17 People Who Just Love to Count Other People’s Money

Of course, it’s not nice to ask about other people’s income and spending. But sometimes the way other people handle their finances can serve as a lesson, good or bad. Today’s stories will tell you about money and how it affects our relationships with others.

• A guy was courting me once. We were dating, but he didn’t know what I did for a living. So on one of our dates, he asked me, “What do you do for a living? “I’m an accountant,” I said. And his face all twisted, he jumped up and left with the words, “You’re counting other people’s money.” We never spoke again. © Overheard / Ideer
• I’m 22 and live with my family. Whenever I buy something with my own money, my parents either get really mad or scold me for it. For example, yesterday I ordered a mattress for my bad back to replace my 12-year-old one. The thing is they don’t even know what I spent on it, they are angry at the fact that I didn’t go to them to ask first for “advice.” © carbon******9 / Reddit
• In general, I don’t understand why I should spend my time cleaning the house or cooking. I don’t cook very well, and lunch at work doesn’t cost crazy money. I leave the house at 8 a.m. and get back around 7 p.m. I calculated how much time the household chores take up, it came out to be about 2 hours. That leaves me with an awfully little free time. For the people who tell me, “Oh, it’s so much cheaper to bring in a lunch, you’d save so much money!” I will agree. Yes. You are right. But what am I saving that money for? What is money for? Money is for survival and then it is to fund enjoyment. For me, that means time to go to the gym or play my guitar (horribly) or talk with my friends in the evenings, maybe even go somewhere. I’m not bought into the culture of convenience at the expense of all else, but my time is mine and I’ll spend it how I please until I can’t afford to do so anymore. © butwhatsmyname / Reddit

• I have such a makeup addiction my husband had to sit me down and tell me I don’t need anymore. Lies! He seems to think $23 for mascara is ridiculous. Well, I say look at these lashes! They’re mine! And they’re fabulous! © ***apkin / Reddit
• An acquaintance, a math tutor, told me about her chat with a potential student:
  — $100, is it for a month?
  — No, it’s for an hour’s lesson.
  — So if you work 8 hours, it’s $800 for just one working day!? And $16,000 a month? Isn’t that too much?
  My friend didn’t even know what to say at that moment. She was just stunned by the insolence and hung up. Then we joked about why this woman would even need math lessons. She is already really good at counting other people’s money. © Overheard / Ideer
• I found a job as a waitress and started earning good money. The rate was miserable, but the tips per shift were very generous. It wasn’t for nothing that I did makeup and styled my hair before every shift. The coworkers and manager were pissed off that I earned that much, and that customers came to me. They decided to introduce a new rule: at the end of the day, the tip was supposed to be divided between all. It’s a load of bollocks. I run around all shift, at the end of the day my jaw hurts from smiling, and I can’t feel my legs. And my coworkers don’t bother much. The manager said that if I don’t share, he will cut my shifts in half. © Ward No. 6 / VK

• We live with my husband and children in a rented flat, we want to buy our own house, and we are saving up. So, we are approaching the moment when we have enough money for a down payment on a mortgage, but then my mother-in-law calls — she needs urgent expensive surgery. Naturally, my husband and I didn’t even hesitate and transferred the necessary amount. We started saving again. But I made a mistake and shared it with my older sister. To which she said, “You throw such sums around, and you can’t help your mother. At least, get her an Internet connection.” In the end, my parents were given money too. But it only got worse. My sister called and asked me to lend her some money for a couple of months, then my parents called asking to add some money so that they could buy a car. But I lost it when my mother called me and said, “The uncle needs serious surgery, he doesn’t have enough money. Don’t you want to help your uncle?” To which I snapped and said, “We’re not a bank, and we have our own goals. We’ve helped a lot already.” Mom, of course, freaked out. She called us greedy and hung up on me. And I’m walking around thinking, am I a bad guy here? © Ward 6 / VK
• The other day I met with friends, and some new faces joined us. Among them, there was one unpleasant girl who asked me about my hair, nails, and skin. She started asking me what kind of treatments I use and how much they cost. I had nothing to hide, so I told her everything. In response, I heard that I was sick of spending so much money on all this. © Overheard / Ideer
• I gave birth and hired a night nanny and a cleaning lady who cleans once a week. I work, and I don’t have a husband. If I don’t sleep at night, I will just die. My mom thinks I’m crazy, she used to do everything herself. My sister gets pissed off about the amounts I spend, she says that I’d better give the money to her. I offered both of them to work for me as a nanny and a cleaner, but they only took offense. We fought and stopped communicating. Here is the support from the closest ones. © Overheard / Ideer

• I like counting other people’s money! I had a neighbor who lived with her daughter in a 3-bedroom apartment after her divorce and was quite happy. But then she met a guy online who lived on the other end of the country. He was single but with problems. He asked her to marry him and insisted she give birth to his son to be like a normal family. But here’s the trouble: the guy couldn’t find a normal job in our city and persuaded the neighbor to move to his city. Since the neighbor didn’t want to live with her mother-in-law, and they had no money to buy a flat, she decided to sell her 3-bedroom in our city and buy a small house in his city. This is where all 4 of them live now. Isn’t that love?! © Overheard / Ideer
• I just bought a new computer primarily to play newer games without them looking like Play-Doh. I saved up the entire cost over months to get it, and I did a ton of research to get the right combination of components to get the performance I wanted and the quality so it would last a while. I’d never put a computer together before so then I spent like a week watching videos learning how so the night it got delivered I assembled it and booted it up first try and it’s running like a dream. I showed a few friends and all they had to say about all of it was how they would have spent the $1,500 instead of buying a “video game.” For one, I don’t care about what you would have spent it on, save up $1,500 and do that if you want to. Secondly, this is an investment that will not need any upgrades for a few years and even then they will be a few hundred bucks. Tell me how that’s worse than dropping hundreds every month at a bar. © sheymyster / Reddit

• My wife and I are very wealthy people. My relatives know, but nobody knows exactly how much money we have. We live in a simple but beautiful house, we have nice things, and we travel a lot. At the same time, we work. My sisters, on the other hand, don’t know how to live within their means. Recently, one of them texted my wife, saying that her health is deteriorating because of her debts, but she knows how to solve this problem — we should give her a decent amount of money. We had this money, but I didn’t want to “help” her out, because she had just blown the money she had. I don’t think you should help people who are not going to work hard to get out of debt. If she had come to me with a good business plan, I might have invested in her business, but I will not give her money for anything. © Unknown author / Quora
• I put every cent I don’t spend on food toward my student debt. I live like a monk and eat frugally. My relatives think I’m crazy. But another year maybe 2 of this and I’ll be completely debt-free. © Leovinus_Jones / Reddit
• I was talking to a guy at work. I told him without a second thought that I was going to Greece for a holiday. And I got lectured about my wastefulness. At the same time, he started whining about how he didn’t have enough money and how unfair the world was. I took a calculator and quickly calculated his spending on all sorts of unnecessary things for the year and summed it up, “Here’s your trip to a resort.” And he said, “Why are you counting my money? It’s not nice. Count your own.” © lolochka1990 / Pikabu

• I earn very well, but I haven’t changed my car for about 7 years, and I’ve had my phone for about 5 years. Everything suits me, but not my family. At every opportunity they try to teach me about life, “You earn so well, but you live like a beggar! What kind of phone is this, how old is it? It’s been a long time since you’ve had one of these. Shame on you! When are you going to change your car? You can’t even sell it, you can only take it to the scrap yard. Buy a nice, beautiful one to match yourself. If you don’t have enough, take a loan!” These conversations make me sick. I don’t want to get any loans or buy the latest phones: I’m not interested in that. I love traveling, that’s where I spend my money with pleasure! When my car or phone stops functioning, then I will buy a new one. © Work Stories / VK
• Our family has a very useful tradition. And it sounds like this, “I don’t owe anyone anything! No one gave me anything, and I will not give anyone anything. No one has helped us, and we won’t help anyone.” I got my bearings and left. I got a job myself, got promoted, and started earning more. My older brother, on the contrary, jumped from one job to another and lost his family, friends, and job. At the age of 40, he returned to live with our parents. That’s when our parents remembered that we’re a family and should help and support each other. “Wow,” I thought, “they probably want to pay for my rented flat, help me with money somehow, and pay for my higher education!” But no. It turns out that I have to find my brother a job and help him pay child support from my salary. “Well, no,” I say, “you can’t break family traditions. It’s every man for himself! Nobody gives me anything, and I don’t give anybody anything.” The parents took offense seriously. They haven’t spoken to me for a week. © Podsheshano / VK
• My friend’s birthday was coming up, and my girls and I decided to buy a cool gift for her together. But one of our friends, Kate, suddenly said that she had financial problems, and she would give only half of the amount. Well, we thought, it happens. And then at the party, we were surprised to see Kate giving our friend an expensive bracelet as her gift. So, I’m sitting there thinking what it was all about. It’s a bit deceitful, isn’t it? Or has her financial situation suddenly improved? © Chamber 6 / VK

And in this article, a woman told a story about why she stopped giving her son pocket money. Check it out.