splitSplit rent and bills with housemates
In a shared house, small costs pile up: the energy bill one person pays, the big shop, the new kettle. split keeps a running balance for the whole house so you can settle up once a month instead of after every receipt.
Rent when rooms aren’t equal
If one room is bigger or has its own bathroom, an equal split doesn’t feel fair. Two common approaches both work in split:
- Percentages: agree a split such as 40% / 30% / 30% and use the % option on the rent expense.
- Shares: give each room a weight (say 4, 3 and 3) and split by shares. Same result, easier to adjust.
For example, on £2,000 rent at 40/30/30 the bigger room pays £800 and the other two pay £600 each. split checks your percentages add up to exactly 100% before saving.
Bills and the shared shop
Whoever pays a bill adds it and leaves the split as “equally”. If someone moved in halfway through the month, use exact amounts for that bill. If one housemate doesn’t drink the milk, untick them on the groceries.
A simple monthly routine
- Everyone adds what they paid during the month.
- On the 1st, open Balances and copy the settle-up plan into the house chat.
- Each person makes their transfer and taps “Mark paid”. Balances go back to zero.
The activity feed keeps a record of who added or changed what, so nobody has to dig through bank statements if a number looks off.
Questions
Do we need accounts? No. The group link is the key, so share it only with the people in the house. Each person picks their name once on their own phone.
What about leftover pennies? £100 split three ways is £33.33, £33.33 and £33.34. split hands out the odd penny fairly across expenses rather than always charging the same person, and totals always match to the penny.