Am I overreacting? My boyfriend doesn’t have money to buy me things most of the time and blows our plans a lot, but he lowkey can’t control it
My boyfriend (19M) and I (19M) are in college. His family isn’t very well off: his mother has to take care of his 2 special needs siblings by herself full-time, and money is tight. He doesn’t have to pay to go to college, he is a student athlete and doesn’t have a job. I am an international student, I have a part-time job on campus and my parents sent me more money than I needed for my tuition, so my finances are pretty relaxed for my needs. I have literally nothing to complain about him except for the fact that he rarely has money to buy me things and his promises/plans with me never really go through. I don’t think I ask for much—we didn’t have a proper Valentine’s date because he was too busy that weekend: we were supposed to grab dinner at a nice place and hang out the day after, but we ended up just getting ramen, boba and crumbl from 8-10pm on Valentine’s Day, and never ended up hanging out the day after because he had family and frat stuff to attend (he did get me a gift and flowers). We also planned to go somewhere on Thanksgiving or winter break, but that also didn’t happen cuz he didn’t have money during Thanksgiving and his mom wanted the car during winter break. I would ask him to Doordash me food sometimes and he can’t cuz he doesn’t have money. Mind you we live in dorms on campus and we are on a mandatory all-access meal plan, so when everything is closed on campus I lowkey have no food but some instant ramen that I’m sick of. We really rarely go on dates except for a quick ice cream/boba grab sometimes. I only expect him to pay for food and drinks we get together, and sometimes Doordash stuff for me because we both don’t have a car. He only gets money from stuff like occasional sports betting and his grandparents sending him $50 like once every few months. He would buy me things whenever he does have money and hang out with me when he is done with everything else he has to do, but I feel like it’s not enough to keep up with my expectations. I’m kinda mad that he lowkey didn’t even try to get an easy on-campus job that wouldn’t take too much time and still allows him to do work during the job like the ones I recommended him to apply to. I also hate how he made a lot of promises that he ended up not keeping up with, although it’s not in his control. He said he wish he could spoil me more, but I don’t see much effort in getting some job or side hustle. News flash I do want to be more spoiled by my bf than how it is right now. Is it fair to think so or am I just privileged? I know his family isn’t as well-off as mine, we probably had different lifestyles, he has all his athlete stuff so he is busy, but I just can’t help but be upset about it 😭 Sorry if my post isn’t very coherent or lacking details it’s really hard to think when I’m upset, I’m glad to answer any questions
Posted Mar 14, 2026, 12:31 AM UTC