So this happened a couple months ago, but honestly I’m still kind of appalled by it and I don’t really know what to think. So I’ve been living in an apartment with two roommates, and upon move in we all agreed to spend $30 each at the grocery store every time we go shopping. Both me and my first roommate, “Renee”, are on very strict budgets, so we can’t afford to spend more than that. 

Fast forward into sometime in the middle of last semester, things are going pretty great, our budget is going just as planned, and my second roommate, “Sarah”, shows up with her mom both carrying a bunch of groceries. She didn’t tell us she was going grocery shopping, and after her unpacking I saw that a lot of it was specialty items that Sarah must’ve picked out for herself. Most of them were organic items and looked very expensive. Renee and I didn’t really think anything of it, we just assumed they were for Sarah and we didn’t eat them, except for some shareable items such as milk, butter, and bagels in which Sarah told us we could have part of. A couple weeks go by, Sarah’s mom buys her groceries again, and this time Renee and I don’t eat any of them as most of it was individual stuff for Sarah.

So fast forward about two months later, while we all were home from break, Sarah charges both Renee and I $65 EACH on Venmo, without any context or contacting us about it first. We both text Sarah in the group chat asking if this was mistake, and Sarah replies with, “No, this is for all the times my mom bought groceries and you didn’t pay her.”
 
Keep in mind Sarah never told Renee and I that she was getting groceries, she just showed up at our apartment with them. She never asked us if we wanted anything, she just picked out things for herself, which in turn Renee and I didn’t each much of because we assumed they were for her only. We had agreed on a budget, and these extra grocery trips were clearly not a part of the original agreement. Also, Sarah charged us for these things literally months after they occurred, which kind of says to me that her mom was not planning to charge us but later was looking for ways to scrounge up extra money. My roommates and myself are all college students. Renee and I struggle to pay expenses on our own while Sarah’s mom helps her with rent and other bills. 

So all in all, Renee and I explain to Sarah that this isn’t fair for the reasons mentioned above, and it ends with Renee getting pretty mad at Sarah, neither of us paying the $65, and Sarah saying she’s going to get her own groceries from now on, causing Renee and I to have to pay more each time we go shopping.

So, am I the asshole for not paying her for these groceries that I may have eaten a little of, not knowing I was gonna get charged for months later? It just doesn’t settle right with me, and it honestly kind of angers me that Sarah’s mom appears to be trying to get money out of broke college students.