How do you and your other half manage your finances?

[Ari]

Just curious how people who are living together, married, whatever, share out the finances. I guess it depends whether you both earn but I'd imagine that's the case for the majority?

So, do you have your own accounts and just pool living costs?

Or does one of you manage all the finances and the other just get a monthly amount and access to extra when needed?

Or do you just pool everything and both take what you need?

Or some other arrangement I've not thought of?

Interested to see what people feel works best for them.

[schmalex]

I receive an invoice every month from my wife. Depending upon what my salary was durng that month will depend on the value of the invoice, as everything is factored to take into account fluctuations.

[iphonedyou]

Expect lots of 'I manage everything and she gets some of the small percentage she knows about' type posts, OP. These will be immediately followed by 'What? Surely a marriage should be fair and equitable, you're together forever afterall'. Then the former group will call the latter group weak willed wally woofters.

Not that I wish to presuppose the poll outcome!

ETA: genuine lol, schmalex!

[V8mate]

Separate finances.

No joint account at all. We each pay some of the bills and there's a balancing payment each month from one to the other to make the contribution 50:50.

[sc0tt]

She gets paid into hers, I get paid into mine.

I take all the money and put it in a joint account where bills and fuel comes from and then we both get the same amount each to do as we please.

Although my motorbike is "technically" not a bill in her opinion

[Torquey]

We have our own accounts.

Bills are split between both accounts leaving us with similar amounts after all bills come out.

Never had any issues yet.

[RizzoTheRat]

I pay the mortgage and household bills, she pays me a monthly 'rent' and buys most of the food.

[dingg]

Only me adding to the pot in my house

wife and two teens take take take as quick as I fill it

[TonyHetherington]

We have one joint account into which we both put the same amount every month, and out of that account comes everything house related - bills, food etc.

Seems to work quite well - that way we both still have our own money and indeed our own savings for things, but we also have joint savings in addition to the joint account.

[jimslops]

TonyHetherington said:

We have one joint account into which we both put the same amount every month, and out of that account comes everything house related - bills, food etc.

Seems to work quite well - that way we both still have our own money and indeed our own savings for things, but we also have joint savings in addition to the joint account.

For people who earn different amounts... do you add in as a percentage of your income? ie Tony, you earn similar to the OH?

[Steve Evil]

She's a qualified accountant, I sort out our joint account budget.

Something's not right there...

[juice]

All the money goes into one account. My salary has deductions to my work account. My wife manages the current account, I manage the investment accounts.

[mrmr96]

3 accounts:

1 Mine, with my pay
2 Hers, with her pay
3 Joint

We both have regular transfers set up which automatically move money from our personal accounts into the joint account. Mortgage, council tax, sky, tv, insurance, pet insurance, phone, broadband etc etc all paid from Joint account. If it runs low as a one off then we'll both put a little extra in manually. If it's regularly running low then we'll increase the value of the regular transfers.

We basically agree an amount each to put into the joint account, and anything in our personal accounts is for each of us to spend freely. When big stuff comes up like cars/holidays/dishwashers etc we'll either use our joint savings (as there's a standing order to pay from the joint account into that) or work it out "manually".

Seems like a reasonable system, because we each pay our fair share into the joint account and then each have our own money for stuff like trackdays/handbags.

[PugwasHDJ80]

married, expecting,

no massive assets (including property)

earn about the same

pool everything, budget together, accept that we'll both spend £50ish per month on our stuff without the other worrying- have a savings target that we've both agreed on in order to help the little one along!

[mrmr96]

jimslops said:

For people who earn different amounts... do you add in as a percentage of your income? ie Tony, you earn similar to the OH?

I earn more than the wife. My standing order into the joint account is more than hers.

Several "logical" answers which would be used to determine the proportion.
1 Each contribute 50:50
2 Each contribute proportionally with your gross salary
3 Each contribute proportionally with your net salary
4 Each contribute such that you're both left with an equal amount of your net salary left (same as "all in one pot, split what's left 50:50")
5 Whatever you both agree to(!)

[TEKNOPUG]

Separate accounts. I pay everything out of my account. She gives me a monthly amount which is based on how much she can afford to pay and bares no relation to actual household expenditure. After about 18months of this, she found out the true nature of household expenditure and was most upset (tears and everything) that I apparently wasn’t being honest with the costs and she was feeling guilty about not contributing a fair amount. She was under some delusion that we were splitting everything 50/50 – we’d be living in a studio in Tottenham if that was the case!

I did point out that when we first moved in that I asked her “how much do YOU want to pay for rent?” – which is what she pays. What I am prepared to pay for a standard of living to my liking, maybe considerably more. Food shopping, restaurants etc, I expect to pay but she’ll probably pay 1 in 3.

[Ari]

jimslops said:

For people who earn different amounts... do you add in as a percentage of your income? ie Tony, you earn similar to the OH?

Interesting point/question.

[TEKNOPUG]

Ari said:

Interesting point/question.

I haven’t done deliberately but I’ve done the maths and it does work out pretty close to a salary percentage split. However, that is just looking at known household bills (rent, council tax, phone, SKY etc). If I included everything else that I pay for that we benefit from (car, food, entertainment, holidays etc) then no, not even close.

[cazzer]

What happened to completely separate finances as an option?

[TEKNOPUG]

cazzer said:

What happened to completely separate finances as an option?

I suspect those are the 4 options his missus has given him