Splitting expenses between friends

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Like2Plan

But, if I were one of the married couples stuck with sharing a bathroom with 3 other people in my example above, paying twice as much for a lessor accomodation I would feel that I was subsidizing the 2 single person's nicer accomodations.

I agree. Of course, I don't think I'd put myself (and my wife) in that situation. If I was the one organizing, I'd put the couples in the larger rooms and the singles in the smaller rooms. I can't see doing it any other way.

Not a rental story but just this past August, we visited my cousin in Florida. He has 2 bedrooms - his master suite and a guest room. When we came, he slept in the guest room and the 3 of us slept in the master bedroom. It made no sense to cram us into the guest room. Had that been a rental situation, I'm sure we would have done exactly the same thing.

Of course this is hypothetical because I just can't see myself renting a house with a group of people anymore (at my age).

Actually, I can definitely see us doing this in the future. Once our daughter is grown and on her own, I can see us traveling with friends and sharing a house. We've rented some beautiful homes over the years on our own and sharing one with friends would be great.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

depends on the situation because even with family you split it differently.

[docstudent]

I only dine with real "friends", therefore, it is really simple for us. We follow a simple rule, I pay, then you pay. For example, I meet with a group of friends once a month for breakfast or dinner....I pay one month, then the process is looped. Some months, we might spent $30-$50 more or less, but it has never been an issue. We have been following that process for over a decade, and no one has ever complained.... As far as trips, if we're driving as a group, we each chip in $50 or whatever the agreed amount is, and use it for gas or other necessities on the road, whatever is left, we split and move on..Big trips, we split down the line by the number of people....we have a tight group of six, and we rarely allow access.....I could not imagine asking my friend for $3 to make everything equal....

[dawnwes]

Well, we dine with real friends too, but we all have kids. Some of our friends have 5 kids while others have 1 or 2. Some have teens who eat a full meal while others have toddlers who pick off the adult plates.

Just because I won't offer to pay for my friend and her husband and their four kids (12-19) who all eat adult meals, doesn't mean we aren't real friends.

However, now that our kids are a bit older, we really don't eat out as often. Far easier to meet at a person's house and eat. In that case, we DO pay for the entire thing if we host it and we don't worry about who has paid what or prepared what.

Dawn

Originally Posted by docstudent

I only dine with real "friends", therefore, it is really simple for us. We follow a simple rule, I pay, then you pay. For example, I meet with a group of friends once a month for breakfast or dinner....I pay one month, then the process is looped. Some months, we might spent $30-$50 more or less, but it has never been an issue. We have been following that process for over a decade, and no one has ever complained.... As far as trips, if we're driving as a group, we each chip in $50 or whatever the agreed amount is, and use it for gas or other necessities on the road, whatever is left, we split and move on..Big trips, we split down the line by the number of people....we have a tight group of six, and we rarely allow access.....I could not imagine asking my friend for $3 to make everything equal....