Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cooking rosters

[Stuart Staniford-Chen (stanifor]

David Mandel writes:

>        I've heard of some groups that try to calculate the cost of each meal 
> to the penny and/or require cash payments on the spot (N St.?).  

That's us!  Some folks will round up to the nearest 25c, while others will 
indeed charge $1.56 if that's what it costs.

> To us thatwould seem awfully oppressive and unwieldy. Sure, some of our meals 

Nope.  Doesn't bother us much.  It's nice because it means that there's very 
little work to do to sustain the meal system.  Instead of creating an extra 
chore of having to handle the meal accounting, it's all done when the meal is 
over.  The down side is that people forget to pay and sometimes the cooks have 
to chase about to find the money.  I don't know why you would perceive it as 
oppressive - we don't. 

It's also a good way to keep meals cheap.  You can always tell a cook who has 
run expensive by the sheepish expression on their face as you walk into the 
kitchen!  "You mean I have to go get another dollar!"  I should say that 
the teasing is in good humour.  One time, Brian stood outside the common 
house with his guitar and sang a special ditty he made up on the spot to 
explain to people that it was an expensive meal.  I seem to remember that 
the refrain went "If you only bought three dollars, you didn't bring enough!" 
It was funny.

Personally, I get a huge kick out of scrounging leftover food and stuff out 
of the gardens and producing 65c meals.

Stuart.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Stuart Staniford-Chen           |       Dept of Computer Science
stanifor [at] cs.ucdavis.edu            |       UC Davis, Davis, CA 95616
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(916) 756-8697  - home          |       N St. Cohousing Community
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