Jess Rickey

I've paid off debt, built savings, and I'm finally in a position where I can afford the things that I used to stress about.

But my friends are still very much in their spend now, deal with it later era, and it's starting to feel uncomfortable.

They're constantly suggesting expensive dinners, weekends away, festivals, and I either feel pressured to say yes or awkward saying no.

I don't want to lose my friendships, but I also don't want to keep blowing my budget to keep up.

How do you navigate this without things getting weird?

Yeah.

I think a friend is not going to want to punish you for wanting something different.

You don't have to do all the same things that your friends are doing.

I think, especially in larger groups of friends, it's really normal for people to be in different phases of their life.

For me, I think a lot of my friends have kids and that puts them in a very different life stage.

And I agree it can sometimes be really hard to reconcile the fact that

The life you're living or the life you want to live might not line up with exactly where they're at.

And that is totally okay because everybody's on their own journey.

I think you kind of have two options.

One is to expand your circle.

I think it is important to have people who have similar goals or can match your energy in the same way that your friends are entitled to want to go out to expensive dinners or restaurants.

drinks or whatever it is that they're doing.

You are also entitled to want to do more frugal things, do picnics in the park or watch TV at home or board games night.

If your existing group of friends don't want to do that, that's not where they're at, that's okay.

But it might be nice for you to expand your circle to include people who are enjoying those same sorts of activities as you.