I live with several roommates. Everyone had verbally agreed to split the cost of shared cleaning supplies like paper towels. So far I’ve been buying them and putting the receipt in the group chat.
I’ve been making small purchases at first to make sure the system works. For example I would rather not get paid back $3 than $30. So far the system has not been working well.
1. Some people take a long time to pay. Is 5 days a reasonable limit?
2. Sometimes the math works out to an awkward amount of change, for example $25 split 6 ways is $4.167… So I guess just round it though that’s compounded by it being by each person
3. Some people say the amount is too small to justify paying it by electronic money transfer because their bank charges a fee. So they leave coins on the table. But I don’t have a way of telling who hasn’t paid when people do this and no one says when they do.
What’s the best way forward? Should I message the group “Please pay within 5 days. If you want to pay in coins please give it to me in person so I can keep track of who has paid.” I kind of feel like I’m being cheap when I ask someone for $2 but if it’s several people who owe and again I want to make sure this works before buying something more expensive.
Also some people have been buying supplies they just pay for themselves and don’t want to ask the group to split the cost. They usually don’t post in the group about it but mention it to me and leave it in an obvious place (like leaving hand soap beside the sink). I’m a bit concerned they may use this as a reason to pay less the next time the bill is split. Also it’s not properly shared if they don’t tell other people they can use it and just leave it there.
If people don’t want to split the cost of things I’m fine with that too. I just don’t want people to be using my stuff without paying.
4 comments
If losing fractions of a cent bothers you, you should buy your own stuff. It will save you a lot of headaches and not cause you to destroy your relationship with your housemates. Your toommates just buying small communal items when they are needed and mentioning it is usually the normal way I have seen splitting costs done. As long as everyone contributes in small ways, there usually isn’t an issue. Problems arise when things aren’t bought, people waste items and don’t contribute or when people start keeping track of exactly how much each person spends.
If a friend asked me to venmo 2 bucks to him I would do it and never talk to him again. It is a red flag that suggests you are trying to min/max the deal and that is too stressful to deal with over an amount of money you can find abandoned in a trash can.
You all need to use a free app like Splitwise, so you can actually keep a tally of who owes what and how much.
Why not just everyone puts a set ammount of money into a jar and whenever one buys the supplies, they take the appropriate ammount of money from the jar?
Just buy your own stuff and keep it in your own space. The rest of them will figure it out. It’s not worth the headache, and if you’re worried about a fraction of a cent, then just not dealing with it at all will save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.