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Sharing costs, made clear
Answers to the questions that come up when several people front money for everyone. No jargon and no magic trick: the rule that applies, the method, and where it actually goes wrong.
Who pays for the bachelorette party, and how to split the bride's share
At a bachelorette party, each guest pays her own way and the group usually covers some or all of the bride's costs. On a trip, she often pays her own flight and room. An invented weekend shows how to work out each share.
5 min read
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Is Splitwise free? The free version's limit, what Pro adds, and the alternatives
Yes, Splitwise has a free version. But according to its publisher, it lets you add no more than 4 expenses a day, and the limit bites exactly when you need the app most: on the first day of a trip.
6 min read
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Splitting expenses by income: the calculation, step by step
Someone earning €1,500 and someone earning €2,500 don't split the rent down the middle: they split the effort evenly. The calculation behind it fits in three lines, and the arguments almost always start over the first one.
6 min read
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Splitting fuel costs with friends: the fair way when the group changes
Four friends, one car, a €72 fill-up and two tolls. Splitting it four ways looks fair, right up to the moment someone remembers that two of them took the train home.
7 min read
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Is Tricount free or paid? What's free, and what bunq offers around it
Yes, the Tricount app is free. The question people are really asking is somewhere else: now that it belongs to a bank, what comes with it?
6 min read
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Your partner does not contribute to shared expenses: how to talk about it and how to work out the numbers
It is not that there is no money. It is that the groceries, the electricity and five hundred small things are paid by one person, the other never sees them, and the conversation has been waiting months for the right moment.
9 min read
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Flatmate not paying bills: what to do before it turns into a cold war
Everyone pays the rent, because it is in the contract and it has a date. The trouble starts with the 180 € electricity bill someone covered three weeks ago and nobody remembers any more.
8 min read
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A friend won't pay you back: how to get your money without losing the friendship
The hard part isn't the first reminder, it's the second one. Here is what to do once you have asked and the money still hasn't come back.
6 min read
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Shared custody: who pays what, and why money still moves
"We share custody, so we owe each other nothing." True for groceries, false for almost everything else. Here is where the line falls.
7 min read
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Weddings, hen parties, birthdays: who pays for what, and how to say it
Nobody dares talk about money before a hen weekend. The result: one organiser fronts 1 800 €, two guests decide it is expensive once they get there, and the mood suffers before the first drink.
7 min read
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A free split expenses spreadsheet, and how its formulas work
One row per expense, a 1 under everyone it concerns, and the Balances sheet tells each person what they are owed or owe. The template is free, has no macros and opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets.
5 min read
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How to ask a friend to pay you back, with messages you can send
The easiest way to ask a friend to pay you back is a short private message with the exact amount, what it was for and how to send it. Below: messages to copy, and the tally behind the number.
4 min read
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Splitwise alternatives in 2026, and which one suits your group
If the free plan's daily expense limit or its adverts are what sent you looking, Tricount, Spliit, a shared spreadsheet and Kotisso all remove them. They differ on accounts, recurring bills and exports, and that decides which one fits.
7 min read
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Splitting children's costs after a separation: who pays what
Maintenance covers the everyday. Everything else is the one-off costs, and that is where it breaks down: no arrangement tells you what to do with a dentist's bill lying on the table.
6 min read
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How to split bills with roommates without falling out
A flatshare almost never argues about rent, which is written down. It argues about the €340 of groceries, electricity and broadband that somebody fronted last month.
5 min read
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Who owes who calculator, and how the math works
Five people, seventeen expenses, four different payers. The question is always the same, and it has exactly one right answer: how much does each person owe, and to whom.
5 min read
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Group trip budget: how to stop one person paying for everything
The trip gets planned. The budget does not. The result is one person putting down €1,400 six months out, and nobody knowing where things stand on departure day.
5 min read
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How to split finances as a couple when one of you earns more
Most couples end up with one of three setups: 50/50, in proportion to income, or a joint account for shared bills. With different incomes, they leave each partner very different amounts. Here is the arithmetic, on an invented couple.
4 min read
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Stop keeping the tally in your head
Kotisso records who paid what and works out the balances as you go. The tally is free, with no bank account to connect.
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