Money Moral Dilemma: Should I charge my flatmate for eating my leftovers?

MSE_Sarah

This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks...

I often go away for work and have food left over in the fridge. I'll send a message to my flatmate saying he can help himself, and he usually does. Would it be fair if I began charging him for the food? I'm effectively giving him the choice of paying me or throwing it in the bin.

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skint_chick

No it wouldn't be fair because he is doing you a favour by not having to clear your leftovers out of the fridge - which is inconsiderate if it's constantly happening! Why do you have so much food left over? If you travel a lot for work then you should be planning better that large amounts of food aren't left over so it can either be frozen until you return or used up before you go. If you travel at short notice then it's probably best to eat from the freezer or dried/canned goods rather than buying lots of fresh food that will spoil.


Then you'll save money on your grocery bills and not have to worry about charging your flatmate for some leftover food.

sleepymans

This is a wind up, surely??
You'd have to bin it if you lived alone.
Learn to shop effectively and batch cook/freeze.....shakes head in disbelief........

marliepanda

These ridiculous dilemmas need to stop. Half the time there!!!8217;s no dilemma.

If you tell someone they can have something you can!!!8217;t then charge them for it. This is possibly the most ridiculous one so far.

Kattykitt

What would stop the room mate saying that he has binned the food and eating it anyway?

dekaspace

Its a tough one, on one hand they may not be that well off, or they could be taking advantage or both either way to just charge will create bad blood I had a ex flatmate where I would come back with like 2 weeks shopping put it in the freezer which he never used and go away for weekend come back and almost all the food had gone and he would whinge how he had no time to go to supermarket due to him doing a tough degree, then either refuse to pay outright or claim I was lying about how much it cost!


Funnily enough his words were "I was doing you a favour"


So the point is, if the flatmate is adjusting their own budget around knowing you will essentially pay for them its a toughie, because it will end up they expect it and even get grumpy if you refuse even if you say you aren't charging them but binning it, and likely they won't give you a favour in return.

welshbookworm

If you started charging me for your leftovers that you would have to bin if I didn't use, then they would be still there when you got back and you would be looking for another flat mate.
How petty.

System

Thats just tight.

Hopeless_Case

It's a no from me too, if it's genuinely going to go to waste otherwise, it's far better for them to eat it than it end up in landfill.

Can you do anything to cut the waste though? If the going away is planned, do food plans and only buy what you'll need and freeze what you can, and if you go away without notice, freeze what you can or maybe look at longlife options?

ska_lover

hahaha this cannot be real- are people really that petty?

ttoli

Just lace it heavily with laxative , that'll put a stop to it in the future (works in an office enviroment too or so I've been told ).