Day by Day Girl Works Hard to Earn Money for Education – Every Cent of Her Savings Gets Stolen

An 18-year-old girl worked very hard to save money for her college. When she looked for her envelope to tuck her paycheck in, she discovered she'd been robbed.

The girl was all smiles when she got a handsome paycheck of $500 after doing a lot of overtime work lately. She went home and looked for the little brown envelope to tuck the money in but couldn't be more spooked when finding it was gone.

Posting under melllybellly on Reddit's "Raised by Narcissists" forum, the teenager was amazed when she found out the envelope that stored her cash savings of $1,600 was missing. The whereabouts of her hard-earned money remained in the dark until she reached out for her phone and began typing an anxious text message.

The Original Poster (OP) was always careful with her expenditures. Since she was about to enroll in college the following year, she got a job and saved roughly half of her paycheck to afford some of her expenses.

Initially, OP wanted to switch her savings to the bank. But she opted out of the idea since her mother worked in the bank where she'd initially planned depositing her money.

OP asserted she always had issues with her mother. The friction between them turned lousy day by day, and OP claimed she'd be blamed for it on every instance. For this reason, she used the envelope system to keep her money. She trusted her decision and assumed her money would be safe.

On the day of the incident, OP was thrilled because it was her payday. She got a $500 paycheck which she immediately cashed into $100 bills, something she usually did, and went home to stow it into the envelope, only to find it missing.

Things took a different turn when OP's mom gave her an ultimatum to behave and, in a countdown of three, grabbed OP's phone and threatened to cancel it.

OP immediately texted her mom, asking if she knew where it was, but her mom never replied to any of her messages. Later that night, OP called her mom while at work and asked her if she'd moved the envelope by any chance. To OP's horror, her mom said she had it.

Relieved of its whereabouts, OP asked her mother if she could have it back, only to be jolted by what she said. "No, it's MY money," her mom said.

The girl immediately dived in defense and claimed it was her money that she worked hard to save. But her mom disagreed. She said it was now her money, and she would give OP a little from it for Christmas shopping since OP usually never spent a dime from her savings unless it was Christmas or a close acquaintance's birthday.

Following an intense conversation, OP's mother finally agreed to give OP her money back as long as she agreed to go on the family vacation. "Well, unless you go… it's MY money," the mom sternly told OP.

That night, the situation was just moments away from turning fiery between OP and her mom.

OP had returned home from work, and just as she sat down to dine alone, her mom sat beside her. She asked OP how much money she'd made as she was quite aware it was OP's payday and asked her if she would save it.

OP insisted she'd rather keep the $500 for Christmas shopping since her envelope was gone. For some reason, OP's mom thought it was okay for her to poke the girl on her back while she was eating. OP furiously told her mom not to touch her.

At this point, her mom was annoyed too. Things took a different turn when OP's mom gave her an ultimatum to behave and, in a countdown of three, grabbed OP's phone and threatened to cancel it.

OP snatched her phone from her mom, asserting she would pay her for it if that's what it took. In a split second, her mom charged her $25 monthly and sarcastically added that she could still cancel it anytime if she wished. OP walked away fuming.

Later, the mom blamed OP for their fierce moment and told her things wouldn't have gone that far if she had "just respected" her.

OP found it weird because she knew how her mom gaslighted her step-sister to stand up against their mom and now she was preventing her own daughter from doing the same thing. The girl was frustrated and said, "I don't know what to do," as she released her emotional baggage on the internet.

Several people raced to advise OP, some of them suggesting for OP to report the matter to the cops. The post's top-voted commenter bane_killgrind stated:

"I'd call the cops. She stole from you. You're an adult. You own that money."

However, some like user RocheCoach alerted OP on the potential consequences she'd have to deal with if she wished to drag the matter to the cops. "Tread with caution here. You live in her house, so if the police option is on the table, be prepared to be kicked out of the house," the Redditor advised.

Eventually, OP hesitated when most people advised her to report the incident to the cops while some warned of the potential fallout. "I'm giving her one more chance tonight to give it back. If she doesn't, then I will go to the police," she resolved.

In the end, OP said, "My only concern is that she says that she's just holding on to my money until after I go on this family vacation, and then she's going to put it into a savings account for me."

Questions to Ponder:

Would you hold your child's belongings hostage to manipulate them into doing what you want?

In one of her comments, OP explained that she was 99% sure her mom used the $1,600 to hold her hostage and make her agree to go on the family vacation. Would you do the same to your child when they disapprove of your ideas/desires? Is it okay to hold your kid's belongings hostage to control them?

How would you react to finding your hard-earned savings missing & who would you first suspect?

When OP found her money was gone, she immediately reached out to her mother because she guessed her mom could've taken it due to their ongoing friction. How would you react to finding your savings stolen? Who would you suspect, and do you think it would breed long-time trust issues with that person?

If you liked this story, here's one about how a woman who stole money from her daughter for five years paled when the girl revealed the total & threatened to sue her for it.

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