Me (26F) and my partner (28M) of 7 years have lived together for 3 years now.

When we first moved in, I was not in a good place in my life. I have just come back from living at uni back to my parents house, which was a very toxic environment and I didnt have my own bedroom so I was sleeping on the couch in the living room. I have applied for social housing at the time and got accepted, and was offered this small and very cheap apartment. I did not have a job at the time but had some savings, and asked my partner of 4 years at the time if he wants to move in with me, since he wasnt in a great living situation at the time either.

I accepted the apartment and we moved in.

I was trying to get by on savings whilst desperately trying to find a job, living very frugal, but they ran out pretty fast. He was working full time and earning an ok salary. So for a few months, just under a year, he had to pick up the house bills, which were not a lot as the apartment price was a steal. I tried to contribute as much as I could, by trying to get money wherever I could. I even sold my car to pay for a few months rent and kept selling a lot of my things whilst trying to look for a job constantly. I was not getting anywhere with the job search, which has made me feel depressed. Because I didnt have money, i didnt go out of the house to do anything, while he was going out all the time with his friends, and I was home alone a lot and starting to get more depressed. We didnt go out anywhere together and the relationship started getting strained because of finances. I was going on a lot of walks and asking him to join me but he always said no. He was paying for bills and thats it. I had to try and make my own money here and there by selling stuff etc to get food and I had absolutley no more for any other expenses.
During that time, he was also talking ill of me to his friends how he has to support me and he has no money because of me etc.(which apart from paying half of my share of rent, that was it, and he was poor because he was going out a lot and is bad with money)

When i finally got a job it was the biggest relief ever. I felt like i could finally live again. I started paying all the bills again straight away, bought things for the house, bought food shopping etc. I finally bought some clothes that i was in desperate need of. I had money to go to the cinema, little things like that. I felt like i could finally live again.

He made a spreadsheet of all of the money that i owe him during the time i wasnt working and basically billed me. Even food shops that i didnt really benefit from. I paid the money, but now i cant help but feel sour about it. If it was the other way around i would not have billed him, since this is a partnership and we should help each other out.
Loads of our other friends have girlfriends that dont work for whatever reason and their partners are very supportive.

Do you think its right to bill your partner if you have to pick up the bills for a while

Tl;dr: partner paid rent for less than a year and then wanted the money back

2 comments
  1. It is okay to expect your partner to pay you back for bills, but this should have been discussed in advance, and you should have had veto power over anything he was going to charge you for, which it sounds like you did not with some of the food stuff. I also think your relationship is dead though. Neither of you seems happy with or to really like the other person.

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