We all know that living away from home can be difficult. Your expenses increase as you have to pay for the rent, bills, and grocery shopping. Not everything is bad when you have flatmates. It’s easier to share the burden.
However, a problem may arise when splitting the bills fairly among all the roommates and making payments on time.
Dividing your bills and managing them is mainly based on your living situation. Whether you are a student, jobholder, etc. will decide how you manage and split your bills.
Due to different opportunities – including educational and professional options, many opt to live in big cities while hunting for houses for rent in Islamabad or houses for rent in Karachi.
It’s best for them to share a room, flat, or portion with others, as it will decrease their expenses by splitting bills. You can find many online platforms like Graana.com to help you find rental places.
Here are some tips to help you make a smart plan for splitting bills that can save you lots of hassle and keep the peace in the future.
In every group of people, there is always a person more responsible than others. With unanimous consent, you can choose this person and entrust them with the responsibility of paying monthly bills.
That person can collect each one’s share of the bills before the due date every month and submit it to the landlord.
While living together, everyone uses the same facilities together – including the internet, electricity, and gas.
All the flatmates need to sit together and figure out who will pay how much. For example, suppose one person uses his room’s AC more than others. In that case, their share of electricity bill will rise, similarly if another person’s internet usage is more than others they will pay more for internet bills, etc.
They can split the electricity bills and avail internet packages based on the units and data used.
An old-school yet handy method is making spreadsheets. After every roommate’s share of bills is decided, write it down in a cost spreadsheet. Add the details of bills and the amount everyone will pay along with the due dates.
You can hold meetings from time to time and make the changes per the requirements.
A handy substitute for these cost spreadsheets is a mobile application. Everyone carries a smartphone, so access to these applications is not difficult.
Gone are the days when people excuse that they didn’t have cash on them. Consider using such apps to track who paid the bill and what date.
In case you don’t know already, a kitty is a money jar that the roommates use to put their spare money in. This money is used for small expenses like groceries, food, milk, etc. Whenever you have spare coins/money, you can just put that in the kitty.
Most of the time, roommates share this stuff; that’s why it’s difficult to track everyone’s share individually. Keeping a kitty is a good way to avoid putting the burden on one person only, as all the roommates will add a small portion of their money to it.
Sharing a house with others is not easy. You need to make rules and guidelines and stick to them. You have to compromise, but it can be a joyful experience. If you follow the tips mentioned above, it can help you attain a peaceful life at your shared house.
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