Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Common Meal Accounting

[Elana Kann (elanakann]

Marty,
At Westwood community in Asheville, NC we are using a meal-paying system I
learned from Jan Goodman-Hoyer when I was in Denmark. I think it is the
simplest possible way. We are divided into cook teams of approximately the
same size, and on the day that my team cooks the members of my team divide
the cost of producing that meal. Same with each of the other teams. No one
pays to eat in the common house. The payment comes when cooking. We don't
have to keep track of costs and do any complicated accounting or collecting
as a whole community. It's as if we took turns eating in each other's homes
as guests. The cook team members are the hosts for that meal. It's up to the
hosts how fancy or expensive a meal they put on. We assume that over time
the money comes out to roughly equal.
--Elana Kann


----- Original Message -----
From: <MartyR707 [at] aol.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 07, 1999 10:48 PM
Subject: Common Meal Accounting


> Hi Friends,
> We here at Two Acre Wood are just begining to get our meal thing in gear -
> very slowly.  I have tentatively volunteered to handle accounting for
meals
> for now.  I would really appreciate hearing how some of you work the
system.
> All details are welcome.
>
> Do you pay only at the end of the month?
> Do cooks put out cash and get reimbursed at end of month?
> does anyone use the prepay system where folks pay in advance and get
credit
> as they use it?
> Is there a big chart with everyone's name and a check mark for each
meal...
> or??
> Do kids pay half or....?
> What does your average meal cost?
> Has it been hard getting folks to pay up?  any tricks here?
>
> Please send answers directly to me - and of  course to the list too if you
> like.
> Much appreciated!!
> Marty Roberts
> Two Acre Wood
> Sebastopol, CA
> (I still can't believe we are really living here!!  Folks, it CAN be
done!)