Signaling: More Bad Signs to Avoid – Later Dates/Relationship/Marriage Part 3 of 3

Continuing…

9.     If he does not respect your money, he does not respect you. This one I wish I’d known at university. You know how at the beginning of a semester students would receive a reading list from their profs, and they would hit the bookstore using this list to buy text books? Even though the profs might be teaching the same courses again, the list could get revised because of changes in the editions. Sometimes, the examples and exhibits varied so much from the old to the new that you really needed to get the latest edition in order to study properly. I had a boyfriend at the time and he took a certain course the semester before I did. He offered to sell his text book to me for twenty dollars, so we did an exchange. Then the reading list came and a new edition was announced. He just shrugged and said I could always keep the old one for reference.

At the time, I brushed it off as pure insensitivity and “strict business.” But even a real store has a refund policy, yet he can’t offer me the money back? What about, say, ten dollars? Nothing? Not only did I lose the twenty dollars, I had to cough out the money to buy a brand new book (there was, obviously, no used copies in circulation). I really should’ve paid more attention, because that relationship was really not meant to be. He ended up dumping me right before the final exams, unconcerned about how the stress might effect my grades.

10. Same thing if he’s more interested in borrowing from you than impressing you.