Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Money for Meals

[David Mandel (dlmandel]

We (and I think some others) do it much more simply. Meals are a set price --
$2 per adult, $1 per child 5-16. Sometimes a team goes a little gourmet, other
times it's simple and cheap. Someone watches to see if the average is about
right. Once we throught we'd have to raise it to $2.25 but instead everyone
resolved to watch the costs a little more closely. Billing is done by tallying
from the meal signup. We get a monthly statement showing how much we owe and
deducting how much we claimed in reimbursement for expenses when we cooked. A
few other functions (laundry costs, child care assessments for meetings) have
been joined to the same bill with similar billing systems. Any time a
household's account goes into the negative they have to write a check to the
central fund (informal account, separate from HOA) to replenish. In reality,
very little money changes hands. Our household now needs to write a check for
the first time in six-plus years.
David Mandel
Southside Park, Sacramento

Joani Blank wrote:

> 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.