Be it a friend you’ve known all your life or a stranger you found in a classified ad, maintaining a good living relationship as roommates can be a challenge.
Particularly when two people share very different views on housekeeping, or if one of them doesn’t do their fair share of chores and shopping.
One foolproof way to increase tension between roommates is when one roommate uses something belonging to the other without their permission.
Redditor Other-Energy-1505 initially seemed to luck out with his roommate, as their living situation proved to provide a number of unexpected benefits.
However, that all recently came crashing down when the original poster (OP) partook in something belonging to his roommate without asking his permission first.
Wondering if he had done anything wrong, the OP took to the subReddit “Am I The A**hole” (AITA), where he asked fellow Redditors:
“AITA for Eating My Roommate’s MealPrepped Meals?”
The OP explained how his urge for a midnight snack ended up damaging his relationship with his roommate.
“My (27 M[ale]) roommate(29 M[ale]) and I have lived together for eight months.”
“We paired up through mutual friends and we are mostly very compatible.”
“Recently, we’ve started working out together as something fun and healthy to do together.”
“So since I’m lifting more, my metabolism is going insane.”
“I’m taking in like 4000 calories or more to feel satisfied.”
“Here’s why I might be TA.”
“My roommate meal preps every Friday for his week (He’s a retail manager and his workweek is Sunday to Thursday).”
“On Friday, we worked out in the morning and I had a steak and egg burrito + my usual smoothie.”
“I went to work, but was stuck in meetings the whole day so I didn’t have time to eat until we met with friends for dinner.”
“I had a salad and prawns to start + fajitas for the main.”
“When we got back, we had sex (which isn’t relevant at all but does explain why else I would be so hungry) and then he went to sleep but I couldn’t sleep because I was starving.”
“It’s the middle of the night.”
“The only thing we have that’s quick are his meals.”
“And I ate until I felt full.”
“The next day, he woke me up stressed about the meals, and I told him what I had done.”
“All he could say was, what the fu*k is wrong with me?”
“He started freaking out and crying, and I offered to buy him lunch for the week.”
“He didn’t accept that, called me a selfish AH, and just left the house.”
“Is this really that big a deal?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in on where they believed the OP fell in this particular situation by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
The OP received little to no sympathy from the Reddit community, who all but unanimously agreed that he was, indeed, the a**hole for eating his roommate’s prepared meals.
Everyone agreed that it was way out of line for the OP to eat his roommate’s prepared meals, which he put a lot of careful work and planning into. The anger of the OP’s roommate was more than justified as what he did was very much selfish and even constituted stealing.
“YTA.”
“What you did is called stealing.”
“He spent time, money, and energy into meal prepping for HIMSELF.”
“It’s not his problem that you aren’t accounting for the extra calories you need.”- heyits_meg
“Major YTA.”
“Jesus, man.”
“He spent time making food for the entire week, possibly to meet some specific nutritional goals, and you mowed it all down without a thought?”
“That’s possibly the rudest thing I can think of.”- widefeetwelcome
“YOU ATE FIVE OUT OF SEVEN MEALS!”
“Those meals are prepped because he’s recovering from an eating disorder!”
“You’re a horrifically awful person when you’re recovering from an ED it’s terrifying to eat food you’ve not prepared, so it’s not easy to just deal with you buying meals for him.”
“It’s not even like it was just one you went and f*cking inhaled almost all of them.”
“YTA if you’re eating 4000 cal a day, you need to have snacks in.”- jessicaskies
“YTA.”
“‘I undid several hours of someone’s work, left them without meals and brushed it off like it was nothing, AITA?'”
“Jeez are you really that unaware?”
“Even my dog knows not to take other people’s food.”
“And it sounds like you didn’t stop at just one meal either – totally unnecessary.”- Pretzelmamma
“YTA.”
“You ate things of his that he had bought, prepared, and set aside for himself.”
“There is no reason you should be so hungry that your need for a quick meal supersedes his ability to eat his own food.”
“You ARE a selfish a**hole.”
“You stole from him.”
“You KNEW it was meal prepped FOR HIM, and you probably ate more than A single meal if you ate until you ‘felt full’.”
“You’re piggish.”
“And rude.”
“Make your own goddamn food.”
“Or order something, ffs.”
“What is wrong with you?”
“Your mother would be so disappointed.”- WikkidWitchly
“Don’t steal his food.”
“If you really needed to eat something or you wouldn’t be able to sleep, you should’ve ordered.”
“YTA.”- Too-Paranoid
“YTA.”
‘Explain how you think you might not be?”
‘you took something that is not yours because you are hungry.”- ListenNo7632
“YTA.”
“I’m concerned about your lack of sympathy and thought process here.”- NightKaleidoscope
“YTA.”
“You’re full of excuses.”
“You know you’re hungry more, but you’ve made no plans for it.”
“You didn’t shop, you didn’t prep, you didn’t order out.”
“What you did was steal his hard work, his food, and throw money at the problem.”
“Then took no responsibility.”
“Nice.”- FuzzyMom2005
“YTA.”
“If you know you need such an insane amount of calories and your roomie needs less doesn’t mean you’re entitled to literally steal his food.”
“Why don’t you have food/snacks in the house for unforeseen situations like these?”
“I probably need half of your caloric intake, but I always have either snacks or easy food to cook in case I get really hungry.”
“So let me get this straight: he works as a retail manager, Sun-Thu which means he’s probably meal prepping on Fri/Sat and on Fri night you decided to eat 2 days’ worth of his meals, and on top of it all, you only offer to buy him lunch aka only one meal!”- technounicorns
“Yes, YTA.”
“Don’t steal.”
“Don’t steal food.”
“Don’t be an AH to the ‘roommate’ you’re apparently having sex with.”
“You don’t get to steal because other food isn’t ‘quick’.”
“Buy, cook, and eat your own food.”
“Ask if you want something that belongs to someone else.”
“You need to repeat kindergarten.”
“You missed a few lessons.”- Tangerine_Bouquet
“Is it a big deal you stole his food?”
“YTA and a thief.”- Walktothebrook
“YTA.”
“Ask before you take or consume something that belongs to someone else.”- JustPhilMePlease
“Very much YTA.”
“If you’re hungry, prep yourself some food, don’t take someone else’s without their express permission.”
“You didn’t even ask, you just helped yourself as if you were somehow entitled to their food.”-Spineberry
“YTA.”
“Just because your roommate opens their nookie jar, doesn’t mean you can take freely from their cookie jar.”- gaynazifurry4bernie
After reading everything the Reddit community had to say, a contrite OP later returned with an update, admitting that he had probably made a mistake.
“Okay!”
“I hear you all loud and clear!”
“I am a giant a**hole!”
“I just assumed that buying him takeout would suffice for my f*ckup.”
“I looked up what y’all were saying about safe foods and what all that entails for people with EDs.”
“Didn’t realize it wasn’t an easy fix.”
“I’m stubborn and arrogant, and I know that.”
“I’m in therapy. Please shut up about it.”
“I still don’t see why so many of you are so hung up on the fact that we’re fwb, but whatever.”
“I’m going to apologize and find out how he’d like me to fix it.”
“I feel dumb for being so arrogant about this.”
“I signed up to a meal kit subscription thing, and I’ll try that cause they provide the recipes and the ingredients.”
“Maybe that’ll transition into better habits.”
“Gonna give my roommate some space for now, per his request, and then work out how to support him ’cause I didn’t mean to potentially cause him to relapse.”
“I’m just a dummy, among other things.”
Had the OP binged on snacks in the fridge, which were free for both him and his roommate to share, this would be an entirely different story.
Then too, had he only eaten one of the meals, one imagines his roommate might not have been quite so angry.
But when someone eats five out of the seven meals that you put a great deal of time and effort into preparing, it would almost be strange if you didn’t get more than a little angry.