Midpack
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Have any of you had to discourage friendships because of significant (2-3X) differences in spending between your household and the friend? Yes, it's sad, but we've had to do it.
One couple in particular, who we became good friends with, has been on an increasing expense trajectory over the years while we've been on a decreasing expense trajectory. The gap has become so wide that we're uncomfortable hanging out with them as often as we used to. While they're expanding/remodeling their house (literally almost doubling sq footage and lavishly appointing) we're decluttering and looking forward to buying a smaller house. While we've cut back on grocery/dining out, they still want to go to the best restaurants and they keep joining more and more monthly wine clubs (not commenting on their drinking at all, just their huge wine budget). They buy more and more toys, we are more and more unlikely to buy toys now than ever. And both couples are perfectly happy with how they are evolving. So where we used to see them at least once/week, we've deliberately but subtly spaced out to about once/month now, and I suspect it will continue to decline. Again, I know it's sad, but has to be done, unfortunately the title adage seems very true to us. Friends do drift apart, money can be one of the reasons.
One couple in particular, who we became good friends with, has been on an increasing expense trajectory over the years while we've been on a decreasing expense trajectory. The gap has become so wide that we're uncomfortable hanging out with them as often as we used to. While they're expanding/remodeling their house (literally almost doubling sq footage and lavishly appointing) we're decluttering and looking forward to buying a smaller house. While we've cut back on grocery/dining out, they still want to go to the best restaurants and they keep joining more and more monthly wine clubs (not commenting on their drinking at all, just their huge wine budget). They buy more and more toys, we are more and more unlikely to buy toys now than ever. And both couples are perfectly happy with how they are evolving. So where we used to see them at least once/week, we've deliberately but subtly spaced out to about once/month now, and I suspect it will continue to decline. Again, I know it's sad, but has to be done, unfortunately the title adage seems very true to us. Friends do drift apart, money can be one of the reasons.