Paying friend for petrol?

[Pollyputthekettleon32]

So my friend invited me for lunch,she drove to pick me up (15 min each way ) and I gave her £5 petrol.
She then says her dad says “does (polly) realise petrol isn’t free”
Is £5 petrol not enough?
How much should I be giving?

[coffeeforone]

YANBU. I'd never even think of mentioning petrol as a driver or passenger. I wouldn't give/take anything!

[PieAndPumpkins]

errrrr..... Weird friend, weird dad.

[Lacucuracha]

Finally I can think of no sensible reason for her to have passed the comment on to you. Personally OP I’d let that friendship drift.

She's a cowardly cheeky fucker, wanted more money but didn't have the guts to outright ask you so hid behind her dad's comment (who knows if he even said it).

[willynillypie]

shinycat

Agree with you wholeheartedly!

[AmazingPostVoices]

Basically we arranged to meet for food and her dad asked her how I was getting there ...and she said I’m picking her up.

I can imagine having that conversation with my Dad Polly The next line would have been:

“That’s nice, more time to chat. Have a great time”

Your friend and her Dad: quite weird and quite rude.

[sonjadog]

I wonder if she is taking her Dad´s comment out of context. Did she mention you were paying 5 pounds or did he think you weren't paying anything? Or maybe it was a follow on comment from a conversation about her not budgeting well, over-spending, never having any money left at the end of the month etc. and it worked in that context but not when taken out of it?

Either way, she didn't need to tell you what he said and 5 pounds is more than enough to cover her petrol cost.

[BrightYellowDaffodil]

Asking for petrol money for such a short journey and as a one-off is taking the piss and yes, £5 would have more than covered the petrol unless she's driving a Challenger tank.

The only time I ask for petrol money is a) for significant journeys and b) to friends who don't have cars so are never going to be in a position to take turns to drive. Other than that, it's peanuts and friendships should be worth more than that.

[UndomesticHousewife]

You should get new friends with non idiot fathers

[SickOfThisShitNow]

We spend less than £10 on a 40 minute each way journey. (Plus the extra driving around when we're in the town, McDonald's to Tesco, Tesco to town centre...)
You CF friend is trying to get you to pay all the fuel. Where was her fiver contribution? Yours more than covered all the fuel for the trip.
I never ask for fuel contribution if I'm going there anyway or have invited the person out. I only accept a little something if they ask me to take them somewhere and it's quite far.

[RafikiIsTheBest]

Is she a little socially awkward. I'm wondering if it's more of a case of you gave her the money and she felt weird about it or maybe it reminded her about what her dad said (like she wasn't expecting anything) so it was a strange way of thanking you???

I still don't quite get the timeline. Maybe you should call her and ask her what she ment as you didn't understand and are worried she thinks your taking the mic (what with paying £5 cash and the price of a coffee for a lift to somewhere she arranged).

I think it's bizarre.

[Trinity66]

Bloody hell, she wanted money for petrol from you? What a tight arse

[SandAndSea]

I drive people all the time and always have. It's nice if someone offers some petrol money or a drink and/or goes halves on the parking, but it sounds like you paid well over the odds.

Did she park for free? If so, I think you over-paid. Buying a coffee would have been enough in my book.

[Katedotness1963]

This doesn't show me in a good light but..

Years ago a friend decided she wanted to start going to the gym, but she didn't want to go alone so asked me to go too. I had absolutely no interest in going but she wouldn't leave it alone so, eventually, I agreed.

She would come and pick me up (less than 5 minutes from her house to mine) and drive us to the gym. Afterwards she would want to go for lunch and I felt it was only fair for me to pay since she did the driving. We were going three times a week! At the end of the second week, as I'm getting out of the car at my house she says "(husband), says you really should be chipping in for petrol". I was speechless!

That evening I worked out the mileage, cost of petrol and roughly how much would be used for the round trip. (This was about 30 years ago) it came out to be something like 25p per day. Next time I saw her I gave her £1 and said I would not be going again.

A couple of days later I remembered his job paid a petrol allowance!! Needless to say the friendship cooled.

[Viviennemary]

I think it's easier to pay for coffee or similar if it's only a short drive. Paying £5 is quite excessive IMHO.

[2andcountingtodate]

Rude and passive aggressive. I bet he said nothing but she wants an excuse to make a pointed comment.

[flowerslemonade]

Well yeah you obviously realise it isn't free seeing as you gave her £5 for it. His comment doesn't even make sense.

[carefreeeee]

Presume the comment is not about the current trip (as the comment was made before you even went) but previous trips? Have you had lifts with her before and not contributed? Or maybe the dad was just surprised at her driving 15 mins out of her way (it would be a total of an hour' driving for her, which is quite considerable). Still if your friend didn't want to pick you up she shouldn't have offered to do so, and definitely shouldn't have passed on her dad's comment. £5 would have covered even an hour's driving amply.

[Pollyputthekettleon32]

I don’t think she mentioned I normally pay her petrol.
She’s only been passed a month and we’ve been out twice previous and I’ve gave her £5 each time.
Maybe her dad didn’t know I pay petrol as he is a nice man.
Parking was free as it was just a pub and you can stay a max of 3 hours then we went to a retail park which is also free parking.

[Pollyputthekettleon32]

As she’s newly passed it’s a bit of a novelty for her so she’s suggesting to pick me up and go for drives etc

[sonjadog]

Ah, if she has just passed, she might not realize how much petrol it takes for a trip of that length.

[expatinscotland]

You just say no next time. Seriously, who does this? I just don't get it and we're usually pretty skint. If we know someone's off the road, always offer to give a lift as long as we're not meeting to drink, and wouldn't dream of taking money, just no. And especially not if we were going in the first place! Last year we were travelling about 5 hours each way to a common holiday destination and a mate was going, too. She doesn't have a car, so we swung by her place in the city and collected her and went on our merry way. She offered us money, said no. Duh. We were going anyway, she's a friend, not a coach tour passenger.

[Iloveacurry]

And you got a coffee too? That’s another £5. So with the petrol money and coffee, she’s quids in. She’s definitely a CF.

[LemonysSnicket]

I used to drive 200miles home on £15 of petrol she can fuck off.

I was the only driver out of my friends and never once charged a penny. Cheap.

[Juells]

As she’s newly passed it’s a bit of a novelty for her so she’s suggesting to pick me up and go for drives etc

Hahahaha driving around feeling good and making money at the same time. Win win for her.

[clippityclock]

CF!! Next time say you’ll meet her there as you can’t afford to keep paying her petrol and buy her drinks. She’s awful