[TriLUG] A Rent Control System

[Aaron S. Joyner]

Brian Bell wrote:
> I think you're looking for this:  http://www.billmonk.com/
> 
> 
> On 12/27/06, Randy Barlow <randy at electronsweatshop.com> wrote:
>>
>> Howdy all!  I've been thinking of developing a system to be used by my
>> roommates and I to help settle small debts (things like utility bills,
>> pizza, etc.)  If I were to develop such a system, I would surely open
>> source it.  But first, I wanted to check to see if anything like it may
>> already exist.  Here's the details on my idea:
>>
>> Three us us (students) live in the same house.  We get bills for things
>> like gas.  We also pay our rent individually.  Suppose I get a gas bill
>> for $90.  I could ask each of my roommates to give me $30 when I get the
>> bill, but that becomes cumbersome when you also get many other bills and
>> do things like ordering pizza.  What's easier to do is to adjust the
>> amount of rent we pay next month (i.e., I pay $60 less and they each pay
>> $30 more).  This is how my roommates and I currently do it, but we do it
>> by writing e-mails out about what we spent money for, i.e., it's
>> currently done by hand.
>>
>> I was thinking I could make a php/MySQL app that does this for us.
>> Obviously, if I did open source it it would only have a very limited
>> market (single folks who have roommates...) but I figured why not?
>> Anybody know of anything that already does this or something like it so
>> I don't reinvent the wheel?  Anyone find any interest in such a product?
>>
>> Randy Barlow
>> http://www.electronsweatshop.com
>> Dio fece il mondo in sei giorni, ed il settimo fu arrestato.
>>
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>>

Another more real-time solution to this problem, is wireless
Internet-connected devices using Paypal* to instantly settle these
short-term debts of convenience.  Friends of mine and I have been doing
this for years.  One of us would want to pick up the check, instead of
having the waiter/waitress split it, and we'd then instantly reimburse
whom ever paid for it via Paypal.  You can now pay via SMS, so anyone
with a cell phone should be able to do this presently.

Aggregating it into a single payment adjustment may be more convenient,
so it's probably worth investigating solutions to do that, I just
thought I'd provide our happy experiences at doing this w/o a
complicated tracking solutions.

Aaron S. Joyner


* - Before anyone mentions paypal fees, of course you should only do
this with personal paypal accounts.  There's no need to have a premier
account, unless you need to accept credit card payments, which your
average single guy/gal with roommates does not need to do.