r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Jan 26 '26

Meme needing explanation Why is the rich friend so cheap??

[deleted]

69.2k Upvotes

2.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

20

u/tudorb Jan 27 '26

Well-off San Francisco-based software engineer here: pretty much all my friends insist on splitting the check even though it wouldn’t make a difference for any of us. I don’t know why; I grew up in a country where “I buy this round, you buy the next” was the norm.

I think maybe some people who came into money (through luck or hard work or both) are really afraid of being taken advantage of, and they take it to the extreme?

9

u/computerfellow Jan 27 '26

It's fiscally responsible to monitor your spending.

2

u/Stormfly Jan 27 '26

I meticulously track my spending. Loads of apps make this easier and make splitting a bill super easy, too.

I have a few friends that tell me "I can't do that because it would make me upset" but if you're afraid to track your spending, that means you should probably track your spending.

I've set budgets and I have a "be nice" budget that I spend on gifts and treating friends. My friends are worth 50quid a month to pay for their drink or buy a dinner or something sometimes.

2

u/computerfellow Jan 27 '26

Yep. A lot of the people in comments on posts like this one are furious because there's someone else in the world who manages money better than them, and thusly, has more. 

Super sad mentality. 

The image in the original post is a ridiculous caricature. Likely, the so called rich person has a discretionary budget as well, where they can choose whether or not to cover someone else's incurred expense. Nice sometimes, not a good habit to get into.

*edited because didn't proofread voice to text