Happy Monday! I was lucky enough to have the day off work today—and am thankful for all the Veteran’s that keep our country free and safe. I read this quote on Instagram, and it was too good not to share, “When you go home, tell them of us and say, ‘for your tomorrow, we gave our today.’”
This weekend was a really fun one—my best friend got married! This was my friend, Lauren, who we took to Nashville on her bachelorette party earlier this year. Her wedding was at a resort in the area, and I’m biased, but I have to say, she was the most beautiful bride. Those festivities took up the most of my weekend, but I did have a little downtime to watch some cheesy Christmas movies, clean my apartment, go on a nice long walk, and make some returns. (One thing I’ve been so much better about this year than year’s past is not keeping clothes that I know I won’t wear!)
I wanted to write a quick post about an app I love to use when traveling with friends. It’s one I’ve known about for a couple of years because a few of my friends were living in large group houses and used it to settle up on utilities—but sometimes when I mention it people haven’t heard of it so I wanted to drive some awareness since I think it’s such a helpful tool. It’s called Splitwise, and you should download it ASAP!
What’s great about Splitwise is that it makes settling up at the end of a trip stress free. Everyone in your group can download the app, and then you can set up a group for your trip, which you can all join. Throughout your trip, whoever picks up the tab simply adds it to the group you’ve set up. You can split the charge up in several different ways— equally, by exact dollar amount, by %, or by shares.
You can also change the currency of your group to be the currency of the country you’re in. So, for instance, when my sisters and I were in Canada this year, we set up a Splitwise Group that used Canadian currency so that we wouldn’t have to convert our totals each time. When the check came in Quebec, we just entered the total on the bill and then did one Canadian to USD conversion when we returned home.
The other great thing about the Splitwise app, is that within your group, you can select who the charge is between. So, for instance, if you’re at a bar with four friends, but only three of you have a drink, you can log that charge in Splitwise and just select to split the charge between certain people in the group—the friend that didn’t have a drink isn’t on the hook for anything!
Splitwise also cuts down on all the Venmo-ing that happens during the trip and takes off a ton of the pressure to front the bill. If you’re always the one calling the Uber, you know you’re going to get paid back for it! At the end of the trip, you can settle up via Venmo—and there’s even a simplified settle up option that minimizes the total number of payments.
Like I said—just wanted to share because this app is SO helpful, and would be perfect ahead of any holiday travel you have planned! Outside of travel, if you’re regularly splitting money between the same group of people—like roommates or colleagues—a Splitwise group might be the way to go!
