AITA for asking my BF to pay?
My BF (M, 26) and I (F, 22) started dating 7 months ago. I am an MA student and also work part-time (not legally allowed to do full-time). He has a startup that isn't going great (according to him) and works 50%. We moved in together into my rented apartment 1 month later. A month later, I asked about sharing the costs for the flat (I pay the rent & the wifi he makes use of, + electricity/water bills have doubled). I asked if he sees this household as mine or ours, and he said 'ours' & told me to 'just tell him the amount' (and I did, both the rent & electricity). I paid for everything, incl groceries (mostly me). He "doesn't know what to buy or what I use". Every time I tried to speak to him about the imbalance of effort in terms of cleaning, he would become silent cuz "he doesn't know what to say". TBF he sorted out dishwasher whenever he saw it finished and cleaned the table surface in the kitchen. I always said thanks and emphasized how much I appreciated that he was doing it. I was cooking, cleaning the bathroom and maintaining the clean environment in the flat (vacuuming), doing laundry + ironing, doing grocery shopping. I also study full-time and work part-time.
Yesterday I felt overwhelmed by everything and told him I felt the pressure to do a lot of things . He said he doesn't expect me to do anything. I told him I appreciated but house chores would not get done unless I do them. I then raised my concern about me burning out if household + financial duties being almost solely my responsibility continue. He got insulted, took out the phone and with the words "Okok you want me to give you money? How much do you need? A thousand?" sent* me a thousand (I paid 7x the amount over the course of our relationship) (*when i went to my phone to send the money back to him, he revealed he didn't send it because 'i seemed insulted'). He got offended because my question about his financial participation implied he 'couldn't afford to pay it', and he said he's perfectly capable of it. I said that at the moment, we're both living off my salary household-wise. He said that he works a lot and he needs to 'figure out his life' and he doesn't have time to do chores, and that me raising these topics means I'm not happy with him working a lot. He acted offended and said that I don't need to do anything if I don't want to, and that I don't appreciate what he does. AITA? I told him my next salary would not cover and that's the only reason I brought the topic up in the first place.
Posted Mar 28, 2024, 10:21 AM UTC