My girlfriend is too stingy with money

Dear Pastor,

I am 25 years old and my girlfriend is also 25. She works and takes care of herself, and, from time to time, she offers me money. But I don't ask her for money because, when I first met her, she declared that her money belonged to her. One day we were going to rural Jamaica to visit her parents and I was low on gas and I said to her that I was low on gas and she responded, "Then you can turn back because you should have known we did not have enough gas before we left Kingston."

So I said "Okay I have my credit card." So I stopped and got the gas. I was annoyed because the trip was to visit her own people and, had it not been for her people, I would not have gone on the trip. Coming back, I had a flat tyre, but it was good that I saw some friends heading to Kingston and they stopped and assisted me in getting the tyre changed.

In October, she wanted to go back and see her parents because her father was ill. She asked me if I could take her and I told her I would take her, but she would have to take the vehicle and fill up the tank. She asked me why and I reminded her that I needed gas some time ago when we were on the way to the country. This girl called me mean. But I was not mean, Pastor, and those who know me know that I am not mean. But that's the way she wants to play hard ball. I hate it, but it seems to me that, if we are going to be together, we have played the game that way.

G.R.

Dear G.R.,

You and your girlfriend need to learn to share. I hear women with this nonsense about what they earn belongs to them but what their men earn is for the man and themselves.

That is a very silly way of looking at life. Both of you were heading for rural Jamaica. Both of you should have made sure that there was enough petrol. If your girlfriend did not have any money, she should have said so, but to insult you by saying that you should have made sure that you had enough before leaving does not speak well of her. And you hit back at her when she asked you to take her rural Jamaica to see her father who was not well. If that is the way both of you are going to operate, both of you are not compatible and should not think of getting married.

Pastor