Submitted by 420Parent2013 t3_1095auy in tifu
TL;DR- Been paying a friend for rides, she won't lower price so we got behind with her and she threatened to stop helping. I took her up on it.
I have been getting rides from someone I thought was a friend, first just to my child's daycare but then me to work as well. When this started, we (hubby and I) could afford what she was asking, though it was double what we were using. She's a friend and cheaper than a cab, so no biggie. Then I got laid off. We could no longer afford what she was asking, so we asked her to lower it. Nope, no can do. Fine. We managed. Barely. Then we got behind on rent because they raised it AND hubby's hours got less because the jobs slowed down. So we started paying her what we could and she accepted that for a time. We got behind with her too. We owe her around 800. Lately, she's been there, ON payday, with her hand out. I get it, I really do get wanting to be paid. My husband and I have been having fights about paying her because he wants to prioritize back rent (2,900-ish) and I wanted to pay her to get her off my back and because we needed her. Not paying her would make her not want to help us out, obviously. After these fights, we usually gave her something. On to yesterday. We are getting a check from our state for heating help (450-900, not sure if it's per household or per person). We don't pay for heat so we were going to put it right to our back rent. She didn't like that idea and thought that half of it should go to her. She said she'd stop helping us if we didn't do that. Hubby and I talked about it and decided we'd cut cost by keeping our kiddo home and me taking a cab to work. I told her this today and then she started ranting about how she's being used and how could I do this to her and that everyone said we'd screw her over so she shouldn't help us out. She really didn't like it when I said she'd been gouging us despite calling herself my friend. I told her I would continue to pay her what I could until she was paid off, but as of Saturday I didn't need her help anymore. I know that my friendship is likely ruined. I am stuck here wondering if I did the right thing in calling her bluff or if I really fucked up.