AITA for asking my mom for the money she got from selling MY car?

Advice Needed

Some backstory, I (20F) and my mom (50F) have had a rocky relationship for a while. I had to move back to my hometown last summer, and I saw my mom every few weeks for dinner. In May, my mom offered to let me make small payments toward an extra car she had just purchased, because she knew I was struggling to pay insurance on my car. We agreed on $75 a month because I am disabled and working minimal hours. She knows I am planning on moving back to the city at the end of summer, and said she wanted me to have a reliable car when I move. She also said she didn’t want me to have to pay for my own insurance when it was cheaper to be on a parent’s. We agreed on $75 a month because I am disabled and working minimal hours, and also saving up for my move. We had a written agreement and everything, so I didn’t think there was a way for her to manipulate it.
A few weeks later, she offered to sell my car for me because she saw I was having trouble selling it. She suggested I put the money toward car payments, but it was my understanding that it was just a suggestion and I would always see the money before deciding anything.
A few weeks ago, my car finally sold. I also just got a part-time weekend job in the city I’m moving to, set to start in a few weeks. I’m still applying to full-time jobs on top of that, but the move is real and happening soon. I asked my mom if I could have the money from my car sale to go towards my apartment savings, since I could use the money more now than have it take a few months off car payments later on. My mom just said that we should talk about it in person.
When we talked in person later, she kind of just talked around me until I gave in. She said that she wasn’t charging me insurance or sales tax or interest and that she was owed the money from the car as reimbursement, that it was really bad of me to go back on an agreement like that in the realms world, and that if I needed help after I moved we could talk then. I just kind of nodded the whole time because when she gets like that I feel very stupid and like I can’t talk right.
The next day, after I had a therapist appointment and she suggested it, I texted my mom. I said that I’d prefer not to talk in person but that I felt very steamrolled, and that I really need the money from my car sale. I explained how it was my understanding that our written agreement was separate from her selling my car for me, and I always thought I’d get the money and then decide if I want to put it toward payments. I offered to make insurance payments too, and to add that to our written agreement. But that I saw our monthly payments agreement and the car sale as separate things and didn’t realize she wanted the car as reimbursement.
My mom said that the only reason she offered to sell my car was so she could have the money from it. And then she told me to pay her back insurance from April-July, when I only started payments in May. And she tried to get me to pay the $400 registration for the car from back in April before she offered it to me. It was a very long rambling text where she kept saying how she did me a favor and she was trying to help me out, and how she felt her generosity was being taken advantage of. And then she said how if the verbal agreement of the car sale going towards her wasn’t valid then the verbal agreement of me not peeing her more wasn’t valid? When the whole point of the written agreement was that I didn’t owe her more than 75 a month.
I replied and clarified that I didn’t start payments til May so I shouldn’t have to pay for insurance or registration that occurred in April, especially since she paid to have registered in her name. And that the written agreement clarified that I didn’t owe her more than the 75 a month, but that we could change that if she wanted. Then I said I couldn’t afford to pay her previous months of insurance because I’m moving a broke, which she knows.
She sent back a long rambling text saying we could redo the monthly agreement (which I just said) but that it had to be 225 a month and that I owed her sales tax that she was paid for buying the car. I said I shouldn’t pay her sales tax, and we agreed on $195. I thought that was the end of it.
The next day, she texted me a solid wall saying she rethought it. She said I owed her interest since she took out a loan to buy the car, and that she was so generous and kind by not having me pay for her bank interest previously. She listed a bunch of fees I owed her that was basically equal to the money from the sale of my car. She said the car would be a car loan from her, with interest and sales tax, and that my sold car would be considered a trade in and she would keep the money from that. I would also have to find my own insurance for the car and pay that on top of the increased payments. It was that or give her the car back and she’d refund previous payments and give me the money from the sale.
I’m broke and moving soon, she knows this because it’s why the conversation started in the first place. I told her she knew I couldn’t afford to do anything but return the car.
She sent back another wall emphasizing how generous and helpful she was being, and how I was throwing that in her face. She blamed me for making the wrong choice and said I would never make it to the city. She again said how generous she was being, and her kindness was being thrown in her face. Not exaggerating, she said it like five times.
I stood by my choice, and she mocked me and said I would definitely make it to the city with no car or no savings from buying a car.
She then called my dad (they’re very messily divorced for a decade now, wtf?) and fed him her side of the story. He called me and berated me for getting rid of a good car, and said I should just pay my mom. I told him she gave me and ultimatum and i stood by my choice, and he yelled at me about how he couldn’t afford to buy me a car and that good cars are hard to come by and the real world and shit. I don’t know what story she fed him, but it was very much only her side of it.
My mom texted me again (a few hours after our text convo that morning ended) and told me to rethink my choices and ask my dad for his opinion. I said I already did and that I would give her the car back. She ended the conversation by claiming she just wanted to help and I turned it around in her face. And she asked it it was worth a few months rent to not have a vehicle. If I was grateful for what she had already done to help me I wouldn’t be I wouldn’t be where I am now. Exact quote btw.
My brother and sister both think she was just out of money, or that maybe this was her plan all along. My aunt thinks she was always swindling me because my mom took out a $30,000 loan and the car is probably worth half that, and she bought it from her dad so she probably paid even less than half that. And what she claims to have sold my car for is less than what the car is worth, so there’s probably more money involved there that she just spent already.
I don’t get how it snowballed so quickly, I thought I was pretty reasonable with my questions and replies, but she kept brining more and more fees into it and asking for more and more money. I don’t know, I just want to give her the car back, get my money, and never talk to her again.

Posted Jul 26, 2026, 4:14 AM UTC

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