Hi Professional-Team324, just wanted to let you know youāve been served. My clients will be pursuing charges along the lines of slander and assassination of character. Thank you.
PS- Youāre out of treats š
My brother works out of town and I check in on his kitty and so does his girlfriend. His girlfriend gets mad that he wonāt live with her bc heās basically paying rent for a cat toniive at his house š
To start I want to say I donāt agree with her not needing to pay her half, but I can understand the logic however that doesnāt make it right. When you have roommates itās should be a compromise of everyoneās needs giving priority to those that are considered standard in todayās world, like A/C. A reasonable compromise would be agreeing on 65 degrees if one wanted 60 and the other 70. Itās pretty unreasonable to expect someone to completely shut the A/C off but it isnāt unreasonable to want your desires met which in this situation would be not paying for electricity she wouldnāt be using if it werenāt for having a roommate. If she doesnāt have any cats and lived by herself, she probably would end up paying considerably less in electric by having the ability to fully shut off the A/C however thatās not the case. Ultimately she should realize that she morally forfeited the ability to shut off the A/C when she agreed to live with a roommate with cats. Now if she has cats too, sheās just a POS for trying to make her animals live in a non A/Cād house in Arizona.
I just want to add that your AC works way harder when you turn it fully off and let the house get hot again. It's better to keep it on, even if it's not as cool as you would comfortably want it, then pump it up when you are home.
Also the benefit of not hurting the cats, duh!
Yess! Learned this the hard way. Live in Florida so hot summers (hot all the time actually) and I would put it on 73/74 when I left and then at night put it on 67. Our electric bills were like 400 bucks a month. Started playing around and left it on 71 when we left and put it on 67 at night. We haven't seen a bill over 200 bucks since.
This really depends on the time gone, the space cooled, and the efficiency of the AC. Everyone should try to figure it out somehow for their own situation.
Thatās not how bills work in the adult world. If she were renting her own place, sheād have to pay no matter where she sleeps. Turning the ac off is just wrong. If she really has a problem, she could raise the temperature. Good luck with her
She fails to realize that by turning it completely off it has to work harder when it goes back on to bring the heat and humidity down, which costs more.
My father was like this and now I keep the blinds closed and the temp steady.
I never had AC growing up (I live in the AK Tundra), but when I went to college in the part of the state that experiences warm weather, I moved into an apartment that actually had AC. I was so baffled by it and so were most of my roommates, because at that point (2008), AC wasn't common in a lot areas in that region. We used it "as needed" so we turned it on and off throughout the day.
About a year in, we had a roommate from Florida move in. She about lost her mind when she realized how we treated the AC. She said "DON'T TURN IT FULLY OFF EVER!! Just turn it down!" We thought she was just being goofy, but we played along. When we got the bill the next month and saw the difference, we were like "okay, Florida, I see you."
Thatās how my old AC eventually crapped out. It kept getting turned off every night, and eventually I had to tell my roommate that turning off and then on was harder on the machine. When she let it run all the time and just turned it on low at night, all of a sudden it wasnāt making such funny noises anymore.
My SIL did this to me and my husband when we rented a house together. She thought that because she moved out *one week* before we did, she shouldn't have to pay for the entire last month's utilities. It was in my husband's name so we had to pay it
A year later it's my MIL paying to break SIL's lease and Uhaul to let her move across the country on a whim. 2 years later here we are again. MIL had to pay for SIL's Uhaul back home when that didn't work out. She no doubt stiffed her roommate when she left
I mean she was relatively cordial and seems to understand she was being ridiculous so as far as situations like this go it could have went a lot worse. Doesn't seem like a bad roommate just entitled and doesn't understand how shit works.
Youāre so right and bring up budget billing. I live in Florida and it gets SO EXOENSIVE. Yāall need to split regardless if sheās there or not. Bills have to be paid and you arenāt her mama lol. She is still learning obviously but yeah donāt let her use you.
Sheās 25 so not really learning at this point, sheās been paying bills a few years. I think in the past Iāve been a pushover for example this is the first Iāve said anything about her boyfriend practically living with us the last 9 months so she probably was trying to see if she could get away with this
She backed down *real* quick when you mentioned ol' Carlos. She knows she's in the wrong and that she was pushing it but she'll whine for every scrap she can get free if theres no pushback. Good for you for having a shiny spine.
That was my favorite part of the whole thing!
RM "I shouldn't have to pay my half because... reasons."
OP "OK, then maybe your bf can since he practically lives here too?"
RM "whoa, whoa, whoa I thought we were just having a casual conversation between friends here. No need to get drastic!"
Really though, you should use this conversation to segue into the conversation about Carlos chipping in on the expenses. You agreed to live with 1 not 2 roommates.
Perfect response. You handled that well. Itās nice seeing a post in this sub from someone with an actual backbone who knows how to communicate. Kudos to you!
Also what an asshole your roommate is. Convenient for her that she wants to pay less when sheās not around, but wonāt even entertain you paying less when youāre not around.
Was looking for this sentiment to say I fully agree. OP - a concise, mature and thought out response, and the exact right tone to stand your ground while also being respectful in the face of immaturity? Itās a unicorn response compared to so many of the very weird and awkward on both sides convos we normally see.
Who the heck turns the AC OFF in southern AZ!? I live in southern NM, so same type of climate. Do you have a swamp cooler? Iāve heard of some people turning those off occasionally, but I would never do it. Thankfully I have central air and we just turn the temp up a couple degrees when weāre gone for the day and then back down in the evening. But turning it OFF is actually counterintuitive because then it takes even MORE electricity to cool it back down!! Explain that to your roommate. And I completely agree with your perspective. You should both continue to split the bill in half.
Was just going to say this about the ac. Itās actually worse to turn it off because when you turn it on again it goes into over drive to bring the temp down. It takes up more energy. Youāre supposed to keep the ac at an even temp and keep all the blinds closed during the hottest hours to keep the heat out.
I had this thought too but couldnāt find any source proving it in case she tried to argue it lol. But I actually work at a utility company so I know that they also charge more for using the same power in the summer here and thereās a monthly service fee regardless of usage
Leaving A/C on being more efficient is such a common myth even google has mixed results, but every authoritative result where they actually test it says it's a myth. The only sound argument for keeping it on is for humidity control.
Just turn the thermostat up to where it seldom runs.
This is exactly why we got a smart thermostat that we can control with our phones, even when we arenāt home. Theyāre not terribly expensive, easy to install, and if you save the original thermostat, you can put it back on and take the new one with you when you leave.
It has saved us significantly on both our heating and cooling bills.
The vast majority compressors and air handlers are either on or off. There is no over-drive. That is a myth.
https://home.howstuffworks.com/green-living/should-turn-ac-up.htm
I use my air-conditioner to control humidity when I'm away, that's it.
Itās stunning to me how many people donāt know it costs more money to turn it off during the day then on at night as opposed to leaving it on all day.
I always left it on during the day and turned it down in the evening/night. I've lived places where I had no control over the AC and they would turn it down during the day and blast it all night... like why do you want to sleep in a freezer? Why I gotta wear a sweater to bed in July?
You should just continue and get her to have her bf split utilities specially since she's the one that opened up the can of worms. Her bf staying over 5/7 days is a third roommate. On top of that you're gone half the time.
Yeah I still feel like I need to push on that regardless, I hadnāt brought it up but till she was being this petty. But Iām breaking the lease because of that and issues with the apartment so it doesnāt feel like itās worth fighting over now. Iām sure her next roommate will care more though. And honestly 5/7 days is generous more often then not itās 6-7 days a week
Why is this such a common thing with young adults? I see similar posts a lot. Hate to break it to you but whether you are there or not you have to pay your bills. Do these people think if they rent their own place they can just fuck off for a month and not pay their rent because they weren't there? It makes absolutely no sense.
You all want to nickel and dime each other so much it's kind of insane. Yes things are expensive, but you still have to pay for you and your company. If you want roomates you have to cohabitate, you can't just live like individuals in a shared house. You have to compromise.
Also if you have a longterm partner MOVE IN WITH THEM! Two adults working full-time can afford their own place. I can't believe some of these people have their SO over almost every single day, but still want their roomates to pay equally. Yall are selfish as fuck. Learn to go out, go to their house, rent a hotel room, or like I said get a damn place together.
I don't know how you guys do it. I would lose my damn mind if someone started asking me to pro rate the internet or some shit because they didn't use wifi as much this month, all while knowing they downloaded 200GB of their TV show last week. Insanity.
Genuinely staring to believe younger people DO THINK THIS. I am living in an apartment right now and had a young couple move in beside us a few months ago. Only seen them a handful of times. Not as in they stay inside the apartment 24/7, like as in they are obviously staying somewhere else. We even joked that they were using that apartment as the ācook spotā. Came home today and seen an eviction notice in their door. Like what the fuck. Why even rent a place when you obviously have somewhere else youāre living š
On that note, I live in Tucson, and it really is brutally hot. Literally deadly now that itās above 100 degrees every single day. Iām so happy to hear youāre prioritizing the cats safety!!
People like this are truly dumb AF! Leaving the a/c on at a set temperatureā¦it can be programmed for different hours for different tempsā¦.is more energy efficient than turning it off when not there then turning on when you get home. It literally has to run longer and harder to cool down rather than maintain. I live in Arizona so we know how this works. Your roommate is clueless.
lol it wasnāt intentional but honestly when I noticed I didnāt really care š not like covering that would keep either of them from knowing itās about her
Itās refreshing to see an op standing up for standing up for themselves, the text you sent was awesome. āAnd since weāre splitting hairsā girl u had her š
I went through this EXACT scenario last month!! Sheās wrong. Thatās not how utilities work. Plus there are usually fixed costs that you owe regardless of how much power you use. She needs to pay her fair share.
Wouldn't it cost the same/more turning the AC off, the house heats up, you turn it back on, its working overtime trying to cool it back down? Never understood the whole "turn the ac off" thing...
On that note, I live in Tucson, and it really is brutally hot. Literally deadly now that itās above 100 degrees every single day. Iām so happy to hear youāre prioritizing the cats safety!!
On that note, I live in Tucson, and it really is brutally hot. Literally deadly now that itās above 100 degrees every single day. Iām so happy to hear youāre prioritizing the cats safety!!
Yeah it doesnāt work that way, and if she wants to nickel and dime you then start having her bf contribute and start calculating all the time youāre not there as what *you* shouldnāt pay.
People crack me up, she was probably thinking about this for a while.
Nice shutting that stupid shit down quick. Love the blip about her friend also having to pay then; if weāre- yknow getting down to technicalities š¤
Love how the conversation just ended.. the roommate just could not think of a comeback for what about Carlos and the fact the op is gone half the month.. hahahahahaā¦ roommate needs to grow tf up!
Chefās kiss on the way this went down. Hopefully she actually sort of gets the point and leaves it alone now. š¤Ŗ Expensing each part of a utility bill by who was home each day sounds like a nightmare.
Better to turn the AC up than completely off. My wife works from home now so it stays on all day and night now but when weād both leave for the day I would turn it up to 78. Then back down when we got home
Not just the cats but if you turn it off all the way it's gonna take that much longer for it to cool down again when you get home and turn it on you just turn it up to a higher temperature say 78 you know that's when you get home and that's kind of warm for cats too but my second suggestion would be I don't know if they have it where you are but get on a budget billing plan then the bill is the same every month there's no guessing
If you all both go elsewhere for an entire month there will still be a balance on the electric bill, so it doesnāt matter how much either of you spend there. Split it down the middle or move out. I believe you handled this well
I got into this same argument with a past roommate. Feel free to use my response to his dumbass... "Dude, you might not be here, but guess what, your stuff is here. The air conditioner is keeping your stuff nice and cool and dry in your private room. If you want, I can help you save a few more bucks since you won't be here for a week next month too, and toss all your stuff in the yard."
OMG i had a roommate go on a road trip, come home, and then refuse to pay rent because he hadnt been home. Like excuse me! Thats not how this fucking works dude. He ended up leavingā¦..
Had a roommate like this... did laundry daily and refused to use the lights so he wouldn't have to pay part of the electricity when we reminded him doing laundry takes up electricity.. and his hot showers.. he started taking cold showers..(according to him) and reduced his laundry to every other day š¤£
I did a teaching abroad and left for an entire month a few years ago and still paid my part in utilities to my roommates. Itās too much work to start nit picking utilities. Also does she want her belongings to be humid and gross? Especially that she has her whole cat there as well!
I had a roommate try and pull the same thing.. went out of town āfor the holidaysā and asked if she can skip out on bills. Well because she was out of town, she didnāt know I was ALSO out of town the same length but expected me to pay it? š¤£
LOL at her last passive aggressive text. The āhahahaā is screaming called out and butthurtā¦. Obviously it was a problem. š¤·š¼āāļø
Christ Iām so glad I donāt have roommates!
Ask her, since she is away is she going to pay reduced rent or full rent?
Or
Fight petty with petty and when she comes back you go away for two weeks or the month and tell her she got the bills
In Australia it is actually common that if someone rooms with others but has to leave for a few months they don't pay utilities. Why would they when they aren't using the utilities? They pay to store the items in their room but they do not need to pay for the stuff they do not use.
Itās cheaper to keep AC running at a certain temperature than turning is down and up again constantly. It takes more energy to regularly cool down from hot temperatures than it does to maintain a cool temperature.
Myself and my fiancee are going away for a week soon, I might message the landlord/council and ask if we can just not pay the bills
šher logic makes no sense. It isnāt a fair split if sheās expecting you to pay still but thinks she can get out of it. Iād highly recommend finding a new house/roommate whenever your current tenancy ends
I sure hate when roommates get like that.
No, you don't get to pay less when you go on vacation or whatever. You split the bill, as agreed, every time.
She doesn't seem to understand that despite how much the bill is "going up" when she's not there, it would be going up even more if she was there.
Iām gone for 1-2 months a few times a year and we (roommate and I) still split everything evenly. Itās unfair to make 1 person pay it all or more when the agreement coming in is to evenly split the bills.
Does she know it costs more money to re-cool a space when you keep turning your AC on and off? You're supposed to lower the AC when not in use, not turn it off completely. Tell her to read anything about cost-effective/efficient heating/cooling.
there was a really good comment on a similar post. While your roommate doesnt feel entitled to pay for any of it, shes in the wrong.
her shit is still there so the best fair solution is to average out how ever long she has been there with her fair share being paid
She can save a bit of money if the usage goes down but she still owes. A lot of utility company charge for the infrastructure and distribution costs to all of our homes. shes on the hook for that. if usage goes down then maybe she is not? but it is still directly related to usage. So she feels shes in the right. You are right too. This is a hard thing to balance and compromise on.
Edit: this only works if a roommate is gone for months at a time
Unless she owns absolutely nothing inside the apartment which is reaping the benefit of still existing and staying cool whether she's there or not, no, she of course does not get to only pay for power she (somehow knows how much??) has used. Why do people ever think this? It's amazing how frequently i see this. Like i was young and ignorant once too but never thought that's how bills work lol
As someone who was raised not to argue over small amounts of money and fight for the bill, this makes me feel so cringey. How much will she save, $5 over this? Ewww.
Sounds like my ex roommate. Claimed I was using all the power... not her, her boyfriend, and teenage son with her 70" TV.
Some how my 24 inch TV and fan was eating more power than her 10000 but air conditioner (for her room) and her constantly on TV.
After she moved, my bill is less than 1/4 of what it was.
Oooooh man, I love your comment "as long as we're splitting hairs..." , couldnt have said it better myself.
is this just an economist in the making? have someone in their family encouraged this behavior? have encountered similar things in the past with a roomate super convinced I owed him back rent, I sat down at the kitchen table, drew, calculated, showed him my work, used several modes of thinking to explain when he didn't get it... long story short, he wanted what I owed him, turns out he was the one who owed me. exhausting. I didn't even want the money, just for him to understand that it wasn't a competition where you have to screw over others before they screw over you lol, that's no way to live
yea I feel it j live with my gf and pay all the bills rent plus utilities / electricity in our area the electricity goes up during summer but also at certain times but I would be annoyed because the ac was on 24/7 and no one's home ... we don't have pets .... I had so many arguments about it maybe a year or two later of bitching we don't have the ac on no more but we also moved to another apartment which isn't as hot so that's the main reason š
I still paid for everything but im glad we moved lol because now we don't live in that oven of an apartment... but for roommate that sucks
You shouldnāt have to pay for it thatās wild she would ask. However I do think you should pay slightly more, running the AC costs a lot of money and if your animals are going to require it on 24/7 itās only fair.
My old roommate got upset because I asked her to turn down the ac bc she would constantly leave it at 80 degrees in the summer and I had a pet hedgehog at the time that I didnāt want to die of heat stroke š«
When I used to have a roommate he would always turn off my AC in my room in the summer when I wasnāt there during the day. I asked him to stop because then Iād get home at night and the room would be hot, and I told him Iād pay the difference between what our bill usually was vs in the summer what it was with my window AC in my room. I think he didnāt have an AC in his room. It was like $30 difference a month.
I used to have a roommate like this and it was SO annoying. The electric bill went up by $40 in one month because it was the winter, and they started being like āitās because you changed the temperature back and forth by one degreeā (???) I was like, Iāll just pay the difference to avoid this argument ! It was ridiculous
I had a roommate do this who left for a few weeks, we told her she had to pay especially since she had pets who needed the cool air. She retaliated by getting our utilities shut off and giving a stranger her key
I have lived with roommates for the past 3 years and I have never even thought of something like that. It is just like paying rent, if you are out of town you still pay it. It is your responsibility to cover what you committed to at the start of the lease.
Fellow Arizonan here to chip in! Your roommate is full of BS. Also a fun fact, AC units require more power to re-cool a unit after theyāve been turned off than they do to maintain that temperature anyway. The thought of even leaving my pets at home without AC terrifies me due to the potential for heatstroke. Absolutely not an option
Also, if you turn off the air conditioner all day and then turn it back on when you get home from work, it will run more to try to cool the place back down. It makes more sense, with or without cats, to turn it up a few degrees when people are out of the house all day for work. Turning it completely off only strains the ac unit and can actually cost more.
This logic makes me laugh. If both of you are away, do you make the cat sitter pay the bill? Better yet, have the cats cough up their end of the rent
Yeah lets not forget the *real* bums in this situation š¹
I've got two freeloaders at home that are both about a decade behind in rent and utilities lol
Those little assholes lol
The unemployed really be so comfortable š
Same I have 6 and they always ignore me when I try to tell them itās their month to pay considering theyāre home 24/7 and I travel for work š
I have 2 which are demanding a litter robot 4 ššš
Hi Professional-Team324, just wanted to let you know youāve been served. My clients will be pursuing charges along the lines of slander and assassination of character. Thank you. PS- Youāre out of treats š
Those little assholes lol
My brother works out of town and I check in on his kitty and so does his girlfriend. His girlfriend gets mad that he wonāt live with her bc heās basically paying rent for a cat toniive at his house š
Iāve tried asking them, but they keep coughing up stuff of no value.Ā
To start I want to say I donāt agree with her not needing to pay her half, but I can understand the logic however that doesnāt make it right. When you have roommates itās should be a compromise of everyoneās needs giving priority to those that are considered standard in todayās world, like A/C. A reasonable compromise would be agreeing on 65 degrees if one wanted 60 and the other 70. Itās pretty unreasonable to expect someone to completely shut the A/C off but it isnāt unreasonable to want your desires met which in this situation would be not paying for electricity she wouldnāt be using if it werenāt for having a roommate. If she doesnāt have any cats and lived by herself, she probably would end up paying considerably less in electric by having the ability to fully shut off the A/C however thatās not the case. Ultimately she should realize that she morally forfeited the ability to shut off the A/C when she agreed to live with a roommate with cats. Now if she has cats too, sheās just a POS for trying to make her animals live in a non A/Cād house in Arizona.
I just want to add that your AC works way harder when you turn it fully off and let the house get hot again. It's better to keep it on, even if it's not as cool as you would comfortably want it, then pump it up when you are home. Also the benefit of not hurting the cats, duh!
Yess! Learned this the hard way. Live in Florida so hot summers (hot all the time actually) and I would put it on 73/74 when I left and then at night put it on 67. Our electric bills were like 400 bucks a month. Started playing around and left it on 71 when we left and put it on 67 at night. We haven't seen a bill over 200 bucks since.
This really depends on the time gone, the space cooled, and the efficiency of the AC. Everyone should try to figure it out somehow for their own situation.
I cannot stand people who think this way. That is NOT how this shit works.
Thatās not how bills work in the adult world. If she were renting her own place, sheād have to pay no matter where she sleeps. Turning the ac off is just wrong. If she really has a problem, she could raise the temperature. Good luck with her
She fails to realize that by turning it completely off it has to work harder when it goes back on to bring the heat and humidity down, which costs more. My father was like this and now I keep the blinds closed and the temp steady.
I never had AC growing up (I live in the AK Tundra), but when I went to college in the part of the state that experiences warm weather, I moved into an apartment that actually had AC. I was so baffled by it and so were most of my roommates, because at that point (2008), AC wasn't common in a lot areas in that region. We used it "as needed" so we turned it on and off throughout the day. About a year in, we had a roommate from Florida move in. She about lost her mind when she realized how we treated the AC. She said "DON'T TURN IT FULLY OFF EVER!! Just turn it down!" We thought she was just being goofy, but we played along. When we got the bill the next month and saw the difference, we were like "okay, Florida, I see you."
Thatās how my old AC eventually crapped out. It kept getting turned off every night, and eventually I had to tell my roommate that turning off and then on was harder on the machine. When she let it run all the time and just turned it on low at night, all of a sudden it wasnāt making such funny noises anymore.
just occurred to me that in a slightly ironic twist, this produces more heat in total as well, the A/C working hard every time its turned on lol
šÆhopefully there is some sort of agreement in place that stipulates how utility bills are split
Yeah thatās not how utilities work
Fuckin Carlos is running up the bill. š
Yeah Carlos should really start contributing.
ššššš
Oh this girl is in for a hard life lesson whenever she starts living without roommates...
My SIL did this to me and my husband when we rented a house together. She thought that because she moved out *one week* before we did, she shouldn't have to pay for the entire last month's utilities. It was in my husband's name so we had to pay it A year later it's my MIL paying to break SIL's lease and Uhaul to let her move across the country on a whim. 2 years later here we are again. MIL had to pay for SIL's Uhaul back home when that didn't work out. She no doubt stiffed her roommate when she left
"Haha just forget it" - she just realised she'd be the one paying extra, instead of less.
I mean she was relatively cordial and seems to understand she was being ridiculous so as far as situations like this go it could have went a lot worse. Doesn't seem like a bad roommate just entitled and doesn't understand how shit works.
Youāre so right and bring up budget billing. I live in Florida and it gets SO EXOENSIVE. Yāall need to split regardless if sheās there or not. Bills have to be paid and you arenāt her mama lol. She is still learning obviously but yeah donāt let her use you.
Sheās 25 so not really learning at this point, sheās been paying bills a few years. I think in the past Iāve been a pushover for example this is the first Iāve said anything about her boyfriend practically living with us the last 9 months so she probably was trying to see if she could get away with this
She backed down *real* quick when you mentioned ol' Carlos. She knows she's in the wrong and that she was pushing it but she'll whine for every scrap she can get free if theres no pushback. Good for you for having a shiny spine.
That was my favorite part of the whole thing! RM "I shouldn't have to pay my half because... reasons." OP "OK, then maybe your bf can since he practically lives here too?" RM "whoa, whoa, whoa I thought we were just having a casual conversation between friends here. No need to get drastic!"
I wonder if she feels the energy of this whole subreddit judging the absolute hell out of her
Thatās how the rich stay rich! š¤
He can start contributing to bills too then!
You handled this really well.
Really though, you should use this conversation to segue into the conversation about Carlos chipping in on the expenses. You agreed to live with 1 not 2 roommates.
Perfect response. You handled that well. Itās nice seeing a post in this sub from someone with an actual backbone who knows how to communicate. Kudos to you! Also what an asshole your roommate is. Convenient for her that she wants to pay less when sheās not around, but wonāt even entertain you paying less when youāre not around.
Was looking for this sentiment to say I fully agree. OP - a concise, mature and thought out response, and the exact right tone to stand your ground while also being respectful in the face of immaturity? Itās a unicorn response compared to so many of the very weird and awkward on both sides convos we normally see.
Who the heck turns the AC OFF in southern AZ!? I live in southern NM, so same type of climate. Do you have a swamp cooler? Iāve heard of some people turning those off occasionally, but I would never do it. Thankfully I have central air and we just turn the temp up a couple degrees when weāre gone for the day and then back down in the evening. But turning it OFF is actually counterintuitive because then it takes even MORE electricity to cool it back down!! Explain that to your roommate. And I completely agree with your perspective. You should both continue to split the bill in half.
Was just going to say this about the ac. Itās actually worse to turn it off because when you turn it on again it goes into over drive to bring the temp down. It takes up more energy. Youāre supposed to keep the ac at an even temp and keep all the blinds closed during the hottest hours to keep the heat out.
I had this thought too but couldnāt find any source proving it in case she tried to argue it lol. But I actually work at a utility company so I know that they also charge more for using the same power in the summer here and thereās a monthly service fee regardless of usage
Google "should i keep my ac on when i leave?"
Leaving A/C on being more efficient is such a common myth even google has mixed results, but every authoritative result where they actually test it says it's a myth. The only sound argument for keeping it on is for humidity control. Just turn the thermostat up to where it seldom runs.
This is exactly why we got a smart thermostat that we can control with our phones, even when we arenāt home. Theyāre not terribly expensive, easy to install, and if you save the original thermostat, you can put it back on and take the new one with you when you leave. It has saved us significantly on both our heating and cooling bills.
The vast majority compressors and air handlers are either on or off. There is no over-drive. That is a myth. https://home.howstuffworks.com/green-living/should-turn-ac-up.htm I use my air-conditioner to control humidity when I'm away, that's it.
Itās stunning to me how many people donāt know it costs more money to turn it off during the day then on at night as opposed to leaving it on all day.
I always left it on during the day and turned it down in the evening/night. I've lived places where I had no control over the AC and they would turn it down during the day and blast it all night... like why do you want to sleep in a freezer? Why I gotta wear a sweater to bed in July?
Iām a hot sleeper and have no issue whatsoever ever sleeping with a top sheet and the AC set to 50
No not hahaha. Wtf?
I didnāt come home for the past 3 weeks so Iām only paying 1 week worth of rent this month! Thatās how dumb she sounds.
Landlord: Here's your eviction notice. Bye. You're not really living here anyway why you cry?
You should just continue and get her to have her bf split utilities specially since she's the one that opened up the can of worms. Her bf staying over 5/7 days is a third roommate. On top of that you're gone half the time.
Yeah I still feel like I need to push on that regardless, I hadnāt brought it up but till she was being this petty. But Iām breaking the lease because of that and issues with the apartment so it doesnāt feel like itās worth fighting over now. Iām sure her next roommate will care more though. And honestly 5/7 days is generous more often then not itās 6-7 days a week
Nicely done. The audacity of people wtf
Why is this such a common thing with young adults? I see similar posts a lot. Hate to break it to you but whether you are there or not you have to pay your bills. Do these people think if they rent their own place they can just fuck off for a month and not pay their rent because they weren't there? It makes absolutely no sense. You all want to nickel and dime each other so much it's kind of insane. Yes things are expensive, but you still have to pay for you and your company. If you want roomates you have to cohabitate, you can't just live like individuals in a shared house. You have to compromise. Also if you have a longterm partner MOVE IN WITH THEM! Two adults working full-time can afford their own place. I can't believe some of these people have their SO over almost every single day, but still want their roomates to pay equally. Yall are selfish as fuck. Learn to go out, go to their house, rent a hotel room, or like I said get a damn place together. I don't know how you guys do it. I would lose my damn mind if someone started asking me to pro rate the internet or some shit because they didn't use wifi as much this month, all while knowing they downloaded 200GB of their TV show last week. Insanity.
They do move in together and cohabitate. Then they break up. Then one of them posts on here.
The transition to paying your own bills really is brutal.
Genuinely staring to believe younger people DO THINK THIS. I am living in an apartment right now and had a young couple move in beside us a few months ago. Only seen them a handful of times. Not as in they stay inside the apartment 24/7, like as in they are obviously staying somewhere else. We even joked that they were using that apartment as the ācook spotā. Came home today and seen an eviction notice in their door. Like what the fuck. Why even rent a place when you obviously have somewhere else youāre living š
Wtf, im calling my electric company and telling them im not home 70% of the day, stop billing me unless its hours im homeš¤£
On that note, I live in Tucson, and it really is brutally hot. Literally deadly now that itās above 100 degrees every single day. Iām so happy to hear youāre prioritizing the cats safety!!
People like this are truly dumb AF! Leaving the a/c on at a set temperatureā¦it can be programmed for different hours for different tempsā¦.is more energy efficient than turning it off when not there then turning on when you get home. It literally has to run longer and harder to cool down rather than maintain. I live in Arizona so we know how this works. Your roommate is clueless.
ugh, this was so satisfying to read š
I love how you covered your boyfriends name but not hers š
lol it wasnāt intentional but honestly when I noticed I didnāt really care š not like covering that would keep either of them from knowing itās about her
Itās refreshing to see an op standing up for standing up for themselves, the text you sent was awesome. āAnd since weāre splitting hairsā girl u had her š
She must not leave anything in the fridge because that uses electricity as well.
Does she not understand how much extra it costs to turn the AC off then turn it on when you're using it? She is being silly.
I went through this EXACT scenario last month!! Sheās wrong. Thatās not how utilities work. Plus there are usually fixed costs that you owe regardless of how much power you use. She needs to pay her fair share.
ngl you cooked when you brought up carlos
Former HVAC tech here: it takes up WAY more energy to turn your AC unit on and off, rather than just keeping it on
Also do they have food in the fridge? Well it has to be turned on to take care of it and that takes electricš
You are so articulate and strong - good for you. Carlos definitely needs to start chipping in.
Is any of her stuff plugged in?
You showed Mia whoās boss! Perfection!!!
Wouldn't it cost the same/more turning the AC off, the house heats up, you turn it back on, its working overtime trying to cool it back down? Never understood the whole "turn the ac off" thing...
She threw the Carlos card in there, argument over.
This was so funny to read lmao. You were like okay bitch you wanna play this game? Didnāt think so!
As soon as Carlos gets mentioned, it's all "haha, forget it."
Love how she backtracked when you used her own logic against her
She's gonna be in her own house one day and calling the electric company, asking if she can get a discount because she was out of town.
She's probably costing you more money by cutting off the AC and then making the unit get back down to a suitable level over and over
It costs more money to keep turning the AC on and off. Keeping it left on is far more sustainable
Haha. Game, set and match! š
On that note, I live in Tucson, and it really is brutally hot. Literally deadly now that itās above 100 degrees every single day. Iām so happy to hear youāre prioritizing the cats safety!!
On that note, I live in Tucson, and it really is brutally hot. Literally deadly now that itās above 100 degrees every single day. Iām so happy to hear youāre prioritizing the cats safety!!
Damn Carlos
Hahahaha
Finally a civilized conversation between roommates regarding financial decisions. This is pretty much how it should go.
Not how it works at all. I had a roommate who was away for 2 months during a summer and he paid his share. Didn't even have to ask.
so all i have to do is go on vacation and i dont have to pay bills ?!
Is she like 18 or what lol adult adulting is hard for some
Nope 25 š sheās been an adult long enough to get that you have to pay your bills
I am so glad my roommate is gone reading these stories ignite memories that Iām so glad are in the past. People have no shame
Yeah it doesnāt work that way, and if she wants to nickel and dime you then start having her bf contribute and start calculating all the time youāre not there as what *you* shouldnāt pay. People crack me up, she was probably thinking about this for a while.
Her attempt is hilarious. Nah, bills get split equally period. Donāt play those reindeer games.
I would fight someone with my fists if they turned my AC off in Tucson in the dead of summer. Absolutely the fuck not.
charge her for boarding the cat during her trip if she wants to be like that lmao
Nice shutting that stupid shit down quick. Love the blip about her friend also having to pay then; if weāre- yknow getting down to technicalities š¤
I had a roommate that tried to do this to me too. We arenāt friends anymore lol.
Love how the conversation just ended.. the roommate just could not think of a comeback for what about Carlos and the fact the op is gone half the month.. hahahahahaā¦ roommate needs to grow tf up!
Hit her with the your bf is over all the time and all of a sudden itās not an issue People I swear
Chefās kiss on the way this went down. Hopefully she actually sort of gets the point and leaves it alone now. š¤Ŗ Expensing each part of a utility bill by who was home each day sounds like a nightmare.
I cannot stand people who use āhahahaā or ālolā in a condescending way via text.
the aggressive amount of laughing in her last message would've set me tf off lol
Just curious, whose cats are they? Does the roommate take care of your cats while youāre away half of every month?
Better to turn the AC up than completely off. My wife works from home now so it stays on all day and night now but when weād both leave for the day I would turn it up to 78. Then back down when we got home
Not just the cats but if you turn it off all the way it's gonna take that much longer for it to cool down again when you get home and turn it on you just turn it up to a higher temperature say 78 you know that's when you get home and that's kind of warm for cats too but my second suggestion would be I don't know if they have it where you are but get on a budget billing plan then the bill is the same every month there's no guessing
It her name was Diana, I would swear we had the same roommate. The cheapest, stingiest, most controlling person Iāve ever met.
I think you did well!
YES! I absolutely love how you handled this
I still have to pay the electric when I go on vacationā¦. Weirdo roomate
She's hot a bf over 5 days a week? Uhhh no, he needs to start pitching in too! Lol
You do not like it, do not have roommates. Bills do not stop on your vacation
If you all both go elsewhere for an entire month there will still be a balance on the electric bill, so it doesnāt matter how much either of you spend there. Split it down the middle or move out. I believe you handled this well
whats wild is people counting the wattage for electric bill lmao holy shit thats sad times
She changed her tune real quick when you brought up the bf chipping in. š
I got into this same argument with a past roommate. Feel free to use my response to his dumbass... "Dude, you might not be here, but guess what, your stuff is here. The air conditioner is keeping your stuff nice and cool and dry in your private room. If you want, I can help you save a few more bucks since you won't be here for a week next month too, and toss all your stuff in the yard."
They tried. They failed š
OMG i had a roommate go on a road trip, come home, and then refuse to pay rent because he hadnt been home. Like excuse me! Thats not how this fucking works dude. He ended up leavingā¦..
where do you live where itās that hot?
Mentioned in caption southern Arizona. Every day itās over 100 degrees we get up to 120 some days. Literally deadly heat
When I leave for trips Iām gonna start asking my landlord for prorated rent for the days I was there! People are ridiculous
Your roommate doesn't understand basic concepts. Sad.
You smashed it! Well done for holding your ground. She had to drop it fast because she's stupid af
Tell her to clear out the refrigerator completely then
Had a roommate like this... did laundry daily and refused to use the lights so he wouldn't have to pay part of the electricity when we reminded him doing laundry takes up electricity.. and his hot showers.. he started taking cold showers..(according to him) and reduced his laundry to every other day š¤£
What a moron. Thinks she can split hairs about your usage but completely neglects the boyfriend.
I think ima tell the electric company Iām at work 13 hours a day and they shouldnāt charge me while Iām not there. Thatāll go over well.
That's like saying, I went on vacation for a week so I'm only paying rent for the 3 weeks I was actually there...
I did a teaching abroad and left for an entire month a few years ago and still paid my part in utilities to my roommates. Itās too much work to start nit picking utilities. Also does she want her belongings to be humid and gross? Especially that she has her whole cat there as well!
Carlos sounds like a freeloader š¤£
The audacity to ask this while having a boyfriend over 5+ days is astounding š
I had a roommate try and pull the same thing.. went out of town āfor the holidaysā and asked if she can skip out on bills. Well because she was out of town, she didnāt know I was ALSO out of town the same length but expected me to pay it? š¤£
Carlos needs to step tf up and start contributing. Man, i hate carlos!
LOL at her last passive aggressive text. The āhahahaā is screaming called out and butthurtā¦. Obviously it was a problem. š¤·š¼āāļø Christ Iām so glad I donāt have roommates!
That last message was āHaha, forget about it, you called me out on my bullshitā
Ask her, since she is away is she going to pay reduced rent or full rent? Or Fight petty with petty and when she comes back you go away for two weeks or the month and tell her she got the bills
In Australia it is actually common that if someone rooms with others but has to leave for a few months they don't pay utilities. Why would they when they aren't using the utilities? They pay to store the items in their room but they do not need to pay for the stuff they do not use.
Lmao turning the AC off while away is gonna make it a lot more expensive
Itās cheaper to keep AC running at a certain temperature than turning is down and up again constantly. It takes more energy to regularly cool down from hot temperatures than it does to maintain a cool temperature.
Sheās dumb and living with others SUCK
I know Nogales when I see it
Myself and my fiancee are going away for a week soon, I might message the landlord/council and ask if we can just not pay the bills šher logic makes no sense. It isnāt a fair split if sheās expecting you to pay still but thinks she can get out of it. Iād highly recommend finding a new house/roommate whenever your current tenancy ends
She shut up pretty quick once you pointed out her bf is there more than you are.
I sure hate when roommates get like that. No, you don't get to pay less when you go on vacation or whatever. You split the bill, as agreed, every time. She doesn't seem to understand that despite how much the bill is "going up" when she's not there, it would be going up even more if she was there.
It takes more effort for a unit to cool down a place than keeping it cool, especially living in the desert. Start making her pay for the bf.
Iām gone for 1-2 months a few times a year and we (roommate and I) still split everything evenly. Itās unfair to make 1 person pay it all or more when the agreement coming in is to evenly split the bills.
Does she know it costs more money to re-cool a space when you keep turning your AC on and off? You're supposed to lower the AC when not in use, not turn it off completely. Tell her to read anything about cost-effective/efficient heating/cooling.
I love how all of a sudden itās āno problemā when you call her and her bf outš
You handled that so well. Nice reminder why Iāll never have a non family roommate ever again. Get out of my face with that nonsense.
there was a really good comment on a similar post. While your roommate doesnt feel entitled to pay for any of it, shes in the wrong. her shit is still there so the best fair solution is to average out how ever long she has been there with her fair share being paid She can save a bit of money if the usage goes down but she still owes. A lot of utility company charge for the infrastructure and distribution costs to all of our homes. shes on the hook for that. if usage goes down then maybe she is not? but it is still directly related to usage. So she feels shes in the right. You are right too. This is a hard thing to balance and compromise on. Edit: this only works if a roommate is gone for months at a time
Some people are just dumb and believe they are entitled.
You handled it well. Tf she think
I'm curious, how much is the average electric bill? How much money was she trying to save?
I'll bet mentioning the BF is what made her shut up.
I legit canāt believe people try and split utilities. Iām out of my house a lot and I would never consider asking for that.
Wait til she has a place on her own and she realizes the bills donāt stop just because sheās not home. Thatās crazy
Fellow Southeastern Arizonan here and I feel ya on the heat! I think your roomie is being ridiculously entitled.
Ridiculous. Would be nice if I didn't have to pay my utilities when I leave the house! What a clown.
you guys sound like maniacs
Lmaoo you ate
Unless she owns absolutely nothing inside the apartment which is reaping the benefit of still existing and staying cool whether she's there or not, no, she of course does not get to only pay for power she (somehow knows how much??) has used. Why do people ever think this? It's amazing how frequently i see this. Like i was young and ignorant once too but never thought that's how bills work lol
Will roomie remove all of her items from the refrigerator each time she is out of town since she doesnāt use electricity when sheās away?
Why is this even posted here? She was civilized and understood why her proposal wasn't actually fair once you made those comparisons.
Swish
This clown needs to be kicked to the CROURB.
If they donāt pay, close the vents in their room while theyāre gone so all their crayons melt.
Mia sounds like a cheap ass
move.
As someone who was raised not to argue over small amounts of money and fight for the bill, this makes me feel so cringey. How much will she save, $5 over this? Ewww.
Sounds like my ex roommate. Claimed I was using all the power... not her, her boyfriend, and teenage son with her 70" TV. Some how my 24 inch TV and fan was eating more power than her 10000 but air conditioner (for her room) and her constantly on TV. After she moved, my bill is less than 1/4 of what it was.
Oooooh man, I love your comment "as long as we're splitting hairs..." , couldnt have said it better myself. is this just an economist in the making? have someone in their family encouraged this behavior? have encountered similar things in the past with a roomate super convinced I owed him back rent, I sat down at the kitchen table, drew, calculated, showed him my work, used several modes of thinking to explain when he didn't get it... long story short, he wanted what I owed him, turns out he was the one who owed me. exhausting. I didn't even want the money, just for him to understand that it wasn't a competition where you have to screw over others before they screw over you lol, that's no way to live
Remind her that turning the air on and off is more expensive!!!
yea I feel it j live with my gf and pay all the bills rent plus utilities / electricity in our area the electricity goes up during summer but also at certain times but I would be annoyed because the ac was on 24/7 and no one's home ... we don't have pets .... I had so many arguments about it maybe a year or two later of bitching we don't have the ac on no more but we also moved to another apartment which isn't as hot so that's the main reason š I still paid for everything but im glad we moved lol because now we don't live in that oven of an apartment... but for roommate that sucks
You shouldnāt have to pay for it thatās wild she would ask. However I do think you should pay slightly more, running the AC costs a lot of money and if your animals are going to require it on 24/7 itās only fair.
One of the cats is for the roommate.
My old roommate got upset because I asked her to turn down the ac bc she would constantly leave it at 80 degrees in the summer and I had a pet hedgehog at the time that I didnāt want to die of heat stroke š«
When I used to have a roommate he would always turn off my AC in my room in the summer when I wasnāt there during the day. I asked him to stop because then Iād get home at night and the room would be hot, and I told him Iād pay the difference between what our bill usually was vs in the summer what it was with my window AC in my room. I think he didnāt have an AC in his room. It was like $30 difference a month.
She got *smacked*
I used to have a roommate like this and it was SO annoying. The electric bill went up by $40 in one month because it was the winter, and they started being like āitās because you changed the temperature back and forth by one degreeā (???) I was like, Iāll just pay the difference to avoid this argument ! It was ridiculous
Ew. They sound cheap.
Get a new roommate. Yours sucks ass
I had a roommate do this who left for a few weeks, we told her she had to pay especially since she had pets who needed the cool air. She retaliated by getting our utilities shut off and giving a stranger her key
I have lived with roommates for the past 3 years and I have never even thought of something like that. It is just like paying rent, if you are out of town you still pay it. It is your responsibility to cover what you committed to at the start of the lease.
Fellow Arizonan here to chip in! Your roommate is full of BS. Also a fun fact, AC units require more power to re-cool a unit after theyāve been turned off than they do to maintain that temperature anyway. The thought of even leaving my pets at home without AC terrifies me due to the potential for heatstroke. Absolutely not an option
Also, if you turn off the air conditioner all day and then turn it back on when you get home from work, it will run more to try to cool the place back down. It makes more sense, with or without cats, to turn it up a few degrees when people are out of the house all day for work. Turning it completely off only strains the ac unit and can actually cost more.
She agreed to pay it. Not a bad roommate.
Carlos out here catching strays
gathered and cleared her
Leaving the ac on saves you money on electric bill, the constantly having to cool down or heat up the house by turning it off makes it higher
110 degrees, Carlos,.. as someone from Arizona somehow I immediately knew this was an Arizona post lol
>*"Haha just forget it it's no problem"* Yeah I bet š