House guest contributing -was is normal practice

[Astrid]

Been wondering this as we will be having friends stay with us for about a week. Whilst we are more than happy to carry all the financial load of having someone stay for a couple of days, we really cannot afford to carry a family of 3 for a whole week. So I was wondering what is normal practice in this type of situation?

Do you ask the guests for money? Do you ask them to buy certain foods? Do they just have to supply and cook a couple of meals? Or is it that we just have to cop it for the week? If they should contribute, then how do we broach the question? BTW they are the ones who have asked to stay.

See I am happy to cook the dinners, I just want a bit of help dollar wise in order to feed everyone. We will have breakfast basics, but if they want eggs for breakfast every morning then I think they should provide them, if they were here for only 2 nights we would happily cook eggs. It is going to be harder than normal as one of them does not eat red meat or pork products, so whipping up a cheap spag bol just is not possible and I do not want to be cooking 2 meals. I also don't want the situation of us eating separately and them using the kitchen after us.

I have to admit I am very concerned about this situation for a number of reasons. Early in the year we had a friend stay with his daughter and they were here for all meals. He did offer to help out, which we accepted, but he just supplied a heap of dips, cheeses and snack foods. I realise now I should have said give me $50 or do you mind going to the shop one day for bread, milk and a dozen eggs. When he left we had a fridge full of expired food to throw out, as he only buys the heavily marked down stuff and freezes it down for later, so it is only good on the day it is defrosted. I do not want another situation with wasted food like that.

The other reason is that this family stayed at our house earlier in the year whilst we were on holiday. They did great work in the garden, but left the house filthy. The husband was very grateful for the free accommodation, but the wife seemed unimpressed and then complained about out kitchen. So I am pretty miffed. After that I really doubt I will be receiving much help when it comes to cleaning up the kitchen after meals and doubt that it will even cross the wife's mind to help out with the food. I do know she will be quite vocal if she feels we are not catering to her food preferences enough, other friends no longer cater for her as she is just never greatful. She has not been grateful of efforts we have made for her in the past, but we still try to do the right thing for her.

Sorry, hope I have made sense, have been harassed the whole time.