Living with a roommate is a great way to save money by splitting expenses. The only challenge is figuring out how to actually split the bills fairly so that you both pay enough.
One of you may pay the actual rent while the other pays for a few of the utilities. Throw in juggling food and entertainment, and it can get difficult to track. Are you actually splitting the bills fairly?
To make it easy, use a spreadsheet to track your expenses. Keep a running list of everything that both of you spend money on. A few simple calculations make it easy to determine if you owe money to your roommate.
Download Shared Expense Tracking Spreadsheet
Roommate Expense Tracker
When you have a roommate, you probably need to find a way to split your expenses. It can be difficult to track who is paying what and if you are being fair. No one wants to end up paying more than your fair share because your roommate isn’t picking up the tab.
To help with this, use a spreadsheet to track how much each of you are spending each month. This can be a simple spreadsheet that just records everything you spend. Add up what each of you spent at the end of the month and see if it is split correctly.
Besides traditional roommates, this also works well with your spouse or partner. If you do not have a joint checking account, you may be paying bills from two separate bank accounts. By tracking your joint expenses, you’ll be able to make sure each partner is contributing appropriately.
Splitting Your Expenses Fairly
The first thing you should discuss with your roommate is what is a fair split of the expenses. In many cases, splitting them 50/50 makes sense if you are evenly splitting the living areas and amenities.
However, there are other times when you may need to adjust your expense payment ratio. One of you may have a larger bedroom or have access to a nicer bathroom suite. In this case, it may not be completely fair to split the costs evenly and you may want to consider more of a 60/40 split.
For couples, you may also want to adjust your contribution amount based on your incomes. If one of you makes 20% more than the other, you will likely want to have that person pay 20% more than the other person.
Splitting expenses comes down to your relationship with your roommate and what you think is fair. Having a healthy relationship with your roommate will make it easier to discuss your finances and split the bills.
Tracking Your Expenses
After you know your target split for the expenses, start to think about the expenses that you want to share with your roommate. This usually includes your actual rent and the utilities that you share.
Some roommates, and couples, will also want to split food costs and entertainment. Here are some ideas for expenses that you may want to split.
- Rent or mortgage
- Insurance
- Taxes
- Utilities – cable, internet, electricity, gas
- Streaming services
- Food
- Entertainment
- Furniture
Record all of the expenses that fall into these categories along with who paid for them. A simple spreadsheet is an easy way to track these expenses without getting too complicated.
By adding up the total paid for each person, you’ll be able to determine if one of you should contribute more.
Using a Joint Expense Spreadsheet
We created a simple joint expense spreadsheet that you can use to make sure you both are contributing fairly.
Download our spreadsheet for free by subscribing to our Couple Wealth membership.
To use it, start by filling in your names for both roommates or partner. Edit the percentage for how you would like to split the expenses with your partner.
For each month, you can then keep a running list of all of the expenses that each of you pay for. The spreadsheet will automatically calculate how much you each have paid and if one of you owes money to the other person.
For example, you may pay $400 for the month but your roommate only paid $200. Since the total expenses were $600, you each should have paid $300, assuming a 50/50 split. This means your roommate should pay you $100 in order to keep the payments fair.
Subscribe to download our joint expense tracker spreadsheet for free.
