Here at Splitwise we talk a lot about roommates, money and fairness. While that is fun and all we don’t spend our entire lives thinking about these 3 things. We also like other stuff, like science and technology. This week California’s governor Jerry Brown signed the SB1298 bill into effect. This bill states that driverless cars can now operate on California’s state roads legally.
Here in New England the fall is upon us, which means for the next couple of months heating bills will be through the roof. It’s also the time of year where I ask myself why I left California in the first place. From every October to March my usual $30.00 monthly gas bill rockets up to $250.00, and I’m lucky enough to have a gas furnace and not oil like many of my friends and neighbors. I have one friend who pays $300.00 a month all year round to heat his house with oil in the winter. That’s $3600.00 a year for heating their house for measly 4 months!
For those in rentals and apartments, the choice of heating system isn’t usually in your hands. You’re stuck with what’s there, and depending when it was installed or the age of the building you live in can effect the cost of heat dramatically. If you live in an place with older/non-maintained windows and doors you can practically see the money floating through those cracks whenever your heat turns on.
Have you ever lived with someone so terrible that you couldn’t ever forget the horror that ensued? I sure have, and I’m sure many of you have too. Here at Splitwise we get some pretty good stories about the insanity that goes on behind closed doors, and it gave us a great idea. Since Halloween is coming up, we wanted to have a contest of who has had the most horrific roommate experience.
Now obviously this isn’t a Postsecret situation, and I don’t want any stories that cross the line of legality too much. It can be about anything: money, personal hygiene, bad habits, theft, ect.
Send me an email at ask@splitwise.com with your tale of woe about that insane roommate situation you’ve lived through. I’ll post the top 3 on October 30th, anonymity is completely up to you.
Last week, New York City approved a ban on large sugary drinks being sold at certain vendors around the city that will start in March of 2013.
NYC businesses that get inspected and graded by the health department will no longer be able to sell sugary drinks over 16oz. If the restaurant has a self serving beverage dispenser then they can’t even give out cups over 16 oz in their establishment (refills are allowed though). There will still be locations within NYC that aren’t effected by this 16oz rule though. Convenience stores, newsstands and vending machines can sell any drink, whatever size. Time has a great breakdown on what is allowed and what is not.
I read a wonderful blog post from Lisa DeCanio last week on why she couldn’t live with a co-ed roommate. It got me thinking about my past living situations, and I realized that I’ve never actually had a successful female roommate experience yet. They’ve all started off well enough, but usually ended up with someone setting the other persons worldly possessions on fire or a fist fight.
Is it me? Am I that much of a nightmare to live with that I should just live alone? (Hint: most likely) I’ve lived with plenty of men, and none of those situations ended with a police escort on moving out day. It must be something about my personal tastes clashing with the same sex.
Continue reading Living With the Same Sex – Is It Even Possible?
Last week I wrote a blog post about a terrible customer service experience I had dealing with Yahoo! Answers.
On Friday I received an email in my Yahoo mailbox telling me my Yahoo! Answers account had been re-activated. I then received a call from a woman named Melinda, who wanted to talk about what happened with my Answers account and the blog post I wrote. Turns out that an executive read my post, and asked someone to reach out to me. He also personally wrote me to apologize about the appeals never getting responded to. Continue reading Yahoo! Turning a Bad Customer Service Experience Around
Ever get caught in a debt triangle? You know: Mike owes you $20 for the electric bill, but he’s waiting for Anna to pay him for back for pizza last weekend, and she’s waiting for you to pay her back for those movie tickets…
In the end, nobody owes anyone anything – but until you figure that out, it’s one giant pain in the neck.
Luckily, you’ve got Splitwise. And we have some cool new features for you. Continue reading Debts Made Simple
Here at Splitwise we’re a small start up, which means that we don’t spend a ton of money on
marketing and advertising. It’s something that we do ourselves through various outlets; one being answering questions on Yahoo! Answers when people ask about rental advice. It’s a good way to get our name out there, and get some visibility on our sweet rent calculator.
Well, it was a good way until last week. On Wednesday I woke up to my Yahoo mailbox looking like this:
Continue reading Yahoo Answers! – A Tale of Terrible Customer Service
When it comes to living spaces windows can be both a blessing and a curse. You’ve either got no light, too much light or noise when it comes to some window pains (pun intended). 
Dear Splitwise,
I have a room in a 3 bedroom apartment that doesn’t have any normal windows but has a skylight. The other two rooms have large windows but face a fairly loud street. What do you think the the rent differential for this would be?
Painful Windows
If you’re like me, you never believed your mom or dad when they complained about how 
expensive kids were. I always thought they were just looking for yet another thing to complain about. As soon as I figured out I was about to have one, I hit the internet to find out how much my mini-me was going to cost. My eyes almost started bleeding when Bloomberg told me I’d be spending $234,900.00 before my kid even hit college!
The Splitwise Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.