Splitting expenses, concretely

Methods you can actually use, with the math worked through and the awkward cases covered. No generalities: what happens when one person fronts everything, when incomes are far apart, or when half the trip was paid in another currency.

• How to split expenses with friends without falling out

  Working out "who owes what", step by step on a four-person weekend. The four ways to split a cost, and why netting the debts turns eleven payments into three.

• Splitting trip costs with friends: the complete method

  Before, during, after. The deposit one person fronts months ahead, payments in foreign currency, the excursions not everyone joins, and closing the books.

• Shared house expenses: rent, utilities and groceries

  What genuinely gets shared, what should be split by room size, and the monthly routine that keeps money conversations from being awkward.

• Money as a couple: four methods and what they actually do

  Fifty-fifty, proportional to income, one shared pot or separate accounts. With numbers, on a couple earning $3,200 and $4,800 a month.

• How to choose an expense-splitting app

  Six criteria that genuinely separate these apps — plus an honest list of what WeSplit cannot do, so you can decide without taking our word for it.

• Child support and shared kids' expenses, tracked properly

  Support is not a shared expense — it is a debt. Here is the math for what is really left to pay once one parent has already fronted the school lunches.

• Splitting in proportion to income

  Two unequal incomes, one shared cost. The exact calculation, which income to use, and the point where the method stops being fair.

• Kids’ holidays: splitting when the stays are unequal

  Ten nights with one parent, four with the other, a rental paid months ahead. Splitting by nights, and the costs it should never touch.

• Splitting groceries when some people don’t drink

  Two people out of six don’t drink, and still pay for the wine. The fair split, worked through on a $180 grocery run and then on a restaurant bill.

• Splitting bachelorette party costs without losing a friendship

  Who covers the bride’s share, how to announce a budget before inviting anyone, and what to do about a drop-out once the house is paid for. Full $1,280 example.