If you had an extra bedroom and a friend needed a place to stay, would you be willing to let your friend move in with you?

In this story, one woman is in this exact situation, and her friend is very grateful for her help…at first.

Keep reading to see how an act of kindness ended up creating multiple problems.

Sure, let’s go over rent!

I live with my husband and my good friend in a huge apartment. We have a 3rd bedroom we used as a craft/hobby room.

This past spring my best friend was going through some HARD things at home, his parents found out he was bi and he’s part of a very strict religion with no tolerance for the LGBT+ community. So after talking with my housemates we invited him to come live with us.

To say he was grateful was an understatement. He cried like big, manly, ribcage wracking sobs. He moved in immediately.

She broke down what he would be expected to pay.

The first month was great.

I told him I wasn’t going to charge him rent the first month because he had moving expenses and his parents were kind of extorting him for money and use of his SUV.

The written expectation we all signed was rent, utilities, and the cost of one big meal per day divided by 4. I wrote it all down as:

Rent: $1800/4

Gas and Electric: between $100-$150/4

Monthly grocery cost for 4 adults: $400/4

Evenly split: $537/month.

Things went well for the first month.

He agreed and promised to pay it by the 1st of every month starting in May.

Well as things usually go, that first month was as good as it got.

He cooked and cleaned, made me coffee in the mornings, helped take care of my cat and my fish tank, and was always super friendly and understanding.

By the end of April he approached me and said he didn’t think he could pay full rent that month. His parents said he owed them $6,000 and they hadn’t given him his car back (he was WFH due to the pandemic) and just all sorts of trouble.

But there were a lot more problems, and I mean a LOT more.

I said no problem, we had been getting along fine without him and he hadn’t ever, ever lied to me or given me reason to doubt him. $300 for food and utilities was fine.

Things got bad as they usually do.

He kept demanding more of my time to talk about his feelings. Got jealous when I spent time with my husband alone and started asking if I was mad at him, like literally every day. Developed a big crush on our other roommate and tried to woo her and was crushed when she said no. Started eating our private food. Criticizing my way of doing things without offering constructive feedback.

The electricity spiked to over $300 because he left his lights and 3 computers on all the time.

Then there was an extra internet bill.

He cause a $50 overage fee for our wi-fi.

I asked him to pay the difference and he did, but complained that we needed unlimited internet so he could do his job.

I said okay but he’d be on the hook for the extra charge.

Things got worse but they were still workable. I figured it was just him adjusting to living with other people.

He complained that he was expected to pay too much, so she did the calculations again.

In July he sat me down and said we needed to change our rent agreement. He felt he was paying too much for his share and his sister in Arkansas said that his portion was outrageous, and that their household bills were less than $1400 a month for a mortgage and a family of five people. So obviously I was trying to wring him for money.

So we went over the bills. Turns out I had made a mistake, he was absolutely right! The correct breakdown should have been:

Rent: $1800/4 (I had typed in 1600 on my calculator originally!)

Gas/electric: $320/4

Internet: $90/4 plus $25 extra for his unlimited high speed.

Groceries: $400/4.

He didn’t stay much longer.

His new monthly payment was $677. I rounded down the change because I’m a good friend.

He stayed 3 more months before getting “traumatized” by my other roommate after she brought a date home and broke his heart.

We’re still best friends, we just figured that we didn’t mesh well living together.

OP was nice to help out a friend, but it sounds like it was best for everyone that he moved out. I’m actually surprised that their friendship survived. I hope he found another place to live that was more affordable for him.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

I’m not sure where OP lives, but it probably has a higher cost of living than Arkansas.

The friend was clearly the problem.

Another person would be hesitant to believe anything the friend says.

He does sound pretty immature.

Another person thinks the rent and utilities sound very reasonable.

It’s not always a good idea to move in with friends.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.