Best way to keep track of who owes who money

August 17, 2023 8:47 PM

My sister and I sometimes buy things on behalf of each other. Usually these are groceries on sale that we happen to be buying for ourselves as well. Up to now, we've paid each other back using e-transfer banking. But the fees add up over time. What other way would be easy and fast to keep track of what we owe each other, so we can bundle up the transactions and do one single occasional e-transfer?
posted by storybored to Work & Money (14 answers total)

There's an app called Splitwise designed for this scenario.

A shared spreadsheet (using Google Docs, for example) could also work.
posted by mbrubeck at 8:51 PM on August 17, 2023 [16 favorites]

Shared Google sheet.
posted by matildaben at 8:56 PM on August 17, 2023

My friends and I usually just charge each other on Venmo with a photo of the receipt.
posted by yueliang at 9:16 PM on August 17, 2023 [3 favorites]

splitwise would be really good for this.
posted by alchemist at 9:48 PM on August 17, 2023

Response by poster: Foimd this:
https://www.exceltactics.com/how-to-split-bills-and-share-expenses-using-a-free-excel-spreadsheet/
posted by storybored at 9:59 PM on August 17, 2023

Venmo/paypal and most similar apps don't have fees for consumers trading money with other consumers.
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 10:24 PM on August 17, 2023 [10 favorites]

We had an app called settle up for this use case during a convention myself and friends went to. It's a great idea, as it makes the awkwardness of who owes what much more straightforward
posted by Cannon Fodder at 1:44 AM on August 18, 2023

Luddite here - ask for a physical receipt (non-device dependent information medium aka paper) - mark out the split and Monday afternoon catchup is the swap between hers and yours.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 2:01 AM on August 18, 2023

Partner and I use the free version of Splitwise and have for four or five years now. It's pretty great.
posted by knucklebones at 2:49 AM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Second that I find Splitwise quite useable. It's nice being able to quickly input expenses on the app, and you can also alter the split of expenses if for example you have a grocery bill with some items exclusively for one person.

I'd imagine you could also do well with a spreadsheet with two tables, one for expenses and one for payments and compare sums to determine who owes what.
posted by lookoutbelow at 3:49 AM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

+1 for Splitwise. I throw them 2 dollars a month because I want the service to continue to exist, but the free service has worked great for exactly this expense problem for me.
posted by kserra at 4:37 AM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

We bought property and built houses with a pair of friends. We used a Google spreadsheet to track joint expenses. With a little cell setup you can easily assign who paid for it and what the percent split should be between parties for each expense, resulting in a rolling total owed from one party to the other.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 7:19 AM on August 18, 2023

Splitwise is useful for this, yeah. We use the free version for trip tracking, like who pays for what when camping. It would be great for this because it lets expenses cancel each other out while still remembering them - so you paid $45 for groceries, then she pays $35 for gas, and 10 other things of that nature, in the end it just says "X owes Y $13" without all the fuss of a spreadsheet.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 12:37 PM on August 18, 2023

I recommend the app, Tricount. Super easy to use.
posted by rosiroo at 8:47 AM on August 19, 2023