Hi,
I've got a bit of a dilemma and I'm not sure what to do, so thought I'd ask for opinions!
A friend who also happens to live quite close to me asked me to look after their kitten whilst they're away on holiday. No problem. She specifically asked me though to make sure that when I went in I didn't open the internal door until the outside door was shut and vice versa. The internal door is one of these that will only close properly if you sort of pull it and click the handle/catch at just the right time. If you just pull it it doesn't catch and therefore comes open.
When leaving there I was closing the internal door and the handle literally snapped in my hand. Bit of a panic because then I couldn't get it open again but resolved that by putting a clamp type of thing on the handle, then grabbing the back door keys in case it didn't work again.
So my question is, should I offer to pay for the internal door handle that broke? Normally I'm one for if you break it you pay for it - but it wouldn't have broke if I hadn't been doing what they specifically asked me to do, or the chances are it would have broken on them if they hadn't gone away (I wasn't too rough with it or anything - I'm always extra careful with other people's property).
We are absolutely broke (think texts twice a week advising over overdraft limit situation) and because of our wages not going up in the last 8/9 years but the cost of living going up, we have been in a pretty shit situation for some time. We never go out, have things in desperate need of repair/decorating/replacing at home but can't afford to, haven't had a holiday for more than 5 days as a max for years (not getting one at all this year), etc, etc. So if I do offer to pay for it, I genuinely don't even know how to pay for it (I already sacrifice having proper meals multiple times a week and I know my husband wouldn't be willing to eat just a bowl of cereal for dinner to save money). It's really embarrassing too.
So as not to drip feed, the friends we are cat sitting for have form for borrowing things from us and never returning them. Then when we've asked for it back they claim they gave it back/don't have it. Yet recently (just before asking for a favour funnily enough) one of them came round holding a DVD that we had lent them over 10 years beforehand that they adamantly denied having and claimed was their own copy when we asked them having seen it on their shelves (it was a favourite film of mine so was particularly annoyed) saying that they'd found this and realised it was ours. Of course by this point we'd replaced it because they'd told us they had "definitely returned it" before this. So I am wondering if having this in my head is making me think I shouldn't offer.
Also, they are the type of people that would absolutely accept such an offer, even if it realistically wasn't really right for the other party to pay. They themselves have plenty of money (made clear many times over the years by comments about how big the inheritance he received was and the fact that he doesn't even need to work full time), so not as if they are really broke and couldn't afford to pay for a repair themselves.
So what would you do? Should I suck it up and offer and see if I can find something in my house to sell (I can no longer work a second job due to ill health so that's not an option for me anymore)? Or do you think I should just explain what happened, apologise, but stop short of offering to pay for it?
I absolutely 100% genuinely don't think it was in any way my fault, and if it happened in reverse I'd never in a million years expect someone to pay me for it. But I feel really guilty even considering not offering to pay because I did break it.....
Thank you in advance!