megan, would you send it to me? I would really appreciate it.

smonster, I'm not sure. If your name is on the lease, and she's just renting from *you*, I don't know if she would argue it. I've never been in that position, though.

I was going to say I was happy to no longer be so restrictive about my budget, and then I realized that I made vegetable broth today to use up my veggies before vacation and am eating the strained veggies for dinner, because, hey, why order food when you don't have to?

Old habits die hard.

smonster, I'd say either split them every month, or factor them into the rent. I was renting from my roommate when I first moved out here, and he basically said the rent is X, but the monthly bills add up to Y, so pay me Z each month. I liked having a set figure (especially for my newly begun budget).

Amy, her name is going on the lease, too.

Old habits die hard.

Don't I know it.

he basically said the rent is X, but the monthly bills add up to Y, so pay me Z each month

Problem is, since I just moved here I have no idea what the bills are going to be like.

There are some good personal finance blogs out there, that deal with a variety of issues. Get Rich Slowly is one I read often. It was started as being a one person blog but now it's written by several people. Also there are "Reader's Stories" where people contribute about their real life experiences both good and bad when it comes to finances and things.

Also Donna Freedman writes for MSN Money (her articles are here [link] and has a personal blog - [link]

Oh, if her name is on the lease, too, then yeah. Or maybe you pay one deposit, she pays another, to make it easier to get them back later?

Money question - I had to pay deposits/installation fees for water ($125), power/gas ($150), and cable ($150). It makes sense to split those costs with my roommate, right? There's no reason for me to pay all of it by myself, is there?

Well, if it's a deposit and you get the money back, no, it doesn't make sense to split them. Too confusing. (You could split them as Amy said, one of you do one, one do the other...but if you've already paid them might be hard). For installation fees, sure, maybe.

I rent out a room in my house and was splitting all the bills with my roomie the first year, but it was such a hassle to not only pay them (er, I'm bad at that) but also manage to figure out how much he owed each time? Yikes. So for the new roomie I figured out how much it averages and just told her a total including utilities/cable/etc.

Or maybe you pay one deposit, she pays another, to make it easier to get them back later?

You can spin it that it's always good to have at least one utility in your name for proof of address, etc.

Twinkie Tiramisu

Someone here has made that in the past. Plei? No, that was the vegan one. Maybe bon?

I made the recipe for it. It may be in the cookbook.

I had a thing for tiramisu and too much free time.