Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: While we're on the subject of accounting . . .

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Aug 7, 2017, at 11:35 AM, Muriel Kranowski <murielk [at] vt.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
> I'm trying to recall what we charge for, might be missing something.
> 1) CH laundry machines- because our CH was built about 1.5 years after the
> greatest number of us moved in (lot development model), and some households
> are a significant walking distance away from the CH, many of us have our
> own washers & dryers. 

~35 of 43 households have their own machines too. But even they use the laundry 
room for large items or large loads, or when their machines are broken. The CH 
has two large washers and two large dryers so laundry for 4+ people is a quick 
job.

The machines are a lifesaver when a machine breaks in a  household with a baby 
and a toddle or one with a child home from college to get their laundry done. 
It might be down for weeks until they decide to replace it and with what. That 
makes it hard to use a neighbors machine.

> 2) CH prepared meals- they have their own Meals Account bookkeeping system
> with a workshare position for maintaining the account. 

We pay for meals too. But cost only includes the estimated food costs. It’s $4 
for adults and $2 for children. Cash on delivery.

There is a meal group that rotates cooking on Mondays. People sign up to cook 
once a rotation. The rotation is as many weeks as people sign up for so a 
rotation could be 4, 6, 8 weeks. Each cook team pays for the meal ingredients 
the night they cook. If they have room for extras other people sign up and pay. 
On taco night, lots of extras attend.

We also have a lot of potlucks, including potluck brunches. A note: Potlucks 
are more fun when they have a theme. Winter squash, Mexican, etc. At the end of 
the summer Anna does a Pesto Festo that cleans up all the surplus of basil in 
the gardens and window boxes — always a lot of that. People contribute 
ingredients or pay whatever they please.

We tried the accounting system and it was too much work. Even automated someone 
has to send bills and record at meals.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org