So I have a associate that is staying with me him his wife and their kid they have my room I’m on prepaid power my power was at 20% now it’s at 80% they have used my toilet paper my paper towels my trash bags and ate my food they have been staying with me for a week I was wondering for three people how much do you think that I should charge them for staying here? Using my water that they keep on washing like two loads of laundry a day using my toilet paper paper towels and all that please y’all give me some insight because I do not know what to do
Assuming you normally live alone, I’d say that “3 of you are using up 3x what I use up by myself. So you should be paying for 75% of my rent, my utilities, and the groceries and supplies”.
Since most likely these folks are broke, you will never see a dime from them and the sooner you throw them out, the sooner your life and your expenses will return to normal.
Harsh, but almost certainly true.
How long are they staying? What financial arrangement did you make with them before letting them stay with you?
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Board. I’ve moved your thread to the “In My Humble Opinion” forum, since you are asking for opinions and advice. I hope you get useful (or at least, interesting) replies.
Best wishes.
Hey, welcome to the Dope!
Who exactly are these people in relation to you…? By “associate”, do you mean like coworkers…? Why are they crashing with you… like what was the situation that caused this, and what were your agreements when it started?
Or did you just randomly take in some strangers off the street…?
I hope you don’t take offense to this, but from your post, it’s hard to tell if you’re talking about a family you already knew, who needed a place to crash due to some unfortunate circumstances, or if somehow you got mixed up with a bunch of freeloaders… are they refugees? friends? druggies?
I’m guessing neither you nor this family are in a situation that resembles anything like a US middle-class household, in which a week’s worth of electricity, paper, and trash bags would not typically be charged to guests. Even if they paid you the costs of all that — which adds up to, what, $20? — would that really assuage your feelings of being taken advantage of? Would you be happy getting $80/mo for them to continue living with you? (Edit: With food, it would’ve been a lot more; sorry I missed that at first. Are you at least sharing the cost of groceries or food stamps or anything so far?)
If you are living in conditions where their usage of those things are causing you financial hardship, you probably need to talk to them and come up with an exit plan for them ASAP. Ask if they can help pay for some portion of what they’ve already used (or at least help out with chores around the house, doing your laundry and dishes and such), but then remove them (or yourself, if need be) from that situation as soon as you can. Neither of you, it seems, can afford to continue that arrangement much longer.
(Not trying to be harsh… I’ve both freeloaded off friends when I was in bad situations myself, and also offered sanctuary to those who needed it when I was in better financial shape. But in those circumstances there was always mutual respect and communication, accompanied by gratitude, not unspoken resentment. It’s a totally different dynamic then.)
Hi Tony, welcome to The Dope.
Why not check local listings to find out what comps, comparable accommodations, are going for in your local area? Housing costs can vary wildly depending on location.
On roomster, in Silicon Valley where living costs are crazy a room can rent for $1,000 - $2,000, and even more. But in Clear Lake, Iowa (where The Day The Music Died, in the song) you’re looking at $400 - $600.