A Woman Says Her Friend Charged Her For A Home-Cooked Meal & People Have So Many Feelings

An L.A. woman has sparked the ultimate dinner debate on social media, after sharing that her friend asked her over to share a home-cooked meal and then charged her for it.

Podcast host Amber Nelson took to Twitter to rant about the experience on March 10, and her story has absolutely blown up with thousands of people jumping in to share their own opinions.

"Got invited to someone's place for dinner, and they charged me for it…." read the tweet. "this is weird, right?"

"This makes me not want to accept offerings in the future," she added.

One baffled user asked: "What, what?! How? Like a bill at the end? Or they were like, 'you want potatoes? Venmo me $5 real quick, and I'll give you the spatula.'"

Amber replied and explained that it was simply a pasta meal.

"Penne alla vodka. Ate a couple servings, and they Venmo requested me $20."

Yikes.

At first, it seemed like people understood her confusion, and many jumped in to share their own similar experiences.

One Twitter user shared an old tweet of his from back in 2021 in which he recalled a similar experience.

"Maybe I don't understand American culture, but is it normal for your friend to invite you for dinner a week in advance out to their multimillion-dollar new home in the suburbs, get pizza and then charge you on Venmo for it? #AskingForAFriend" read his tweet.

Another user argued that "Venmo culture had done f***ed us up" and that people "just have so little practice sharing."

However, other people in the comments section shared how they do things differently in their culture.

"In Europe, it is very common to invite people for dinner and divide the cost of the ingredients amongst guests; if you forget to do it, sometimes guests even remind you to let them know if they owe you money," one user wrote.

Another person agreed and said that's the case in the U.K.

"I'm British and with both friends AND family unless it's explicitly said 'it's on me' by the host, it's understood you'll be paying for your meal/splitting the cost of ingredients… super curious as to what influences this besides culture!"

Meanwhile, an Indian user shared how things couldn't be more different in their culture and that they're even used to birthday dinners at restaurants being covered by the host, which is very uncommon in North America.

"Friend invited us to his b'day party at a restaurant and had to pay for our food and drinks. Is that how Americans celebrate their birthdays? Among us Indians, the person who's bday it is usually pays for everything. If it's just a casual dinner, then we split the bill," they shared.

Nelson later shared an update about how the meal — and perhaps the friendship — ended.

"I paid and haven't spoken since."

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.