Conflicts over money can destroy even the strongest of relationships. Putting in the work upfront to divide up household costs in a way that is fair to everyone might prevent unnecessary heartache later.
So what is fair? That can depend on a lot of things: income levels, the division of household chores, usages, shared spaces vs. private spaces, etc. But first, let's just focus on expenses.
I suggest you first gather bills and compile a list of all shared household expenses. This is your baseline. You can make it as simple or as complex as you need to, depending on what each person agrees is fair.
Some things might need to be split differently that just dividing the expense amount by the number of people. For instance, if someone has a larger bedroom, they may need to pay a larger portion of rent. If someone uses more internet, constituting a higher bandwidth plan, they may need to pay the added difference.
Another thing to consider is income amount. If two people are sharing expenses and both work the same amount of hours, but one person makes more per hour than the other person (this will happen a lot between men and women, unfortunately), it might make sense to base how much each pays in percentages.
For instance, if a monthly bill is $100.00 and Person A makes $16.00/hour, and Person B makes $10.00/hour, it might be more fair to calculate the wage gap percentage and use that to decide how much each person will pay. In this case, (10 ÷ 16 = 0.625), so Person A makes 62.5 more than Person B. Therefore, it may be fair for Person A to pay $62.50 of the bill and Person B to pay $37.50.
Housework could also be taken into consideration. If one person is consistently the one scrubbing the bathrooms and taking the garbage out, it might be good of their housemate(s) to consider giving them a break on the rent or mortgage payment. I believe hiring a cleaning service to do these things would charge anywhere from $50 - $100/hour. Supplementing some of the expenses for someone who cleans up after more than just themselves would be a nice way to show some appreciation.
These conversations can sometimes feel uncomfortable, but they can save a lot of resentment in the long run.
What do you do to keep things fair when it comes to shared living expenses? I'd love to hear from you!
I hope you have a happy and well-planned week!