Questions: Society & Politics

My boyfriend is currently having a rough time financially. He's been getting fewer hours at his part-time job, and though he's been trying, he hasn't had any success finding new work. It's not that he isn't ambitious - he is, and I see how much it hurts him to not be able to support himself. That said, I feel money is putting a strain on our relationship.

I try to be understanding of his situation by walking very long distances with him when he doesn't have transportation money, and thinking up as many low-cost things to do together as possible. However, low-cost isn't free, and he so rarely has money that I pick up the tab any time we do anything at all. Even when we don't go out, we cook dinner with my groceries, watch movies on the Netflix account that I pay for so we won't be bored out of our minds, or I cave and get us a few beers or something.

The problem is that I don't make all that much money either. My budget is a little tight for one person, let alone two. I'm getting bored of sitting around watching movies all the time, and there aren't a ton of free things to do in the wintertime. Plus, though I know it's not his fault, I secretly long to go out on an actual date - even just going dutch sounds good right now. On top of that, I feel like I constantly have to defend him to my friends and family members who feel that a real boyfriend should take his girl out and buy her things.

Basically, am I doing the right thing by supporting him indefinitely, even though it's a strain on my finances? Or is this relationship doomed to failure unless he magically gets a job?

Okay, so story time.

I'm 19. I'm a freshman in college. There's this guy in my computer class who has never said a word to me, up until the other day. I was standing in the hallway waiting on class to start and he came up to me and started asking me if I was ready for the test and what not. We had maybe a 2 minute conversation. I friend requested him on Facebook, because, well, why not? He accepted and we talked about what we got on the test, but it was never back to back responses...they were about an hour or so apart. Well, I wake up this morning and see that I have an invitation on Facebook to his 22nd birthday party. He only invited 46 people. I looked to see if I knew anyone that was invited, and there is only one other girl in my computer class that he invited. There are about 6 girls total that he invited. I don't know if I should be flattered he likes me, or if he was just adding anyone he could think of. I would think I should be flattered because wouldn't most people invite most of their friend's list if they didn't care? I guess my main question is should I take this as a sign that there is some potential interest? Or should I just think of it as a friends thing? Also, should I go to the party? I'm underage to drink, and it's a BYOB party, so I don't know if I should attend or not. Advice please! Thanks! Also, if I decide not to attend, what could I say to him so that it doesn't sound like I don't want to go at all, but more that I don't think it's the right situation for me to be in?

Thank you so much for reading all of that and I hope it made sense. If you have a question I'll comment back to your answer or request me and I'll accept you so we can talk about it.