You don’t need a lawyer’s office to get your roommate rules in writing. The Roommate Agreement & Expense Splitter runs on the phone in your pocket and free software — fill it together on the couch, print it, sign it, stick the house rules on the fridge.
What opens it: free software
- Adobe Acrobat Reader (free) — opens the flat printable PDF and the fillable PDF on any device.
- Apple Files / Preview (free, built-in) — on iPhone, iPad, or Mac, tap-type into the 149 fillable fields together. No extra app needed.
- Any Android PDF reader — the fillable PDF works in your phone’s built-in viewer.
- Google Sheets (free) — opens the .xlsx expense splitter in your browser or the Sheets app: monthly splits with auto-calculated shares, the who-owes-whom ledger, the shared purchase log. Microsoft Excel works too.
What devices it runs on
- Your phone — the main device. Fill the agreement together on one screen, pass it back and forth, both sign.
- Your roommate’s phone — they get their own copy of the spreadsheet, so “I didn’t know I owed that” stops working as an excuse.
- Home printer — print the signed agreement and post the house rules page on the fridge where everyone sees it daily.
[Affiliate slot: a home printer for printing and posting the agreement — Valery adds the real link when he picks one]
What pairs with it
- The move-in photo habit — shoot the unit’s condition on day one. The deposit page references move-in photo protection; the photos make it real.
- A shared payment app — the who-owes-whom ledger tells everyone exactly who pays whom; the payment app moves the money.
- The 10 Fights Worksheet, out loud — the worksheet works best as a conversation, not homework. Sit down together and talk through it.
Doing it manually vs. using the kit
The manual way: a verbal agreement (“we’ll split everything fifty-fifty”) and a notes app or group chat for expenses. It works until it doesn’t — until someone’s partner moves in, until the electric bill spikes, until “fifty-fifty” gets reinterpreted. Then there’s no document, no splits on paper, no record of who agreed to what. Every fight starts from zero.
And the “we’re friends, we don’t need paperwork” argument is exactly why friends end up in fights. Friends assume goodwill; paperwork protects goodwill. Writing the rules down isn’t distrust — it’s the reason you never have to argue about whether you agreed to something, because the signed page says so either way.
Generic bill-splitting apps handle the math but not the rules. They’ll tell you who owes whom, but they won’t settle the partner question, the quiet hours, or the cleaning rotation. Money is only half the roommate problem.
The kit handles both halves: the agreement settles the rules in writing, and the spreadsheet settles the money with auto-calculated shares and a settlement ledger. Ten pages, one evening, and the midnight re-litigation ends.
Get the kit
POWER: NEVER LOSE MONEY TO A BAD ROOMMATE AGAIN. Get the Roommate Agreement & Expense Splitter for $14.95, or find DealShore on Etsy.
Get free sample pages + new kit alerts — email contact@dealshore.com
Related: Roommate Agreement & Expense Splitter: Set the Rules Tonight, Skip the Midnight Fight