God I'm exhausted today so need a vent because I can't vent to my partner on this topic.
We went to see his best friend and wife today. I'm going to call her Laura.
Laura and I get along but we don't have much in common, just very different people, nothing bad. However things always get a bit awkward on anything to do with money.
Basically, fiance and I make good money. I probably make what both Laura and her husband do combined. However they have loads of supportive family nearby who do 80% of the childcare for their little boy for free and her stepdad paid for half their wedding. They may not make much but they get support! My fiance and I do not have that sort of support so every expense is paid for by us and usually we end up having to prop up family in emergencies.
I got laid off in early 2023 and was out of work for most of the year so my savings took a hit and our wedding plans got scaled back as much as they could, mostly on things like invites. Rather than go to a stationer, we got a Vistaprint black Friday deal for example. No matter how much money you make, having 9 months with no pay and a wedding to plan/pay for is stressful.
Laura will make comments like "oh I didn't think YOU would even think of something like Vistaprint for your wedding?" or "surely you'll want the Instagram vibe £1000 cake" which I usually just brush off to not cause a scene.
Today though, general talk turns to kids in future and she was saying about how tough money was over mat leave. I'm empathetically nodding along as I'm also worried about that in future when my time comes. My fiance then says something about how I have been saying the same and one thing I was sad about being laid off was that my old company had a great maternity package but that is no more. Laura then turns to me and says, in a pretty aggressive tone, "well you don't need to worry about stuff like that do you? With the amount you two are on??".
Bear in mind, she doesn't actually know how much we make unless she has researched how much our sort of jobs pay.
I was pretty stunned because it felt like she wanted a fight or to prove a point? I said nothing and her husband moved the chat along quickly. We then left not long after.
I just feel like the more time I spend with this girl, the more comments like this come up and the less I like her. Its not like I'm walking in wearing designer clothes or flashing a set of Ferrari keys or something when I see her
I don't know what to do because she is the wife of the guy who will be my future husbands best man so she's gonna be about for a long time!