Woman Says She’s Done Being Friends With ‘Cheap People’ After Spending More Than $500 On Her Friend At Dinner
She’s had enough with her friend’s selfish behavior.
Maria Teijeiro / Canva Pro It’s natural to want to treat a friend to a birthday dinner, but when that friend expects to be treated time and time again without reciprocation, it gets old.
The woman expressed her frustration with a ‘cheap’ and ‘selfish’ friend after she spent over $600 on her birthday dinner.
Eva, who goes by eviesworld___ on TikTok, lives in New York, which is an expensive city in itself. She explained how she’s learned that the meaning of cheap goes beyond financial matters. Her former friend exhibited cheap behavior with her money, time, and attention, which led to the demise of their relationship.
Here's how it went down. The friend was planning a birthday dinner, and Eva offered to treat her.
“Listen, I’m down to spend on someone’s birthday. Me and her were good friends,” she said. “I’m always going to be there for you on your birthday if we’re friends.”
However, Eva was not expecting to spend as much as she did on a single night.
For starters, the friend picked a restaurant that was an hour away, located in Brooklyn. Eva said this was “very inconvenient” as she had to pay $120 for the Uber ride from her house to the restaurant and $100 for the ride back, but she was willing to make the sacrifice.
She arrived at the restaurant, and despite her preference to stay sober for health reasons, she was aware everyone else would be drinking, but she was willing to split the bill evenly anyway.
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Mind you, she expected everyone to have maybe two or three rounds of drinks, but to her surprise, they all had five, even six, rounds, plus orders of shots. This obviously impacted the bill immensely, yet she stuck to her decision to split it evenly, which ended up costing everyone $300 each. That being said, Eva spent about $500 on her friend’s birthday dinner, plus a small gift she purchased for her, but she didn’t make a big deal out of it.
Eva and the friend planned another dinner a couple of weeks later to reunite with their mutual friend from Washington, D.C.
Eva explained that their mutual friend reached out to have a night out together, and they were all down for the plans, so their friend booked the dinner reservation herself for a Friday night around 9 p.m.
However, two days before the dinner, Eva’s ‘cheap’ friend expressed an issue with the reservation time, saying she had a half-marathon to run that weekend. She asked if they could move the dinner earlier to around 6:30 p.m.
“I wouldn't really think anything of this, but she always does this,” Eva said. “Every plan, I feel like she would deliberately change it because of something she had to do.”
Eva felt this excuse was valid, though, and they agreed to change the reservation time. However, she felt inconvenienced by the fact that they would be at the bar hours before it actually got lively and fun.
The day of their dinner, the friend suddenly decided she didn’t want to meet at an earlier time anymore, saying 6:30 p.m. was “too early,” and she asked if they could change the reservation back to 9 p.m. This aggravated Eva, and she began to realize the girl’s self-centered tendencies.
“Everything has to be around her,” Eva expressed. “I think cheap people are very selfish.”
They changed the reservation back to the original time they initially agreed on.
When they arrived at the restaurant, the girl showed up saying she had already eaten. It was a habit that Eva had said she “always” did, which she found “so rude.”
When Eva asked the girl what time she was running her half-marathon, she said it was on Sunday.
“You can’t have dinner at 9 p.m. on a Friday night because of a half-marathon you’re running on Sunday?” Eva said.
When they sat down at the table and looked through the menu, despite claiming to have already eaten, she still gave her input on what they should order.
Photo: AS photo family / Shutterstock
This only added to Eva’s irritation. She bluntly asked if the girl was planning to eat, as Eva was “starving,” and they would either order for two people or three. The girl continued to claim she wouldn’t eat, but when the food came, she ate “more than half” of every plate with seemingly no shame.
By the end of the dinner, Eva said her former friend had eaten "the most” of them all, something she was notorious for.
The girl’s intention was to avoid contributing to the bill, but Eva had enough.
At the same time the server brought their bill to the table, the girl ran into a friend at the restaurant and started catching up with him.
Eva and the mutual friend placed their cards in the billfold, but the girl wasn't paying attention as their server took the check.
“I had let that behavior slide for years and I was putting my foot down finally,” Eva affirmed.
Eva candidly told the girl to get up and give the server her card, as he wasn’t standing far away, but she continued to make excuses.
Eva persisted, but then the girl had the audacity to use the birthday card, saying she had assumed they were going to treat her. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Eva.
Eva pointed out that she had already treated the girl well, paying over $500 for her birthday, which was also weeks ago, and she wasn’t planning on spending another dime on her, especially considering her selfish behavior.
“This had me fuming,” Eva said. “Eventually, we forced her to pay the bill.”
Several TikTokers pointed out the absurdity of spending $500 on someone for their birthday and still being asked for more.
“[I don’t care] if I’m cheap, I’m not spending FLIGHT MONEY on a dinner,” one person shared. “If our friendship matters, we’ll be booking a flight together instead.”
“I’m the cheap friend, but I’d also advocate for you being cheap,” another girl commented. “I wouldn’t let my friend spend $500 on me.”
Photo: Brand X Pictures / Canva Pro
Others were astounded by the girl’s unapologetically disrespectful behavior.
“The fact that you guys had to get her to put her card down is actually so embarrassing for her,” someone stated.
A month later, Eva planned a dinner for her own birthday, yet the girl conveniently missed it.
Eva said the girl didn’t get her a gift or even bother attending the dinner because she had plans, which Eva described as clearly “selfish."
Friendship is a two-way street, and while Eva went above and beyond to be there for her friend on the girl’s birthday, the girl failed to offer the same in return.
While no one is entitled to do anything for anyone, it seems clear in this situation that Eva’s friend expected everyone to prioritize her preferences. Yet, when it came to anyone else, she didn’t seem to care about or consider their needs.
This is common behavior of a self-entitled individual, and some might say the girl exhibited symptoms of narcissism, considering her described sense of self-importance and arrogance.
Many applauded Eva for standing her ground once she came to terms with the girl’s unreciprocated energy.
It’s unfair to take advantage of your friends' goodwill, and Eva's portrayal of the events suggests the girl frequently got away with abusing her friends’ kindness.
Overall, Eva and her friends need to better communicate their preferences and stick to a budget when it comes to going out, as their style of dining seems messy and expensive.
Francesca Duarte is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team based in Orlando, FL. She covers lifestyle, human interest, adventure, and spirituality topics.