I am definitely overreacting to this, but it seems to be the new "norm" to blatantly ask people for money, and it drives me up a wall. A friend of mine is hosting a birthday get together for his girlfriend later in the month. He made a facebook invite, and I said that I would attend. Later, the girlfriend went back to edit the facebook invite and announced that she did not want alcohol related gifts or anything else, but asked for everyone to bring cash because she is going to an anime convention next month and wants extra spending money.
Since we are all in our 20s, I assumed bringing a gift was simply a nice "extra" and that it would not be expected, especially since I am not close to her. Instead, I planned on bringing her a beer she likes (Last year on her birthday, I brought her a nice bottle of vodka, but it turns out she didn't like vodka). Celebrating your birthday is a fun thing to do and it does not have an age limit, but to nearly demand people bring you birthday money when you're a grown adult seems absurd to me.
Should I just give her money because that's what she asked for? I don't really know what to do. Is it rather bitchy that I thought about pretending not to see the gift update and just bring beers for everyone (it's BYOB) or a card instead? I don't want to skip out because I like this group of friends, but sometimes I question their manners.