Woman Asks If She's Wrong For Not Contributing Money From Her Fast Food Job To Pay For Her Unemployed Boyfriend's Surgery
Her boyfriend has no plans to contribute any money but expects her to do so.
Hananeko_Studio / Shutterstock Finances can be complicated for couples. Everything from how you should split your money to what you should spend your money on is open for debate.
One young couple tried to figure out how they should spend their limited funds to pay for a surgery one of them needed.
A young woman wondered if she was wrong not to pay for her boyfriend’s surgery with her fast food paycheck.
One woman took to Reddit to ask if she was in the wrong for not contributing money to her boyfriend’s surgery.
The woman explained that both she and her boyfriend were 19 years old and had been together for about a year.
“He went to a doctor, and they advised him to get a surgery that would essentially improve his quality of life,” she said. “It’s not life-threatening, and technically, he could live without getting the surgery, but it’s an issue that has really taken a toll on his mental health, and he always talks to me about how depressed it makes him and how much he wants to fix it.”
In a later update to the post, the woman clarified that the surgery was “a septoplasty to improve his breathing issues since he has a deviated septum.”
“We live in Australia, so the procedure [costs] around $1,000-$1,400, but 30-50% of it is covered by a Medicare rebate (which is the government health services in AU),” she said.
She revealed what her boyfriend’s original plan to pay for the surgery was. “He doesn’t have a job at the moment so he was relying on his parents to help pay for it, but they refuse to help him out,” she said.
svetikd / Canva Pro
This left the boyfriend with only one viable option that he could see. “So he asked me if I could help pay for it,” she said. “Honestly, I was really uncomfortable when he asked me that, but instead of telling him 'no,' I just said that I’d see how much my next paycheck is.”
That should have been a sufficient answer for her boyfriend, but he didn’t see it that way.
“That was when he blew up at me and asked me why I don’t want to help him out, that I know how badly these issues have affected him and that I could donate any amount I want,” she recounted.
Still, she doesn’t feel comfortable contributing to his surgery from her meager salary. “I have a fast-food job, and I don’t really get paid that well, especially considering that they don’t give me that many shifts to begin with. Would I be in the wrong if I didn’t want to help contribute to his surgery cost?” she asked.
Fast food workers are paid better in Australia, but not by much.
Some may be shocked that this woman would even think of paying for such a thing on her salary as a fast food worker. However, fast-food employees are paid slightly better in Australia.
According to Indeed, the average salary for a “fast food attendant” in Australia is $28.19 per hour or $55,229 annually. Forbes calculated that in U.S. dollars, that is about $18.80 an hour, or $36,820.95 yearly.
Anna Shvets / Pexels
While this may be a bit higher than what we are used to in the U.S., it certainly isn’t exorbitantly high.
At the end of the day, these are really just two kids. They aren’t prepared to devote this kind of money to each other. If this is a surgery that this man really needs, perhaps he could get a job to pay for it or contribute some money to it at the very least.
Regardless of his medical needs, this woman should not feel guilty for choosing not to contribute any money to his surgery. It’s not her job to do so.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.