I Owe You ... Squat

Lately... I have noticed that I tend to get short tempered with people who expect me to pick up the tab after them or expect me to share a bigger portion of a split bill. I wondered why this bothered me so much because the amounts in question isn't a big amount nor something that would set me back a few months.

I think I am at a point where I've had it with people thinking that since I am single, I therefore do not have a 'family' nor the burdens such a nucleus entails. They see me with a branded handbag and therefore assume that I bought this item on a lark with spare cash I have lying around the house.

I have also observed that when people ask if you have had an increment or so for the new Financial Year, that it is an obligation that one has to treat the enquirer to a meal. How odd. $1 is still considered an increment and if that were so, how would it justify treating friends to a simple meal of say $5? I'm sure people must have realised by now that, I do not have only ONE friend... surprising as that may sound. If every friend expects this... wouldn't I develop a phobia of such 'friends', enough to be a recluse sooner or later?

I wonder when people started being so myopic. While it is true that I am not married nor have kids, which means I am not paying installments for a house or car or even a newborn, there are also burdens that an adult with retired parents and a dog to boot, has to carry. Besides, what I do with my cash or whom I offer a treat to has to be my prerogative since I actually slogged to earn that cash.

It is strange that people start to judge you based on the terms of their current status quo, a life I might add, that was shaped by their own doing.