I (28F) live with two roommates (both 27F). We’ve been in this apartment for about 18 months. I bought a $400 Breville espresso machine last year because I’m a coffee nerd and it’s one of my few nice things.
Two months ago, roommate A used it without asking, didn’t clean it properly, and it broke (scale buildup + shee ran it dry). Shee said “sorry girl, I’ll replace it” but never did. She just kept using the cheap drip machine instead.
Last week she asked to use my new one again (same model). I said no, because she still hasn’t replaced the last one she broke and I don’t trust her with it. She got pissed, called me selfish and said “it’s just a coffee maker, we’re friends.” Roommate B is now saying I’m being petty and holding a grudge over “a kitchen appliance.”
I told them both I’m not sharing expensive stuff with people who don’t respect it. AITA for refusing?
NTA – “I told them both I’m not sharing expensive stuff with people who don’t respect it.” This is all that needs to be said.
Thanks for the NTA, really needed to hear it wasn’t just me being petty. The $400 thing is the core issue for sure. I’ll probably just keep the machine locked up and move on.
NTA, tell them you’re not holding a grudge over an appliance, you’re holding a grudge over the 400 dollars she owes you and apparently has no plan to pay back. It would, indeed, not be that big a deal if she had broken a 30 dollar coffee maker but this isn’t what happened here.
Exactly! it’s not about the machine, it’s about the $400 she promised to replace and then ghosted on. Feels good to see someone else frame it that way. Thank you!
Honestly I’d be looking back and seeing if this is a trend with her that you’ve been overlooking and if it is, might be time to move on from these friends/roommates permanently
Exactly, $400 is a lot to pay for a coffee maker. If I didn’t want to replace a $400 coffee maker I’d busted, here’s a life lesson — I wouldn’t use the $400 coffee maker. And if I messed up the last $400 coffee maker, I \*sure\* wouldn’t touch the replacement!
NTA. A friend would have paid for it. And this isn’t petty in the slightest. It’s completely practical. She will break your things and leave you with the bill. It is simple self interest to keep her away from it.
Put it in your room and lock it. Put anything you don’t want to share in there
NTA. It’s not over a kitchen appliance, it’s disrespect and a debt she hasn’t repaid.
NTA; Petty would be taking them to small claims court over the original $400.
Keeping the peace is sucking up the $400 loss and simply not letting her use the new one.
Info: how often did she run it dry? Once or twice when she didn’t realize you were out of water should not have broken your machine.
They don’t need descaled that often, certainly not every time (and I have really hard water). Was she using it for months over the summer without you and therefore should have descaled it?
Scale buildup from one use? Breaks because it ran dry?
I don’t believe a word of it.
Yeah, this is some sort of BS. I can’t even begin to imagine a number close to how many times mine has run dry without issue. And scale doesn’t do anything unless maybe you’ve never cleaned it for years and the pipes are conpletel6 blocked.
This. Scale build up doesn’t happen in a single use. OP isn’t cleaning it either, and wants to blame the roommate.