Splitting costs on a cabin weekend or archipelago trip

For a rented cabin, split the rent by person-nights, the food shop between everyone eating, and the Systembolaget bag only between the people drinking it. At a friend's family cabin where nobody pays rent, the guests cover all the food and drink between them, the host pays nothing towards it, and you leave the place better stocked than you found it. On a friend's boat, the guests pay the fuel and the harbour fees.

A rented cabin

Treat the rent and any cleaning fee as one total and divide it by person-nights, so someone who comes for one night of two pays half. If one bedroom is clearly better than the rest (the only double, or the one with its own door onto the deck), weight the rooms as described in splitting a rental with unequal rooms. For an ordinary cabin with similar rooms, don't bother.

Whoever books it is usually out of pocket for the whole rent, often weeks in advance. Collect everyone's share within a few days of booking rather than at the cabin.

A friend's family cabin

No rent doesn't mean free. Someone pays for the electricity, the water, the firewood, the gas for the grill and the fuel for the boat, and often it's the host's parents. The host should never have to come up with a figure and send a bill, so the guests take care of it without being asked:

1. The guests pay for all the food and drink and split it between themselves. The host doesn't pay a share, so with four guests a 2,000 kr food shop is 500 kr each, not 400. For a summer weekend, that's usually the right size of contribution on its own.
2. Replace what you use: firewood, gas for the grill, coffee, toilet roll, washing-up liquid. Leave the basics fuller than you found them.
3. Offer something towards running costs on a longer stay, or in winter when heating the place costs real money. Suggest a round figure yourselves.
4. Bring a thank-you for whoever owns the place: a good bottle, or something the cabin needs. Ask the host what's missing. It's usually something unglamorous, like a decent bread knife or grill tongs that aren't bent.

Then make it easy for the host to say yes:

We've got all the food and drink this weekend, so don't buy anything. And we'd like to chip in for electricity and wood. Would 200 each work, or is there something the cabin needs instead?

If the host turns down money, take them at their word and do the restocking and the thank-you instead. And clean as if the owner's mother is going to inspect it, because she might.

The food shop and the Systembolaget run

Split the food shop between everyone eating, by nights if people come and go. Soft drinks and alcohol-free beer from the supermarket count as food. Split the Systembolaget bag only between the people drinking, and split it equally between them rather than counting glasses. It's the same principle as splitting a restaurant bill between drinkers and non-drinkers. If someone only wants a glass or two, let them put in a token amount, or nothing.

Before the bag gets split, take out anything that's really one person's: the bottle of whisky someone is taking home, the gin only one person drinks. That gets settled between the buyer and that person directly.

Timing matters too. Systembolaget is closed on Sundays and closes early on Saturdays, and smaller stores in the countryside often have shorter hours still, so the run usually happens on the way out on Friday. The person doing it needs to know who's drinking, and roughly how much, before they go in. That's a two-line message in the group chat on Thursday.

A worked example

Six friends rent a cabin from Friday to Sunday for 5,500 kr including cleaning. Five are there both nights; Hanna arrives on Saturday afternoon. The ICA shop on the way up comes to 2,200 kr and the Systembolaget run to 1,800 kr. Four people are drinking. The fifth full-weekender is driving and doesn't drink, and Hanna brings her own.

Person-nights: 5 × 2 + 1 = 11. Rent is 5,500 ÷ 11 = 500 kr per person-night and food is 2,200 ÷ 11 = 200 kr per person-night. Drinks are 1,800 ÷ 4 = 450 kr per drinker.

An even split would have been 9,500 ÷ 6 = 1,583.33 kr each. The driver would have paid 183 kr too much and Hanna 883 kr too much, with the four drinkers each saving 267 kr. A few hundred kronor sounds trivial until it's the same two people paying it every summer.

If the weekend happens to be Midsommar, the herring, the schnapps and the extra guests for lunch make it a bigger version of the same sum. The Midsommar guide covers that.

Out on the boat

A rented boat is simple: the hire, the fuel and any harbour fees are split equally between everyone on board.

A friend's boat works like a friend's cabin. The owner pays for the mooring, insurance, maintenance and winter storage all year, so the guests cover the running costs of the trip between them and the owner pays none of it. That's the owner's share, and the guests still get a very good deal.

Motorboats burn fuel by the hour, not by the kilometre, and fuel at a marina often costs more than on land. The simplest method is full to full: fill up at the last fuel dock before heading home and split that receipt plus any top-ups along the way. If that isn't possible, estimate. Four hours of running at 20 litres an hour is 80 litres, and at an illustrative 22 kr a litre that's 1,760 kr, or 440 kr each for four guests. Ask the owner for the boat's real consumption, because it varies enormously with size and speed.

Guest harbours usually charge per boat per night, often based on the boat's length, with electricity and showers sometimes extra. The berth fee is shared by everyone sleeping aboard; showers and sauna slots are personal. A sailing boat burns very little fuel, which leaves the owner carrying nearly all of the cost, so guests should make up for it with harbour fees, provisions and the odd dinner.

That dinner at the harbour restaurant is where an itemised split earns its keep. Scan the receipt in Qvitt and everyone taps what they ate and drank. The shared bottle of rosé can be split into parts between the people who had it, and each person pays back whoever picked up the bill.

Day visitors, early leavers and other edge cases

• A friend who comes out for Saturday lunch and goes home that evening pays nothing towards the cabin. They should cover what they eat and drink, and a day guest who turns up with a bag of food has done exactly that.
• Someone who signed up for two nights and leaves after one for their own reasons pays the full share, because the rent and the first food shop were for them. If there's a second shop after they've gone, they're out of that one.
• Food someone brings from home, such as meat from the freezer or bread they baked, should be settled before the weekend: either it's their contribution or it goes in the log at a fair price. Deciding afterwards always feels like haggling.
• Leftovers go home with whoever has room in their bag. Don't try to price them.
• Ferry tickets out to the island are personal, like any other travel to get there. If you take a car, the fuel and car cost guide covers the drive, and the fuel cost calculator works out each person's share.
• In a rented cabin, the final clean happens before anyone leaves. Whoever is catching the earlier ferry does their part first.