Messy Money Matters with Groceries and a Roommate's Girlfriend
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What messy money matters are discussed with a grocery-eating roommate?
Broadcasting intimate details and useless information from an undisclosed location in New York City. The Last Show with David Cooper Messy money matters. That is what we're going to discuss. Roommates, family, groceries. When you add money to the equation, things get ugly. We are going to weigh in on a few am I the a-hole debates, dilemmas here with Eric Cam, economics professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. Eric, what a joy it is to have you on the show. You are well qualified to rule on these dilemmas. Especially because if we're talking about a-holes, you got to have me on it. that's your qualification not your economics background not your uh your great moral authority just that you're a jerk so you it takes one to know one listen you can buy a phd in economics on the internet now so we got to go back to what you know best i should do that and i should get a lot of accreditation like dr david cooper professor doctor phd dvd rsvp i could buy whatever title i want okay the grocery eating roommate do you want to set this one up for me
So the grocery eating roommate question, it goes like this. This person recently stopped paying for their groceries because their roommate keeps inviting their girlfriend over to eat, but she eats everything the first person buys. So the roommate tells the other roommate that if she keeps eating here five nights a week, she needs to chip in or one of them needs to cover her share of the food. Am I crazy? Well, it gets even worse than that. The person who feels taken advantage of comes home to see their roomie and the roomie's girlfriend eating their steak in their fridge. And that's when they snap and they kick the girlfriend out and they want to know, are they the jerk for doing that? No, and I don't think they're the jerk for doing it because I have to be honest, I never had roommates, but I kind of, when I think about communal living, everybody has to do their part as equally as possible or that communal living arrangement falls to pieces.
So it seems to me here that this is someone being completely taken advantage of and you have to nip this in a bud. I mean, it's one thing that it'll never be exactly divisible, equal across partners. But when one person starts to take such dreadful advantage of other people, I think eventually you have to step in because if you don't step in, that's like saying it's okay. I think that roommates should actually have separate foodstuffs. Okay, you got your food, you got my food. And then if we eat together at that moment for that meal, it's discussed. But beyond that, don't touch. Like if I have a steak in the fridge, especially with the price of beef these days, that's mine in the roommate situation.
Well, you know what? My daughter lives with four roommates away at university and that you just described exactly what they do. Everything is kept separate where they even have a separate where in the fridge and where in the freezer they keep their food. And then on those rare occasions where it's all communal, they each contribute something and they figure it out. And it seems to work for them up till now. All right, I guess we've weighed in. This person is not the jerk for kicking their roommate's girlfriend out and being upset. Let's go to our next money matter. This is the $25 rent mistake. Basically, one person in a roommate situation underpays their rent by $25. Doesn't seem like that much. But they do it.
This triggers a large late fee from the landlord. And then the roommates, of course, refuse to cover the fee. But the roommate who didn't spend the 25 bucks was upset because the other roommates knew that they were short. They could have said something, but they didn't. And so this person's like, you knew about the error. I'm claiming I don't. Now we have this big fee. We should all share the fee. Where do you weigh in on this one? You know, I'm going to say something that's going to totally shock you in my normal day job as an economics professor and a capitalist. But my first problem with this is why is the landlord charging a late fee on the rent?
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