The big con

By JustOutofCollegeAndBroke - 16/07/2015 06:56 - United States - Los Angeles

Today, I agreed to help out with my boyfriend's sister's baby shower. They forgot to inform me that "helping" meant splitting the cost of everything. I now owe his family $275. I don't know how to back out without looking cheap. FML
I agree, your life sucks 28 704
You deserved it 2 644

Same thing different taste

Top comments

Murilirum 23

It's not looking cheap if you didn't know it meant paying money. $275 is a fair chunk of change and not something you should just give out because someone else says you should. Also, why is a baby-shower requiring a collective acquiring of $275 per person?!

Just speak with the sister and explain that you misunderstood, and if you can't afford it explain why.

Comments

Stop being such a baby and back out, OP

I agree. Oh and by the way, why have they disabled comments for the Got-fired-because-OP-is-racist FML?

Indeed, it isn't OP's fault that they didn't specify what "help" meant. I doubt most people think of it in monetary terms right off the bat. Hopefully they didn't deliberately try to trick you into it.

seems that his sister is just trying to be the cheap one. OP should not have to pay unless they asked and she agreed to it

Murilirum 23

It's not looking cheap if you didn't know it meant paying money. $275 is a fair chunk of change and not something you should just give out because someone else says you should. Also, why is a baby-shower requiring a collective acquiring of $275 per person?!

Apparently 33 is unaware of the purpose of an apostrophe.

zeffra13 31

It's not a per person collection, just a split of the bill between people throwing. They should never charge OP, as it's their party and they say what's going to happen and OP's just offering help. If I was asked, I'd assume they meant help set up, not chip in. OP should say, "I can't give that amount right now, but I can give X (or do Y)."

Just speak with the sister and explain that you misunderstood, and if you can't afford it explain why.

It isn't even about not being able to afford it - it is not wanting to spend that much!

Don't speak with the sister. Speak with their mom. Tell them you were happy to help (cook refreshments, put up decorations), but she didn't tell you that she wanted you to split the party costs, and you can't afford it.

Denise1988 13

Don't correct grammar that's not broken. And don't break it yourself.

#24, #4 had it right. It is "Not your problem" not "Not you are problem."

I think they are trolling. Well, that, or they're just stupid as ****.

I don't know, I might be stupid as duck.

thank you everyone for participating in my latest study

Evil Turtle, if you had studied you'd be able to spell better.

Stop ******** on people who lack social skills, it's uncouth.

tantanpanda 26

if I were you, I would tell them "I'll help with preparations, not the expenses". you have ZERO obligations for paying.

Tell them you don't have that kind of money and that they should have clarified what they meant. It's your money. Doesn't matter if they think you're cheap.

Just agree that this payment would count as the baby's gift.

leogachi 15

$275 on a gift for her sister-in-law ?! We don't really do baby showers here but I assume $50 is already a more than acceptable amount for someone she might not know that much. I'm not sure I'd spend that much if it was my own sister. OP shouldn't agree on anything, how rude it is to impose such a thing on someone ...

Not even sister-in-law! I don't care how long OP has been dating her boyfriend, not family, not her problem. A $275 gift is usually something you'd split between multiple people.

The family has no right to demand $275 from OP. OP has the right to refuse to pay and give the baby a regular baby gift.

Alright then cancel gifts for the next five birthdays. Solved!

$275 for a baby shower?? And that's only PART of the cost?? I think all I spent on mine was $50 in total on snacks and drinks

Usually the person that's having the baby doesn't pay their own expenses , but communication seems very poor...

Tell them you didn't know there was money involved, and if they refuse to let you back out, refuse to pay. It's your decision, it's not like a baby shower needs $250 from each person anyways.

I can't believe how anyone could ask something like that, $20 would already seem a lot for someone who's not family or a close friend, but $275 ?! You don't owe them anything, talk to your boyfriend, I'd be so embarassed to find out that someone in my family had asked that to my boyfriend ... In any case, it must be very unconfortable but you've got to stand up for yourself and say no. Hope your boyfriend saves you the trouble though and tells whoever asked that to go **** themselves :)

countryb_cth 38

For the baby of your boyfriends sister $20 is perfectly reasonable. Anymore up from that is a little much.

#69, for many people $20 is a lot of money. Since OP's name is JustOutofCollegeAndBroke, I suspect that OP is too poor to afford a $20 gift