A Tale of Two Houses

There once were two houses that each paid for their own electricity. Then,
something broke with one of the houses and they were no longer wired to the
grid. Rather than fixing the connection, they simply ran a wire from their
house to the house that was still connected. Now, one house shares
electricity for two houses (and subsequently tries to share the bills).



The way electricity works here is a hoot, really. You have a meter
installed in your house. When it runs down, you walk to the store with your
meter number and pay cash for more electricity. You then return to your
house with a code to enter into the meter to get the amount you just bought.
You can buy a buck's worth if you want to, it doesn't matter, but when it
runs down to zero, electricity goes off. You might see where this is going.



My house has 3 adults and varying numbers of transients. Mr. T has a stereo
and a small fridge. I have a large fridge. We all use the hot plate
(electric) to cook. The other house has 1 adult and 2 older teenagers, plus
varying numbers of transients. They have a fridge, cook with a hotplate,
and, drumroll, a TV that is on all the time. So how to figure out who owes
what?



I called a meeting today of the paying adults. WorldTeach told me I should
be paying about $50NAM/month ($6.25US). I announced that that's what I had
expected to pay. We settled on $70NAM ($8.75US). I said that I believed
the other house should pay $100, Mr. T in my house, $100, and Mrs. K in my
house $50. I offered to keep track of what everyone pays. We'll see how
well this goes.