Library › Everyday Life AI › College students
Work out who owes whom on shared apartment bills
- For College students
- You practice Showing an example of what you want
- Time about 5 minutes
About this exercise
You and two roommates split October's bills evenly, but different people paid them. Get exactly 2 numbered lines in plain text, each like "1. Jordan owes Sam $X ($A + $B)", showing what each roommate owes the one who paid, then a last line "Pay by Nov 15 on Venmo." Use the corrected electric bill. Under 50 words. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- Missing the correction. The AI splits the original $96 electric bill. Try: Add: "Use the corrected electric bill, $84."
- Mixing in other money. The AI subtracts Jordan's pizza payment or gives Priya a discount for being away. Try: Add: "Even 3-way split. Ignore the pizza money."
- No parts shown. The AI gives a total without the pieces. Try: Show it: "1. Jordan owes Sam $X ($28 + $20 + $15)".
- No closing line. The AI ends with a friendly note. Try: Add: "Last line exactly: Pay by Nov 15 on Venmo."
- Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 50 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap it: "just the 2 lines and the last line."
What a strong prompt includes
- Uses the correction
- Sets the split
- Shows the parts
- Sets the last line
- Sets a word limit
Related exercises
- Add a cron line that matches the others in a crontab (Coding AI · Product managers)
- Add mail-merge greetings for couples and missing names (Coding AI · Nonprofit staff)
- Apply a spending policy to five items with the exact label (Finance AI · Accountants)
- Ask a landlord to return your security deposit (Everyday Life AI · Job seekers)
- Assign hold reason codes to five blocked invoices (Finance AI · Accountants)