You never really know someone until you live with them, right? Even the best of friends can have the quirkiest (or most irritating) house habits.
I’m not immune to this. When I went to college and lived with people who weren’t my family for the first time, there were some seriously bad habits my roommates and I had to break.
These apps I’m suggesting below are based on real fights and arguments I’ve had in the past. However, I couldn’t find one based on my hatred of doing the dishes. If you know of one, I’m all ears.
QuizBudgeting and bill splitting apps
Trivia challenge
From tracking expenses to splitting dinner tabs — how well do you know the world of money management apps?
BudgetingBill SplittingFeaturesHistoryFinance
In what year was the popular expense-splitting app Splitwise first launched?
Correct! Splitwise launched in 2011, founded by Jon Kern and Ryan Laughlin. It quickly became one of the most trusted tools for splitting bills among friends, roommates, and travel groups worldwide.
Not quite — Splitwise launched in 2011. It was founded by Jon Kern and Ryan Laughlin and has since grown into one of the most widely used bill-splitting platforms, with tens of millions of users globally.
Which budgeting method does the app YNAB (You Need A Budget) primarily promote?
Correct! YNAB is built around zero-based budgeting, where every dollar is assigned a specific job until your income minus allocations equals zero. This method encourages intentional spending rather than passive tracking.
Not quite — YNAB uses zero-based budgeting. Every dollar you earn is assigned a purpose until nothing is left unallocated. While envelope budgeting shares some similarities, zero-based budgeting is the specific philosophy YNAB was designed around.
Which of these apps is primarily known as a peer-to-peer payment platform but also supports bill splitting between friends?
Correct! Venmo, owned by PayPal, is best known for peer-to-peer payments but includes features that allow users to request and split money with friends easily. Its social feed feature made it uniquely popular among younger users.
Not quite — the answer is Venmo. While Mint and Copilot are budgeting tools, Venmo is PayPal’s peer-to-peer payment app that also lets users split and request money, and it became a cultural phenomenon thanks to its social activity feed.
Mint, one of the most well-known budgeting apps, was acquired by which company in 2009?
Correct! Intuit, the company behind TurboTax and QuickBooks, acquired Mint in 2009 for approximately $170 million. Despite its popularity, Intuit shut down the Mint app in early 2024, redirecting users to Credit Karma.
Not quite — Mint was acquired by Intuit, the financial software giant behind TurboTax and QuickBooks. The acquisition happened in 2009 for around $170 million, though Intuit eventually shut Mint down in 2024.
What does the term ’round-up savings’ refer to in budgeting apps like Acorns?
Correct! Round-up savings means the app rounds each purchase up to the nearest dollar and invests or saves the difference. For example, a $3.60 coffee purchase would trigger a $0.40 investment. Acorns popularized this micro-investing concept.
Not quite — round-up savings refers to automatically investing the spare change from everyday purchases. Acorns pioneered this approach, rounding each transaction up to the nearest dollar and sweeping the difference into an investment portfolio.
Which budgeting app was specifically designed for couples to manage shared finances together?
Correct! Honeydue was built specifically with couples in mind, allowing partners to link accounts, track shared bills, and set spending limits together. It even includes a chat feature so couples can discuss transactions directly in the app.
The answer is Honeydue. While Splitwise is great for friends and roommates, Honeydue was purpose-built for couples, letting partners view each other’s finances, manage shared bills, and even message each other about specific transactions.
In Splitwise, what is the name of the feature that simplifies multiple debts between a group into the fewest possible transactions?
Correct! Splitwise’s ‘Simplify Debts’ feature consolidates a web of IOUs within a group into the minimum number of payments needed to settle everyone up. Instead of multiple back-and-forth transfers, one person might just pay another directly.
Not quite — it’s called ‘Simplify Debts.’ This clever Splitwise feature analyzes the group’s balances and reduces the total number of transactions needed to settle up, saving everyone from a confusing maze of back-and-forth payments.
Which app replaced Mint as Intuit’s recommended budgeting tool after Mint was shut down in early 2024?
Correct! When Intuit shut down Mint in January 2024, it directed displaced users toward Credit Karma, another Intuit-owned product. However, Credit Karma is primarily a credit monitoring service and lacks many of Mint’s dedicated budgeting features.
The answer is Credit Karma. Intuit chose to redirect Mint’s millions of users to its Credit Karma platform after the shutdown in early 2024. Many users were disappointed, as Credit Karma focuses on credit monitoring rather than detailed budget tracking.
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No more keeping track of groceries on a scrap of paper
I can’t believe you bought the name-brand at Whole Foods!
I’ve had grocery fights before. Which sounds a lot more fun than it actually is.
Whether it was forgetting to buy something for the house, buying the wrong thing, or just buying the too-expensive version when my roommate didn’t want to pay for it, there was always some tension.
Collaborative grocery list apps to the rescue.
I had already been using a checklist app to keep track of which groceries I needed, but it was only on my phone.
Anyone who wanted to add to it would have to remember to ask me or write down a physical list, which I had a good chance of forgetting when I went to the store.
So when I moved in with my significant other, we downloaded OurGroceries (free with ads) and linked our apps. It’s pretty much the same as a checklist, except it exists in an editable mode on both our phones at the same time.
I find this extremely useful because when we need to add to the list, either one of us can do it, whether we are in the same room or not.
It’s also great because there are sorting options where we label different stores to have their own lists. This way, we don’t accidentally buy ground beef from Whole Foods when we meant to buy it from Costco (huge difference).
We are also up to date on what needs to be bought, if ever we happen to be out of the house and just want to stop by the Asian grocery store.
I reviewed the Deebot X12 OmniCyclone, and my house has never been cleaner
And the vacuum takes care of itself
Internal house temperature is highly personal
If it’s not frigid cold at night, I won’t be able to sleep
This fight is dependent on whether you pay separately for your utilities or not.
If you live somewhere all-inclusive, you crank that HVAC! If you don’t, I’m sure you’ve been at least a little annoyed by a roommate or loved one who disagreed about the indoor temperature.
For this, I absolutely recommend investing in a smart thermostat. It seems a bit overkill if you’ve never used one before, but it’s great for settling these kinds of disputes.
For one, you have all the information at your fingertips. There’s no way to argue about how long or at what intensity the air conditioning was running when you have a live chart showing you the facts.
It’s also great for programming specific automations like “turn off the air conditioning when all devices leave the house,” which saves you money. You’ll have more money to spend on actually running the air while you’re at home.
We use a Google Nest brand thermostat, but there are tons of others out there these days with reputable reputations and easy-to-use apps.
Stop eating my food if you’re not going to pay!
No more paying me back later, that was 3 laters ago
I had a roommate who was notorious for this next one. Let me know if you have ever experienced it.
You and a group of friends are deciding to order food. You ask them if they want to join in, and most people say yes, but one says they’re not that hungry.
The people who said yes pitch in by giving you cash or sending you money through an app. The food arrives, and the person who said no decides they are hungry after all and eats without chipping in.
Seriously, I had a roommate pull this so many times it was absurd.
You might think to yourself, well, why not just send them the money request to pay after the fact? I tried! Suddenly, they were just so low on money this month and couldn’t send it. They’d pay me back next week. Spoilers, they never did.
So here’s the solution I didn’t have at the time, but I wish I did.
Uber Eats and DoorDash group ordering. You can group orders by adding other people to your order while you’re adding things to your cart.
Not only does this mean they can choose the food they want, but they will be on the hook for the food they order.
This way, you get ahead of the problem before it becomes a struggle later.
There are a few stipulations for using delivery app group orders, such as Uber Eats’ cap of no more than 18 people to be on one order and requiring each participant to have an Uber Eats account.
Either way, hopefully, this helps you avoid that uncomfortable conversation where you have to confront someone about owing you money.
Sometimes you just can’t win
Try to prevent it before it blows up
These are great as tools to help avoid conflict, but it might happen either way. Still, there are some people who are just difficult to live with.
My suggestion to maximize the potential of these apps is to get ahead of the problem before it even starts.
Create a game plan with your potential new roommate about how you’ll handle these issues that might arise.
If you already live with them, it’s 50-50.
Some people will choose to fight for whatever underlying reason, and if that’s the case, then, at least with apps, you’ll have some history and proof to back your argument.
A little more peace in the house is worth it
Now that I’ve solved a few common issues with apps, I’m really curious about other potential ways I could avoid conflict with technology.
I think back to some major fights I had in the past, and it’s hard to imagine.
Is there an app that can tell my roommate when their laundry is done so it doesn’t sit in the machine all day? One that can kindly but firmly tell them their boyfriend or girlfriend has been at the house for too many days without contributing to the rent?
I guess some things can only be prevented so much. Maybe what I really need is an app that helps me with being less conflict-averse.
- Brand
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Google Nest
- Integrations
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Google, Alexa
- C-Wire Required
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No
- Sensor Support
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Sold separately
- Heat Pump Compatible
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Yes, via adapter
Don’t argue with your roommates anymore about the temperature in the house. This smart thermostat pairs easily with your Google Home app to give you full control and transparency on how hard your heating and cooling have been working. Automations help you save money and the headache of another argument.
