Woman Refuses To Drive Her Drunk Friends Home Anymore After Years Of Being Used As Free Taxi

A woman in her mid-thirties joined her college friends for monthly dinners, sticking to water and a main dish while the others piled on appetizers, desserts, and heavy drinks. After months of quietly covering their extra costs, she finally refused to subsidize the group anymore, bringing exact cash and drawing a firm line on the bill.

The friends grudgingly accepted but declared her the permanent driver since she stayed sober, a role she tolerated until one nearly vomited in her car. She warned them she was done chauffeuring, yet they ignored her, got wildly intoxicated again, failed to pay their own tabs, and left her to exit alone amid the mess.

A woman stops subsidizing and driving her heavy-drinking friends, leading to their angry fallout and her questioning the friendship.

Meeting the same old crew month after month can feel comforting—until you realize the comfort is mostly one-sided. In this case, the Redditor set two very reasonable boundaries: I won’t bankroll your feast, and I won’t risk my car or my sanity ferrying blackout-level drunks.

Yet the group treated those boundaries like polite suggestions rather than deal-breakers. The irony? They’re adults in their thirties with jobs, spouses, kids, yet somehow unable (or unwilling) to moderate their drinking, call a rideshare, or even settle their own checks.

From the outside, it’s hard not to see a classic case of entitlement masquerading as tradition. The group had grown accustomed to a dynamic where one person quietly absorbed the extra costs so everyone else could party like it was still freshman year.

When that one person said “enough,” the backlash was swift and revealing. Instead of accountability: “Sorry we overdid it, let’s Uber next time”, the response was deflection, name-calling, and an ultimatum-level question about her “usefulness.” Again, keep in mind, these come from adults in their thirties.

That single line: “If you don’t split the bill and you don’t DD, then what use are you?” pretty much sums up the relationship’s foundation. Friendship? Or convenience? You tell.

This pattern isn’t rare. According to a 2022 survey by OnePoll, commissioned by McGuigan Zero, three in 10 adults feel pressured to drink alcohol when socialising, and many feel obligated to accommodate heavy drinkers to preserve relationships.

But experts emphasize that healthy friendships don’t revolve around one person’s constant sacrifice. As psychologist Jill Weber noted in a Business Insider article on one-sided friendships: “Pay attention if you feel ‘you’re always doing something for someone else, whether it’s listening or helping them out.’”

That hits close to home here. The Redditor wasn’t asking for special treatment; she was asking for basic fairness. When denied, she protected her own well-being instead of caving.

The broader issue? Many long-term friend groups coast on old habits that no longer fit who people have become. Life changes and friendships either evolve or quietly end.

In this story, the group chose not to evolve. They doubled down, got messier, and then blamed the one person who wouldn’t enable it.

Neutral advice for anyone in a similar spot: state your boundaries clearly once, enforce them calmly, and let natural consequences teach the lesson you’ve been trying to give. If the friendship survives, great. If not, you’ve likely dodged years more of one-sided “fun.”

Take a look at the comments from fellow users:

Some people assert that these people were never true friends and were only using OP for convenience.

Some people emphasize that the friends are irresponsible drinkers who refuse to take accountability.

Others point out the toxic dynamic and advise moving on from these exploitative people.

A user questions why the friends don’t use ride-sharing services and highlight their entitlement.

So here’s the million-dollar question: was walking away the nuclear option, or the only sane move left? Do you think the Redditor should’ve given one more warning, or was the writing already on the wall after months of subtle (and not-so-subtle) exploitation?

Have you ever had to cut ties with a group that only valued what you could provide? Drop your thoughts below, we’re dying to hear how you’d handle this mess.