Money Moral Dilemma: Should Jamie take Gordon to an expensive restaurant?

stogiebear

so I've set myself a £60 a month going out budget...

Dude, you are definitely in the right forum! LOL!

lynneinjapan

I agree, don't blow your budget - as you say, it's it's not as if it's a "special" birthday, and you can find other ways of marking the occasion. Yes, birthdays ARE more important than an ordinary night out, but how many ordinary nights out cost you that kind of money? If your mate is going to be upset if you don't want to spend silly money just because it's her birthday then do you really need friends like that?

cazrobinson

i would say i couldn't go and meet up for drink another night. £35 just to be there and then drinks on top - she/he's taking the p*ss!!

climbgirl

sarahsimsfan wrote: »

A friend has her birthday coming up at the end of March and has decided to hire a function room and have a buffet and it will be £35 each for us to go plus drinks and transport. Its basically going to blow my whole month's going out budget in one night and, as its in an awkward place to get to and I'll be buying a pressie (which I don't count in the budget of course) I'll probably spend more than £100 on one night.

Her sister and I are now sort of arguing about it. She said that birthdays are more important than other nights, I said that I don't want to blow more than a month's budget on one night and that I think the bday girl's plans are too expensive.

Would you stick to your guns, say no, I'm not going but ask the bday girl (and some others) round for a bottle of wine and to give her present on another night, or would you blow your budget and go?

Stick to your guns! Birthdays are slightly more important than other nights but they're not the end of the world. She'll just have to accept that some people can't come. I recently turned down an invite to a wedding because of the money aspect. It wasn't someone I knew well (was surprised to be invited at all to be honest!), it was in the middle of nowhere so expensive to get to, the last train left early in the evening so I had to stay over in the pricey hotel, I didn't have anything suitably dressy enough for a winter wedding (sundresses won't do!) and it was suddenly going to cost over £200 to go.

Tell your friend you simply can't afford to go - any real friend would understand that. It's a good idea to suggest an alternative night out so it's not a flat-out no.

My friend recently had her birthday, she earns obscene amounts of money (salary well over six figures) so she'd organised a day/evening that cost hundreds of pounds - which is fair enough, it's her birthday and she can afford it. But she'd broken the day down into lots of little outings, some expensive, some cheap so you could go to as little or as much as you could afford. It was nice compromise I thought.