Imagine living in an expensive apartment in a big city, and your friend is moving to town. Would you be willing to let your friend stay with you for free until she could find her own place, or would you want her to contribute to the bills?

In this story, one woman is in this situation and prefers the second option, but her friend is unwilling to pay for anything.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA to ask a friend to contribute if they want to live with me while they look for an apartment in my city

I (25F) live in a HCOL city and live in a small studio alone and pay quite a bit in rent $2800 for a 400sq studio.

I had a friend(23F) from college that got a job in my city about 15 minutes from my apartment.

When she told me I congratulated her and she made a comment about staying with me.

This didn’t sit well with me as she had stayed for weekends several times over the last few months and hadn’t made any effort to help contribute to the weekends (not helping call Ubers, asking to borrow my clothes because she didn’t pack enough).

She was willing to let her friend stay if she agreed to a few things first.

The next time I talked to her I mentioned if she waned to stay with me once her job started I’d appreciate if contributed $20 a day to help cover water and pge and to help cover the cost of rent if she wants to use my space and save on commuting.

I also mentioned if she would like my help finding an apartment sooner mid month I could refer her to my building and split the referral bonus with her ($750 each).

She told me my apartment was too expensive for her budget(which upsets me because she expects to stay with me for free)

Her friend found somewhere else to stay.

She said she would rather stay with a neighboring friend 1.5 hours away and pay to ride the train.

I was fine with this as I’m in a small apartment and hosting someone during the work week would be majorly disruptive to my schedule.

During her staying with her other friend, the other friend needed her space back for a date night.

My friend asked to stay with me but refused to give any details of what time she come over or any other plans- during this I am actively trying to make plans with her because other people were making plans with me as well, I wanted to make a game plan for the weekend.

They both feel used.

She did not end up staying with me that weekend.

This weekend happened to be a big festival event in my city and I didn’t want to go, but she wanted to go. This furthered my feeling of being used for my apartment.

She later told me that she felt I was using her for money, but to me it felt like she was using me for my apartment especially after experiencing her as a house guest during fun weekends.

AITA?

I’m not sure the friend has any reason to think she’s being used. It’s only reasonable that she pays something to contribute to expenses.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

It’s completely reasonable to ask her friend to contribute to expenses.

Her friend isn’t a very good friend.

It’s pretty easy to see who is using whom.

She’s not actually a guest.

There’s a big difference between a house guest and a mooch.

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