After a cross-country move for grad school, a student is stretched to the limit and barely visits her old home anymore. Groceries and utilities used to be part of the deal with her fiancé, but now she can’t afford to keep covering it from a thousand miles away.

Four states away and a grad school budget thinner than a ’90s fashion model, this student gets called out for not wanting to fund the group grocery run back home. The setup used to be simple: he pays rent, she covers food and utilities for the house, and everyone gets fed, until university funding went on vacation and left her with less cash than a forgotten vending machine. The plan was never perfect, but it worked until barely surviving on a student stipend became the new reality.