Finances as a couple

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cloudninety
cloudninety Posts: 41 Forumite
edited 11 October 2016 at 2:21PM in Marriage, relationships & families
My partner and I were discussing finances and when we get married we plan to have a joint account with some money each for personal spends but this is where the issue is. We seem to have rather different ideas on what should financed from the joint account and what what should be paid for from our personal spends money. For example, I thought that if we bought books to read for interest (as opposed to for work) this would be part of personal spends, he disagreed. I am interested in what types of things other couples who use this type of system for their households would put under the heading of personal spends.


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  • glentoran99
    glentoran99 Posts: 5,821 Forumite
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    Bills and grocerys from Joint account, anything else from your own account, although all our wages just go into joint account and everything comes from it, your getting married, part of the vows is whats yours is his and whats his is yours
  • missbiggles1
    missbiggles1 Posts: 17,481 Forumite
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    Joint expenses from the joint account, individual expenses from the individual. It isn't rocket science.
  • cloudninety
    cloudninety Posts: 41 Forumite
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    missbiggles1 wrote: »
    Joint expenses from the joint account, individual expenses from the individual. It isn't rocket science.

    Missbiggles1, I thought it would be easy but as I said in my post my partner and I are disagreeing and so I was interested in what other people do practically (not on theoretically). Also maybe I need to clarify, that we thought it it more in terms of 'fun money' than expenses that were individual so clothes or haircuts would come out of the joint account.
  • cloudninety
    cloudninety Posts: 41 Forumite
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    glentoran99 wrote: »
    your getting married, part of the vows is whats yours is his and whats his is yours

    I agree that it is 'our money' rather than 'his' or 'hers' but we are just trying to work out how best to practically manage the household finances. We have both spent a long time not having to discuss spending with a partner and although we want to go down the joint account route, we also want to have some money that is ours to spend as we want to, a kind of 'allowance'.
  • missbiggles1
    missbiggles1 Posts: 17,481 Forumite
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    cloudninety wrote: »
    Missbiggles1, I thought it would be easy but as I said in my post my partner and I are disagreeing and so I was interested in what other people do practically (not on theoretically). Also maybe I need to clarify, that we thought it it more in terms of 'fun money' than expenses that were individual so clothes or haircuts would come out of the joint account.

    I think that's a recipe for disaster quite honestly. Some people spend a lot of money on their hair on a regular basis, some just have it trimmed every 6 weeks. Same with clothes - what happens when one person likes to spend a lot on designer brands and the other's happy to buy in M&S? Both the elaborately coiffed and the expensively dressed are spending "fun money" not essentials.

    My way's simpler.
  • glentoran99
    glentoran99 Posts: 5,821 Forumite
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    Everybody has there own way, but as I say ours is simply everything in and out of the joint account
  • missbiggles1
    missbiggles1 Posts: 17,481 Forumite
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    glentoran99 wrote: »
    Bills and grocerys from Joint account, anything else from your own account, although all our wages just go into joint account and everything comes from it, your getting married, part of the vows is whats yours is his and whats his is yours

    Not in a registry office.
  • missbiggles1
    missbiggles1 Posts: 17,481 Forumite
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    glentoran99 wrote: »
    Everybody has there own way, but as I say ours is simply everything in and out of the joint account

    We did that but the drawback comes when you buy each other a present.
  • PinkGladioli
    PinkGladioli Posts: 82 Forumite
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    Bills + groceries/home things come from our joint account, we each put an equal amount in at the start of the month (though this will change slightly as LO on the way) when we first talked about joint account OH suggested paying car costs and fuel off this, I refused, he by choice drives a £500 a year to tax truck and I drive a little hatchback I intend to run til its uneconomical to repair.

    In your situation with books I would pay out of individual accounts unless it's something you both want.
  • penguingirl
    penguingirl Posts: 1,397 Forumite
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    PinkGladioli wrote: »
    Bills + groceries/home things come from our joint account, we each put an equal amount in at the start of the month (though this will change slightly as LO on the way)

    Exactly the same for us. On payday both put money in joint account. This pays for mortgage, bills, food shopping, most meals/trips out etc. Individual accounts pay for cars, petrol, phones, haircuts, clothes, contact lenses etc. Sometimes one of us will treat the other. Sometimes we'll put individual purchases on the joint account eg an item of clothes or a bit of make up in Tesco. It's whatever works for you
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