Re: Money for Meals
From: Joani Blank (jeblankic.org)
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 02:47:15 -0700 (MST)
Many communities (including Doyle St.) don't put money for meals in or out
of any account.  The way we do it here is as follows.  People sign up to
eat a particular meal, and the cook posts how much he or she spends when
he/she shops for the meal.  Every three months or so the meal reconciler
throws the numbers into a spread sheet that figures the difference between
the amount spent by each person when he/she cooked and the total cost of
the meals that person ate during the period.  Then she posts a list with
each person's or household's name which specifies who owes her how much or
how much she owes to those people who ate less than they spent.   It's a
cute little list that simply says: Sandra (not the real meal reconciler's
name)  owes Joani $22.45 or Joani owes Sandra $15.65--like that for each
person or household. Then Sandra receives a few checks written to her
personally (or cash) and she writes a few from her personal account.  When
Sandra tires of this job, we'll give it to someone else, and Sandra will
take on another community task. Very simple system, and forget taxes and
accounts and all that nonsense. 

Initially we tried an even simpler system like the one they apparently have
in many Danish communities, that is, you pay the actual pro rata cost of
the meal you just ate in cash right after dinner. But we had too much of
"will you take a check?" or "do you have change?" or "I forgot my wallet,
I'll pay tomorrow," or "I don't have any money in my pocket, can you wait
til next week." It was a real pain!

Joani Blank
Old Oakland/ and still at Doyle Street Cohousing.

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