18 Women Who Had to Find Out Firsthand What a Greedy Partner Is / Bright Side

Sometimes it seems that you already know a person inside out, but then a financial question comes up. And this is when the person shows their true colors.

• My lover came to me and told me he’d brought me a present. Then showed me the watch on his wrist. But since it was a man’s watch, he said he would wear it. Well, I didn’t leave it like that. I collected all the money and on his next visit told him that I had bought him a present — a TV set, but I would watch it. © About everything little by little / Dzen

• A friend had a “fiancé.” Her parents found him for her. This fiancé moved into her flat, bought a chandelier, and started living. It was fall. They decided to postpone the wedding until summer. This fiancé lived there during fall, winter, and spring, and left the woman under the pretext of “I don’t like you.” While he lived in my friend’s flat, he didn’t pay for anything, not even for the utility bills, sometimes he brought food. After he left her, his parents called and demanded the washing machine they had given them back. The friend kept the machine but returned the money for it. This is the most extravagant case of greed and rudeness that I have ever seen in my life. © Jana / Dzen
• I was dating a guy. One day we went to a sushi shop. He placed an order, and the girl at the cash register asked him, “Would you need 2 sets of tableware?” The answer was immediate, “No, one!” Then he lowered his gaze and asked me, “Do you need one?” No, I didn’t want anything from him after that. © Overheard / Ideer

• My inheritance bought us a car that my husband exclusively used. I rode my bike everywhere, even pulling kids in the trailer in full rain all winter. I had pneumonia and needed to go for a follow-up check-up. He would always drive me to get groceries or appts where I would be asked questions or bump into people to chat. The doctor’s office was 5 minutes from home and I planned around his work schedule. He drove and sat outside with the kids in the car. Could have gone home and returned, could have taken them for a treat… anything. It was only a 15-minute visit. But he was doing me a favor by babysitting the kids and was so inconvenienced. I didn’t have much money but I owed him gas for the drive. His work comped his gas with a stipend higher than he used. Financial abuse is never just the only abuse in a relationship. We were together for 20 years, I always owed him for something © CanadianArtGirl / Reddit
• My aunt told her children after she divorced her husband, “Boys, we’re going to be worse off financially now, but we’ll get by.” My brother later recounted that he thought they would eat only bread and water, but it never happened. They seemed to be living better, eating differently, and going to the movies more often. Then, after years, my aunt said that after receiving the first child support money, she found out the size of her ex-husband’s salary (the child support was a little less than the money he gave her when they were married). © Svetlana S. / Dzen

• My friend’s husband used to write down everything he bought for his son. Right from the day he was born. He gave his wife sheer pennies. When she asked him to buy something for the house, he would tell her how little he earned. One day he got sick and was hospitalized for 2 months. She visited him once a week on her day off, bringing chicken broth, cottage cheese, and bananas. He started asking for other things: chicken, cheese. She replied that she couldn’t afford it with her salary, as she had to feed her son and herself. He started transferring money to her but always counted how much was spent and how much food she brought him. When her son was 15, she decided to divorce him and filed for child support. Imagine her surprise when she found out how big his salary was. But that’s not the best part. During the marriage, he bought 2 flats with the money saved from the family. His mistress lived in one, who had a child of 12 years old. And he rented out the other one. And since the flats were bought during the marriage and registered on him, they had to be divided. As a result, after the divorce, my friend got much richer. © Mishka Fancy / Dzen
• My former partner didn’t have his license. I didn’t charge him at first, but I found myself putting many miles on my car driving him around. He would whine and cry a lot about using public transportation. Also didn’t cook, clean, or help with chores. Often quit his job and I was stuck with covering for rent. I was paying at least 80% of everything even when he was working. Eventually, I said okay you need to pay for gas, and chip in for insurance and maintenance. I was his maid, therapist, and personal chauffeur. Glad I gave this jerk the boot. © helloitskimbi / Reddit

• I lived with my father and stepmother. We had one room in the house locked up when we were kids. There were always goodies in there for the stepmother’s kids. I got over it. Now I’m married with a son. I saw this one day: my 4-year-old son lying on the floor and looking through the crack under the door as my stepmother feeds her grandchildren ice cream! © anybodyindark / Pikabu
• I had a birthday party recently. There weren’t many guests, just family and close friends. There was a married couple that we’d been friends with for 7 years. I noticed their love for freebies before: they wouldn’t pay their share in get-togethers, wouldn’t give money for petrol on long journeys at their request, would borrow food and medicine and not return. But I just couldn’t find the courage to tell them this. But this time they outdid themselves. They gave me a mixer. In a bright colorful package. I unwrapped the gift only today, and there is my mixer, given to me a long time ago by my grandmother. It was brand new at the time, I didn’t use it. I gave it to them and forgot about it. © Tandem.dvoe / Pikabu

• I had a colleague. She would steal food from the table in the middle of a party. Once she managed to steal half a bucket of kebab, which her husband, who also worked with us, helped to take away. We all looked at her with reproach. In response, we were told, “It’s his share!” In general, we stopped calling them for parties, that’s how greedy we are. © Elena Nyusina / ADME
• A friend’s husband left with the mixer tap, light bulbs, and a TV set after the breakup. But he left his son (their common child) behind. He quit his job right away so he wouldn’t have to pay child support. That’s the kind of man he is! © malvina / ADME
• My friend is pregnant, and her friend tells her, “Come over, I’ll give you children’s things. Mine have grown up already, but you’ll need them.” She arrived and was given 2 huge bags of onesies, caps, and socks. They drank tea, and my friend went home. And when she arrived, her friend texted her, “When the child grows up, you just return everything in the same condition. I wrote down what I gave you. And make sure there are no holes or stains.” My friend put together the bags and took them back. How can you guarantee that a child won’t stain or tear clothes? © Lakshmi / Pikabu

• I was once given money as a birthday present, which was borrowed from me a few months before that, and not even the entire amount. Then, when I asked them to return the rest, they told me that they had already spent a lot on the gift and that I was petty and mercantile and didn’t appreciate gifts. That was the last time I ever lent money to anyone. © Nautica / ADME
• One day I’m on a bus, and the cabin is half-empty. The conductor comes up, I count out the money and drop a coin, and it rolls back a bit. I pay the conductor, and jerk towards the coin, but a nimble, well-dressed young man bends down faster, picks it up, puts it in his pocket, and turns away. I didn’t see my face, but the look on the conductor’s face I won’t forget. © Madam Boo / ADME

• I remember dating a guy at my home, and somehow everything went according to the same pattern: from Friday to Monday, it was dinners, smoothly going into breakfasts, and so on. After a while, I wondered why I was the only one who had to bear all the costs of dating: I bought groceries for 2 people for the whole weekend. I felt like some kind of a mom to a son who comes over during weekends to everything set for him. So, the guy was very surprised, because he thought that we invested equally: he also spends money every time… On the ticket! I said that if he considers this arrangement fair, I am ready to pay for a bus ticket if this means an “all-inclusive” weekend holiday. As you can understand, I ended up being the mercantile one. © Sandra / ADME
• I’ve never bothered about home-cooked food. I buy myself a ready-made lunch at work during the day and yogurt in the evening, and I’m happy with this. And then I started dating a guy. We started living together. He nagged me about the harmfulness of fast food and advertised the charm of homemade food. So, I gave up and started cooking. And when we broke up, I realized that he didn’t care about my health. When I was buying ready-made food at work, I bought it only for myself, and you can’t hang a padlock on the pot of soup, so he ate at my expense. Not for long, though, the canteen quickly closed, ha. © Mother of Many Cots / ADME

• My ex worked in a women’s team where the ladies treated the only man to tea and goodies every day. When I found out, I gave him a jar of jam and a box of chocolates to treat them to. He brings the jam home in the evening. To my silent question, he said, “The candy was enough, you should have seen how happy they were.” Then he sat down and ate the whole jam. © Galina Dolgikh / ADME
• I once broke up with a guy. Partly because of his pathological greed. I was in love, I forgave everything in the beginning. And then I got fed up. Anyway, he didn’t want to break up. He came to me with 3 roses wrapped in a newspaper and invited me to a restaurant. I thought, well, he’s improving, I should give him a chance. We’re sitting in a cafe, he lights a candle on the table with his lighter. The waiter warns us that the candle is for a fee. The guy nods. So, we had a heart-to-heart talk, I felt sorry for him, I thought maybe I was wrong about him, he looked so upset… We left the cafe, and he was rubbing his hands, chuckling gloatingly, “We didn’t pay for the candle!” © Oksana Shutkova / ADME

And here’s another bunch of stories about incredulously greedy people.