roommate/common expenses, non-business

[Eric Angell]

This is an accounting-heavy  Gnucash-related question, but based
on the list traffic that seems appropriate in this forum.

Living in an apartment with a roommate, there are many shared
expenses (rent, water, groceries, etc).  At least in my
situation, for the larger expenses such as rent, one roommate
often writes a check to the other, who takes care of the full
bill.  For the rest, though, one person generally pays each bill,
in such a way as to keep each person's cost about equal.  I keep
a spreadsheet of who has paid what, so we can easily see where we
stand and figure out who should pay e.g. the cable bill this
time.

I also keep track of my personal finances in Gnucash, and have
been for quite some time.  However, I don't like my current
method of tracking such expenses.  Presently, when I pay the
cable bill, I enter a transaction between Liabilities:Credit Card
and Expenses:Cable, then later from Assets:Checking to
Liabilities:Credit Card.  However, if I've just paid the cable
bill, my roommate is probably going to pay the electric bill.
This results in my reports showing me as having paid twice my
share in the cable, and nothing at all for electricity, which I
don't really like.

I think the problem is that the general household expenses should
really be treated more like a business entity, but that seems
overly complex.  It's not necessary for tax purposes, and I don't
really want to open a joint bank account with my roommate for
such expenses (as would make sense if it were actually a
business).  If this was with a spouse, it would be easier since I
would track all of our money in Gnucash, but since it's my
roommate things are quite different.

Any suggestions?  How do others of you in similar situations
handle it?

-E

-- 
Keeping medicines from the bloodstreams of the sick, food from the
bellies of the hungry, books from the hands of the uneducated,
technology from the underdeveloped, and putting advocates of freedom
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slave trade was to the 16th.
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