drop one accidental hint about your private school background, and suddenly you’re the designated Capitalist Overlord at the breakfast table, expected to make reparations one utility bill at a time.

    Everyone’s totally fine with dividing up rent and expenses evenly-until they realize doing so might be depriving themselves of the golden opportunity to rebrand you as the house piggy bank.

  • "AITA for not disclosing to my housemates that my family has money and refusing to pay more monthly?"

    KADRI 43 "I live with seven other people, two girls and five boys. We are all between 22-25."
    via TONL

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • The only crime here is that publishing your tax bracket wasn’t written into the original roommate agreement. If equality means everyone chips in the same and deals with the same questionable leftovers, then surely keeping your parents’ financial portfolio out of the grocery rota is the real justice.

  • I (23F) live with seven other people, two girls and five boys (one of them is my boyfriend). We are all between 22-25. We started renting together three years ago when we were all in the same university and just kept doing it.
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  • We split rent and utilities equally. We are all at least friendly with each other and regularly have parties/travel together, but we are not all that close.
    via TrickyTutor1073
  • Cheezburger Image 10499060992
    via alessandrobiascioli

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Recently, during a party, we were all a bit drink and were talking about funny stories from our families and I commented that I studied in a very elite school in our city. One of the boys, Jay(25),
    via TrickyTutor1073
  • was very surprised because it is a very expensive school. He started asking me questions about the way I grew up and eventually just said "wow you are rich". I thought that was it and we kept having fun.
    via TrickyTutor1073
  • Cheezburger Image 10499061248
    via FatCamera

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Well, the morning after, he started making all these jokes about me being rich and snobby, which I didn't mind, we tease each other all the time. But after like three days it started annoying people so one of the girls, Maria (24F), told him to cut it out because he was overdoing it.
    via TrickyTutor1073
  • This started an argument and eventually it came out that he was uncomfortable with the revelation that my parents had money. We started talking about it, (it was super awkward because its ks having a serious
    via TrickyTutor1073
  • conversation at breakfast), and he said that he truly felt betrayed because he thought we were all broke and that to make things fair I should have been making bigger contributions to the house funds
    via TrickyTutor1073
  • I said that I understood he was upset, but that I couldn't really afford paying the amount he was suggesting (R$1800). He insisted and my boyfriend got involved and eventually he just left while saying I was a liar.
    via TrickyTutor1073
  • Well, my other six friends don't agree with him and think he's being a , and now he's being kind of sidelined for the past week, but I can't help wondering
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  • if he's right. I never lied about how I grew up, but I knew that just the fact both my parents have a master's meant that I grew up better off than everyone else from this group, and I kind of
    via TrickyTutor1073
  • Intelligent-Panda-33 NTA. Your parents may have money but that doesn't mean you do. You don't state if they're paying your rent so presumably you're all in the broke early 20s phase trying to figure it out and make it on your own.
    via Intelligent-Panda-33
  • quats555 NTA. "Jay, you have more food than I do, give me some." "Jay, your car is nicer than mine, you have to let me drive it."
    via quats555
  • "Jay, your computer is faster than all of ours, here's the new schedule of who gets to use it when. You get to use it between 7 and 10am weekdays."
    via quats555
  • Sound dumb? Because it is. He is not entitled to have more of what other people have more of than he does, just like the reverse is also true.
    via quats555
  • ed_lv NTA Your family is rich, you are not. You're paying as much as everyone else, and that guy can go pound sand.
    via ed_lv
  • catskilkid NTA For three years you all lived together and had an agreement that each of you paid an equal amount AND that is exactly what occurred. This guy has either
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  • some hang up about money/expensive schools and it is SOLEY his problem. Why didn't he ask for everyone's parent's tax returns before agreeing to this situation? Because you
    via catskilkid
  • were all young and in university and this MADE SENSE. None of your friends/roommates have an issue so there is something problematic for him.
    via catskilkid
  • Sylas_23 NTA - you are splitting things equally and you should be paying equal shares. These are housemates, and that's how the world works. Jay seems
    via Sylas_23
  • to have a chip on his shoulder, which is proven by the fact that everyone else agrees with you!
    via Sylas_23

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friendship bad friend living with friends best friends friends public school 20-year-old private school friend mean girls housemate renting roommates apartment
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