Girlfriend is cheating on me but I don't have the money to leave her?

I'm looking for some help because I'm in a bad situation. My girlfriend and I started dating around 2 and a half years ago and at the beginning of the relationship everything was fine. Unfortunately I had a previous drug problem and ended up relapsing a few months in. I lost my job and my apartment because of this so I moved in with her. She was still doing her doctorate degree at the time and wasn't making as much money and I admit I did a lot of screwed up things, I took her card multiple times to buy drugs and I put a dent in her car while I was high but this was my addiction and wasn't truly me. I put her in some debt and she had to pay to fix her car and I admit I wasn't as present for her because of my issues. I was also verbally abusive to manipulate her into giving me money but this was in the past and I apologized for all of this and tried to better myself..

She finished school a few months ago and makes insane money (over 200k a year) and has a new car and everything is going well for her. I haven't worked in over 2 years because I've been depending on her income and because of my addiction issues. I don't have a car and I'm isolated from all my family members because of my drug problem. So a month ago she went on a trip and she said she was going with her sister, last week I saw texts from another guy on her phone and it turns out she's in a whole other relationship and really went on a trip to be with him. I confronted her about it and she said "what do you expect? You don't do anything for me and just drag me down so of course I went to find someone who treats me right" We started arguing and she said, "Well, what are you gonna do anyways? You don't have the money to leave me." I feel like that's so cold-hearted that she would even think like this and do this to me. I know I put her through a lot with my addiction but that's different because she's doing this on purpose and I feel like she's taking advantage of the fact that I need her and she's doing what she wants because she knows I'm always going to be around..

My friends and family are all telling me that even though what she's doing isn't right, at the end of the day I put myself in this situation.. I don't know what to do because I have no family to fall back on, she makes good money and I have a roof over my head because of her as well as her car that we share, and she also gives me an allowance. I'm literally going to be homeless without her, I know it seems like I don't have respect for myself for staying with someone who's cheating but she's right, I don't have the money to leave her.. how do I fix this?

Reply 1

black tea

Well you have two options - you either stay put because you are in a comfortable position, ignoring her cheating, or you save up money and leave. Are you in the UK?