What is in the middle between frugal and splashing out?

Hemera

Sorry, but I don't think what you describe equates to "splashing out".

I mean, if I had such careless flatmates that left the light on for days I would surely have a chat with them, but everything else is expenses that should be factored in when living in a house.
If you can't afford basics such as heating, electricity and proper food without counting how many showers your flatmates have, you can't afford to move out.

My last flatmates was like that. I hate wastage, but I don't want anyone to be timing my showers and inspecting my laundry loads.

grunnie

I have shared with well off girls when I was a student. Their idea was just phone daddy when they wanted something. New saddles for their ponies or a skiing trip. Me I just tried to afford something to eat. They took taxis to uni and I walked there. I moved to a flat and landed with 2 girls even thriftier then me. It was Maggie's winter of no electric so we got a second hand paraffin heater and bought a gallon at a time and carried it for 20 minutes from the nearest garage. I learned my thrifty ways from these 2 and we are still friends after 46 years. I got a student grant of £90 in 1970 and rent was £2.50 a week. Had a summer job of hulling strawberries in a local jam factory and to this day can't see a strawberry without thinking of that conveyor belt moving along with all the fruit and spiders.
As for eating out I rebelled a few years ago with my friends and said as I didn't drink I would pay my own instead of just dividing the bill equally. They all agreed and now we all pay our own. I pal moaned that my bill was £14 and hers was £30 but she had 3 courses and 3 drinks and I had 1 course and a coffee. She didn't like when I said I had been subsidising her bill for years She never mentioned it again.

VfM4meplse

grunnie wrote: »

She didn't like when I said I had been subsidising her bill for years She never mentioned it again.

The truth must be heard.

dekaspace

Hemera wrote: »

Sorry, but I don't think what you describe equates to "splashing out".

I mean, if I had such careless flatmates that left the light on for days I would surely have a chat with them, but everything else is expenses that should be factored in when living in a house.
If you can't afford basics such as heating, electricity and proper food without counting how many showers your flatmates have, you can't afford to move out.

My last flatmates was like that. I hate wastage, but I don't want anyone to be timing my showers and inspecting my laundry loads.

I have had 3 proper houseshares and 1 flatshare (or at least those were the ones we shared bills others were inclusive)

The first one was like that, I didn't mind chipping in but when I was going without a shower as they used all the hot water, and they had a hifi in kitchen and portable stereo in the bathroom (which is a safety risk) which they left on for hours after they finished I think it was their fault the bills were so high.

And one being a chef (or so he claimed) used to have as much as 4 hobs on all night at lowest settings as made stews and casseroles using a hell of a lot of electric, their tvs even if unused were always on standby (which uses little but still some) They used washing machine pretty much every day, it all adds up.

So if it was say under £30 over I would of thought oh well its £7.50 for 3 months thats not much.

Think about it really, almost 20 years ago 4 guys were going through over £13 a week gas and electric (that was amount LL paid and we paid rest)

I wasn't timing the showers as much as I had to let the water heat up for a shower which took at least 30 minutes, i;d put it on and just when it was about ready one of them would go in, if I was lucky enough that a second one didn't go after it ended up the water was too cold, so I would put the hot water on again to find another person use it, so I only timed in the sense that I worked out how much hot water we got for each charge or how long I had till I needed to go out to library or something.

And I didn't check their washing load as much as each had their own washing basket so I would go in kitchen and see their basket there or when I went for glass of water I would see them in there, and just like when cooking they put stereo on when sitting there for a few minutes loading machine and forget to turn it off.

Id assume the biggest usage came from the overnight cooking and the at least once a day washing machine and 3 times a day shower.

In later houseshares we didn't have to pay extra as much as I was blamed for the high usage, didn't matter they would cook meals 2 or 3 times a day and I lived off sandwiches and cornflakes etc (my cooking was a ready meal) they said since I owned a tv and none of them did it was me using it all(actually one did have one in living room which he watched all the time) so apart from a moan by landlord he just put more cards in meter.

3rd main houseshare was £20 a month agreed in meter and that was fine until one person not only didnt put a penny in but decided he wanted heating on full blast and run a 2kw heater in his room 24/7 meant we had to put almost double that in and he would just laugh and claim he was poor (he was from another country) and British people were rich so should look after him (and yet he could afford £200 trainers and £100 a month for a spa) he was a literal user woke me up 7am many times demanding I lend him a fiver.

The flatshare I had was with a guy who had mental health problems so never argued and yet never had problems with sharing bills with him even felt guilty as he just sat in room reading a lot.