Great 'Flatmate MoneySaving' Hunt

When I was in a shared house, we did all of our food shopping together, and we all cooked and ate meals together. It worked out *so* much cheaper than buying food individually, and meant that we didn't have, e.g. 5 half-empty bags of pasta in the cupboard. We were all really good friends, which may have had something to do with how well it worked, but it's something to discuss with the rest of your housemates.

spugzbunny wrote: »

I live in a house share of 3. I have all the bills coming out of my account as I've been burnt in the past by people forgetting to pay. I keep a spreadsheet which is completed each Januray with my budget and includes all the house bills for every month of the coming year. This way I document how much everyone owes and when they owe it and I can update as and when bills change.

This works well ... I have done this once. It does mean being super organised and firm when it comes to getting payment (had to put my foot down a few times inc threatening to phone my friends mum, lol).

My number one tip - above all others - is do not under any circumstances open a joint bank account with a housemate!

1. you will be financially linked to them for 6 years - their defaults will affect your credit score.
2. they can, quite legally, take all the money out of the account and it is theirs to spend, the law recognises no 'individual ownership' of funds in joint bank accounts
3. if they run up an overdraft and disappear, the bank can come after you to repay it - ALL of it
4. you will find it virtually impossible to close the account or remove the other person's name

everything else pales into insignificance.

I houseshared as a student, we each just bought the cleaning products and toilet roll etc when it was needed and we were shopping. It mostly worked but there was one housemate who used to complain all the time that we need more of ... but I can't afford to get it, so can someone else. She very rarely seemed to buy anything for the house. That system works OK if the others are willing to turn a blind eye and carry the one who won't buy stuff.

I like the idea of putting in a set ammount each time it's needed and using that to buy the shared things.

In the house I shared we all had our own food, 4 butters, 4 bottles of milk etc but it worked for us and saved the arguments that would have happened after one person made a surprise cake and used all the butter etc.

The bills were arranged one each. I was responsible for the phone and internet bill but we made the (not partcularly moneysaving) decision to pay an increased flat rate and have all calls to everywhere anytime included so that it was a fixed fee and no arguments. Mostly I paid all the phone bill and didn't get any contributions but then also didn't contribute to the other's bills as we all paid roughly the same on them. We did keep an eye on that though and would have evened it out if one bill had been more than the others.

Mostly we found that the trick is to speak up if you have a problem with anything that is happening, and do all you can to reduce possible friction areas.

Don't forget the legalities:

All together now define "a house in multiple occupation"

If you are in a HMO this means..................................................................................£££££££ if the local authority catches up with the situation.