To be annoyed with my friend saying she's broke all the time?

[Glastogirl]

Every time I see her she always seems to mention how broke she is and how she is scraping by.

I saw her yesterday and she has just bought a £7000 watch!!! When I said I thought you were broke she said she is and her current account is empty but this money was from their savings account .

I find it quite insulting, she knows we are in financial difficulty at the moment and don't have any savings so if anyone is broke it's us not her!

I'm sorry if you think IABU but if you can afford to buy a watch for that much money then you're not broke and shouldn't say you are all the time.

Not planning to meet up again any time soon!

God no

Broke to me is having less than £20 free in the bank

I like to have it as security

If you can afford to buy a £7k watch cash you are not broke - no where near.

I know someone like this.
States she's skint but on facebook is constantly checking in to places they are eating out, cinema, bowling, legoland, butlins, alton towers, you name it. Really pisses me off.

YANBU
I would be embarrassed to wear a 7K watch if I was always pleading poverty.

What a waste of money!

Hmm, I know people like this my xh is one of them.
They don't mean short of money in the usual sense, they mean they have had to curb their usual extravagant lifestyle.
Makes your heart bleed for them, doesn't it?
IMO, your best bet is to distance yourself.

I agree with mumof3 I have less that £20 in my current account right now, but wouldn't say I'm broke as I have savings and my husbands bank card
Yanbu

I'm always broke. I live in the overdraft and my idea of a treat is a takeaway.

7k on a watch is not broke. Some peoples cars are not even worth 7k

Seven THOUSAND? I wouldn't be able to stop myself referring to that every time I met her and she mentioned being broke in future. So YANBU and right not to plan meeting her for a while at least.

NUR at all!

I have a family member like this. She and her DH are far from broke, two foreign holidays a year, a weekend away at least once a month, spa days, always redecorating or modifying their house, changing cars, eating out, lots of drinking out yet everytime she talks she goes on about how "shit life is being skint"

Yeah, try my kind of skint and we'll see how 'shit' your life is by comparison.

I think sometimes people just have a different idea of skint, which is relative to their own experiences. I'm forever laughing at my sister for saying she is skint, when what she really means is that she's spent her 'budgeted' money, and has to dip into her savings of a few thousand. When I say I'm skint, I mean I have to seriously budget my last week of money or my card will start getting declined. I also realise that that is probably insulting to someone who has to count their money to the penny every month just to keep a roof over their head!

Usually, not malice is meant. But people can often only understand a situation if they have experienced it!

I would love to be that skint !

Skint to me means less than a quid in your purse

Dh has just spent 6.5k on a watch. Sounds crazy, but he can wear it and enjoy it, and in 10 years it will be worth double.

Depending on which watch she bought, it could possibly be appreciating more than money in any savings account.

She sounds very skint.

so she means she's skint because the DD into her savings account leaves them short

so not really skint then, just bad at finances

I scent bullshit.

How do you know it was £7k?

How do you know it wasn't fake?

I wouldn't recognise a £7k watch if it bit me on the arse.

I would say I'm skint. I have 6 quid in my purse and all of that needs to go back in the bank to cover my phone bill on Monday but I get paid on Tuesday so I'm not stressing

Which watch was it?

Can you even get £7k watches?

Can you even get £7k watches?

yes you can get 7k watches.

Dh has just spent 6.5k on a watch. Sounds crazy, but he can wear it and enjoy it, and in 10 years it will be worth double.

PMSL- is that what he told you- if that were actually true every single person with savings would be investing in watches for a 100% return over 10 years.

I can understand her thinking, savings don't really have anything to do with your current account, if you're constantly dipping in to them they don't hang around for long.

She could have 'scraped by' for ages to save up for the watch I suppose (Unless the £7k was a recent windfall?), but why is she constantly going on at you about her poverty knowing full well she's loaded and you're struggling?

It could just be a cack handed way of her trying to make you feel a bit better about your finances by saying she's in the same boat?

Importantly though, does she live a lifestyle where a 7 grand watch wouldn't look out of place? Is it for her? Where will she wear it? I need to know

I think Hiphopotamus has it about right - different people have different ideas of what 'skint means. Also, your view of what 'skint' means changes over the course of your life and actually a lot of it is to do with attitude - for eg, my first job I got after uni I was earning £120 a week and paying £60 in rent and £15 in travel - now, that really was skint, but I still think I'm skint sometimes now especially when I have months like this where it's a five-weekend month between paydays. I know when I sit down and consider it that I'm clearly not as skint as my newly-graduated self, but still I also know when it gets to that last weekend I'll think my life is very difficult.

It's easy to get fucked off with friends who you know have more cash than you when they plead poverty, but then there are probably other people who have a lot less that you who would think you are taking the piss when you say you're skint. I reckon as long as it doesn't impact on your own finances (say, if a friend ducks out of buying rounds all the time, or borrows off you and never pays it back even though they could afford to) then just mentally roll your eyes and leave them to it. I think, to some extent, all people do this.

PMSL- is that what he told you- if that were actually true every single person with savings would be investing in watches for a 100% return over 10 years.

From the poster who wouldnt know a £7k watch if it bit them on the behind

She told me it was. It was a Rolex and I have no idea if it was fake, but why say it was £7000 if it wasn't? I know nothing about watches, mine cost £8 from Argos years ago!