Bre Avery Zacharski
“$120 of that is covered by my work but is taxed, so I don’t get the full amount back. I have student loan debt and credit card debt that I am paying down, but the credit card debt won’t be wiped for 5 years, and the student loans will be decades.”
“He was grandfathered into his rent and pays $888 for a two-bedroom with all the utilities included. We share the car insurance, internet, groceries and maintenance of the car. As well, I have a dog and cat that I pay the vet bills and food for which runs me approximately $70 a month.”
Additionally, her boyfriend has to pay around $700 per month in child support, as he has a daughter from a previous relationship.
Now that you understand their respective financial situations, you can see why she asked to split their shared expenses in an unequal way.
She questioned her boyfriend if she could just pay a percentage of the bills in line with what she makes vs. what he does instead of them both going in 50/50. Her boyfriend declined, pointing out how cheap it is to live in his apartment.
“My opinion is that I’m coming back from an overpriced one-bedroom with more debt than him and less income and wanted help with the shared bills in order to contribute to saving for a future purchase of property together and to get ahead of my credit debt to hopefully pay it off sooner than anticipated,” she added.
Her boyfriend mentioned he was open to it, but only if they took into consideration every single bill, every event they may attend, every movie theatre or restaurant they might go to, and his child support.
She responded that it’s not her responsibility to help her boyfriend pay for child support in any way, shape, or form, just like paying for her pets isn’t something he should help with.
Her boyfriend refused to compromise and said she can pay a piece of his child support, and they could work out a percentage split on their bills. Otherwise, it would be 50/50 on everything.
“I don’t see how that’s fair as, again, he makes double my annual income and has several thousand more in savings than I do,” she said.
“I said I only wanted the split for ONE year to get back on my feet so that I could be more of a contributor in the future. Help me now so l can help us later. He said I should have found a cheaper place and that I chose to leave and put myself in this position of expenses to income ratio.”
