The unspoken awkwardness of the salary gap in friend groups

It is Saturday morning and I am muting my college WhatsApp group again because planning trips with them has become pure anxiety due to the massive income disparity. Some of us got lucky with product roles and take home a very comfortable chunk every month while the rest are still stuck in the 8 to 12 LPA bracket. Whenever we try to plan a vacation or even a weekend dinner, the tension is suffocating. If I suggest a decent brewery or a nice Airbnb with a pool, I immediately feel like a jerk trying to bankrupt them. On the flip side, I work insane hours and honestly just want to sleep in a comfortable bed with a clean washroom instead of roughing it out in a shady budget hostel like we did at 20. Splitting bills on Splitwise has become a mental gymnastics routine. I end up quietly paying for the cabs or covering the bulk of the alcohol bill just to ease their burden, but then ego comes into play and people feel patronized. A buddy actually snapped at me recently saying he does not need my charity just because I ordered premium whiskey for the table. It is incredibly isolating because you want to enjoy the money you are earning but you do not want to leave your closest people behind. We are at a point where we either do cheap local trips that frustrate half the group or expensive ones that stress out the other half. Money really does change the dynamics of who you can realistically hang out with.