Real-life MMD: How much should my friend pay me?

AbbieFA

A voucher is basically a cash substitute earmarked for a retailer. I don't think your friend should treat it any differently to your own personal cash, assuming your friend wanted that item too. Otherwise, where is your own benefit from the voucher you won? If you agree to let her pay less it would be a goodwill gesture, but I wouldn't feel guilty for requesting the full 50% of the value.

jorok

Simple - if you have a voucher that cost you nothing then you should not expect your friend to pay half the money that the voucher saves, just half the cash the item costs.
You are unlikely to stay friends for long if you ask for half the free voiucher's value back.

Lil_Lady

look at it this way, if your mom had given you some money towards it or you got argos vouchers from mates for christmas and you decided to use these funds to pay 'your share' , would your so called friend be expecting to pay less herself because you have more money ? whatever the total price is for an item or a bill you agree to share, it's split evenly half and half regardless how someone pays their half of the bill.
If you let this person get away with it now, you are making your bed so to speak.
Also do not buy costly items with a friend, it's the quickest way to end a friendship. Look for cheap goods on gumtree or free on freecycle that you can write off if you move out.
I'd say that you need to get a contract between the 2 of you and sign it agreeing ground rules.
good luck

hogger84

If you can quite easily (assumeing you had the money) say right I will pay cash and save the voucher for somthing for me. Then I would say flatmate has to pay half the acutual item price.

However if the voucher would otherwise have gone unspent then I think you should share the benefit with the flatmate.

JayD

I think you should make it clear to your friend that you will pay for the whole of the cost and that the item is therefore totally, completely and solely YOURS. Tell her she cannot use it and needs pay nothing towards it at all - and you will be taking it with you when you both finally part ways.

Macca83_2

I'm gonna buck the trend.

If I had won a voucher and was going to use it for a shared item then I would want half the discounted price. If the voucher was from something special i.e. Christmas present, then I would save it and use it for something I really wanted.

emmy05

back out now! lol, its hardly started an theres a disagreement goin on

kzzy

I agree with 'psychopathbabble', pay for things separately.

I recently moved in with a friend, someone I've known for almost 20 yrs, and it did not end well.
Thankfully most of the shared items were mine, or I paid for the important items myself.

If you are going to buy items together then you should pay an equal amount each.
How you pay for your share is your business, whether it's with a voucher or money that was given as a gift, it doesn't matter.

Tell her to cough up!

leithman1

tgroom57 wrote: »

No it's not fair.

But I would take her up on the offer to pay half of the hard cash you parted with for it. And (but most likely 'or') I would keep the item for myself, as it represents your prize, since it was bought with what you won.
This sounds like it was a big item and considerable outlay.

I wonder if she'll expect the same arrangement when you use a voucher for a meal out? Say a £40 meal out, you contribute a £20 voucher and she thinks her bit is £10. Time to talk through some ground rules.

I agree with other posters who say that buying jointly is fraught with problems. You already have a dispute and if this escalates how do you divide communal property in the future.

The example of a meal out is not a fair comparison. It will depend on how you came upon the voucher. if you paid for it then you are entitled to use it as your contribution, but if it was a prize or freebie, it would seem to be a nice gesture to use it as an opportunity for a treat where you can both benefit.

if it were me, I would sit down and work out a strategy for buying property which will let you part as friends, when the arrangement eventually comes to an end. Even if you do buy communally, draw up an agreement which lists which items will belong to each of you in the future. That way there would be room for negotiation if one party wanted to buy some of the others property or would allow for swaps.

Good luck.

SandraDJ

I agree with those people who have said that dividing everything 50/50 is a bad idea. Presumably you're not going to be living there together forever, so it would have been a better option to each buy items that you know are yours to take away when you decide to go.