this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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My girlfriend and I are planning to move in together in ~3 months.

I own a small apartment in Amsterdam, my mortgage, heating, water and electricity is about 2000 Euro a month, and I earn 30% more than she does.

Some context: Amsterdam is damn expensive and in an housing crisis, since living here she's been paying about 1000/m to rent a room. Both of us earn quite well and money isn't tight

What is a fair way to split costs? I've heard everything from she should live here for free because I was paying for everything anyway to we should split everything 50/50, and I'm not sure what is fair.

I don't think 50/50 is fair, because the way I see it, I'm going to get back a fair amount of the money I pay to my mortgage when I sell the apartment.

So what is fair? My gut feeling is something like we split the heating, electricity, groceries etc. 50/50. And she pays say 500 Euro a month for living here (less than half what she's used to paying in rent)

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A few elements you left out is how compatible your housework stuff is and what she was paying before. She should absolutely not be paying more than half in total of what she was before all said and done and going up to that amount is bs as well. Look at it this way. If she had a roommate that is amount she would pay anyway. Maybe your place is better but given you guys are a couple it should be nicer for her than just that. If your place is better thats a bonus. With groceries I think you should just buy independently and a lot depends on who cooks. If one person is cooking more often then the other person should make it a point to get as much of the shared groceries as they can. This is getting to the housework. I remember talking with a friend and he had a thing with his girlfriend because he vacuumed once a month and she did once a week. He felt he should still do once a month as she still ends up doing it less but gets the same effect while he is doing it the same amount as he would on his own. Things get complicated when you live with family or a significant other and you want to make sure its a good deal for them as well as yourself and presumably you have a lifestyle that tends to spend 30% more or at least potentially can. I would make sure you are at least paying 30% more than her every month. Anyway Im more giving you food for thought than a hard and fast answer but tldr is make sure she pays less than 50% of what her expenses were before and further that your monthly costs are 30% higher however that works out. On a personal note I like simplicity so if it worked out to not be to much I would be tempted to just ask her to carry all the utilities and then do the independent grocery thing. Its less work for you if she gets and pays the utilities and you don't have to shuffle money back and forth which can feel a bit weird.