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Family discounts on rent usually come from a good place, but when they’re not balanced, they open the door to some serious resentment.
One woman has been cooking two meals a day for her sister, who lives in their spare room for well below market rate, doing her laundry, and never batting an eye at her raiding the fridge. All of that felt fine for a while.
But what really didn’t sit right was watching her sister replace her own alcohol and juice, while never once offering to restock the groceries she was eating through daily.
She knows the rent is already a good deal. She just can’t shake the feeling that eating everything and buying nothing might be pushing it.
Keep reading for the full story.
AITAH for getting annoyed my sister never offers to buy groceries?
My sister lives with me and my husband and pays £500 a month for our spare room.
We let her live with us mainly to help her out, because rooms around here are expensive, around £800-£1000, and renting a flat on her own would be extortionate.
This woman does a lot for the household — and her sister definitely benefits from this.
I cook pretty much twice a day, and she eats whatever I cook, plus takes the same food to work for her lunch.
She also eats and drinks whatever is in our fridge, which honestly I don’t normally mind.
For the most part, she doesn’t mind working hard, but lately her sister’s lack of contribution has started to grate on her nerves.
As I WFH most days, I also don’t mind cleaning the whole flat, including her laundry when I do ours as well.
What has started annoying me is that she never really offers to buy groceries or replace things.
She’ll sometimes buy her own juice or alcohol, but if she drinks our alcohol or soft drinks, she won’t think to replace them or buy some next time.
She clarifies what she expects from her sister, which she thinks is pretty reasonable.
I don’t expect her to pay for half our shopping or anything, especially as she already pays £500 for the room.
I just feel like if you’re eating breakfast and dinner, taking lunch to work, and helping yourself to everything in the fridge, surely you’d occasionally offer to buy some groceries?
On the other hand, she worries how her sister would react if she confronted her.
But then I feel bad asking, because she’s my sister and we agreed on £500 rent.
I don’t want to make it seem like I’m suddenly asking her for more money.
AITAH for being annoyed by this?
It’s pretty reasonable to be fed up with this kind of behavior.
What did Reddit have to say?
It’s high time her sister start chipping in.
Her sister needs to understand just how much she’s taking without giving anything back in return.
This commenter thinks there’s a way to make it not so personal.
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Even if her sister did start contributing to groceries, she’s still getting a better deal than if she was living on her own.
Discounted rent covers a room. It doesn’t automatically cover three meals a day plus unlimited fridge access, even when the person eating them happens to be family.
There’s a difference between generosity and being taken for granted, and the fact that her sister replaces her own drinks but never the household’s says a lot. She clearly understands the concept of restocking what you use. She’s just choosing not to apply it to anyone else.
Feeling awkward about bringing up groceries after agreeing on a flat rent number is understandable. But rent covering the room was never actually the same agreement as rent covering unlimited groceries too.
Cheap rent and free groceries were never intended to be a package deal.