Hosting Christmas Day often means that you have a large number of loved ones squeezing into your home on the most festive day of the year. While it may be a struggle to juggle your cooking to-do list and find enough room round the table for all your guests, few people would charge their family members for the pleasure.
A woman was left raging, therefore, after she received an invoice from her sister-in-law charging her husband and their children for their three-night stay over the Christmas period. Taking to popular forum Mumsnet, the woman fumed over the £200 bill after she cooked Christmas dinner for the whole family - and bought all the food herself.
The woman said: "The set up is a bit complicated. My husband has three sisters. The venue was a sister's house but I cooked because she was recovering from an injury."
She explained that including herself, there were eleven guests on Christmas day - her husband and her three children included.
She continued: "We all stayed 23-26 December. We brought two joints of meat, a Christmas pudding, a Christmas cake, plenty of wine, beer, some gin and rum, some nice cheeses, kids snacks, and drinks. There was one café lunch and one takeaway and we all paid for our own families. I paid for one top-up shop of about £40. Everyone else paid for/brought similar things.
"This morning sister-in-law emailed an invoice (made on an invoice template from some software!) to my husband and copied me in for £200 for 'hospitality'! I understand that hosting nine people is a lot but I hadn't expected to be invoiced.
"My husband wants to pay it to shut her up. I want to ask her to itemise it and prepare an invoice in return for the hours I spent cooking Christmas dinner," she fumed.
Flocking to the comments, Mumsnet users shared their advice- with some suggesting cheeky responses to the shocking charge.
Someone joked: "I think you need that itemised, definitely."
A second suggested: "You write her an invoice with all the items you paid for listed. And a line something like 'you being a cheeky f****r: priceless'. And you email it back."
A third penned: "Create your own invoice and send it back! How much did you spend and what is the going rate for a chef these days?!"
A different user said: "I wouldn't pay it. You've contributed plenty and been very generous. Who the f*** invoices guests for staying with them? Ignore it and stay at home for Christmas in future. Far simpler.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below
