How do you manage your finances as a couple?

Leopardlady

We have an account each and then a joint account which the mortgage and all bills come out of. I am trying to get OH to agree to use the joint account for food and household spending. But as i am Self employed and have not been earning a regular wage for a while, he has been buying everything, and has not complained at all. He sees it as normal in support (i am very lucky )
I think the whole money issue can be the one that causes the most problems, so talk about it and come to an agreement about what you each want. There is no perfect way of doing this. Good luck.

count_rostov

We have so many accounts! I am salaried and my fiance is self-employed. He earns more than me but it's less regular. He also takes very little interest in our personal finances.
My salary is paid into my personal account, I transfer half of this into a joint account for mortgage, council tax, phone, life and house insurance. The rest goes to debt repayments and a little to a savings pot.
He is self-employed and keeps about half of his earnings in his buriness account for tax, tools, materials etc, the rest goes to another joint account which I use for house-keeping, heating oil, electricity, my car, and DIY materials for the house.
The idea is that we get in the habit of living on his earnings so that when our debt is paid off, my salary will only be used for mortgage, overpayments and savings.

ginvzt

We have each our own accounts and just a few months ago decided to open a joint one (never had a problem with the separate, if either of us needed more money, because paid more bills, etc, the other one would just transfer). Now we are transferring fixed amount into joint account and rent/food/bills/eating out, etc that is common goes out of it. We are still not sure with the petrol (we both drive about the same distance to work), so that sometimes goes out from joint, sometimes from individual... Oh, I will be paying my CC from joint this month as we made some big purchases this month and that added a lot to my usual CC spending.

Staciep88

Me and OH have seperate current accounts to which our wages go into and we then each transfer a set amount every week from our wages into a joint account which covers rent and food bills. We then have our own money seperate for whatever we want or need. ie: my left over money is used to pay my car and my small balance on the credit card whereas my partners money is left over to pay off his debts.

newlywed

Separate accounts.
He pays rent, council tax, and some other bills.
I pay food, electricity, gas, and all car costs.

Works out roughly even - as long as I don't overspend on the food :rolleyes:

He is self employed, financially linked to ex who is on an IVA.
I am on a DMP (debts mostly from before our marriage). Makes more sense to keep is separate for tax, csa, credit rating etc

margaretclare

DH and I, retired wrinklies, each have our own accounts. When he moved here in 1997 he had a rooted objection to joint accounts - historical reasons from his first marriage, when she had the view that 'what's mine is mine and what's his is mine also'.

Over time, we developed our own pattern. We still have our own accounts into which pensions income gets paid for each of us, as well as our own savings and ISA accounts. A few years ago I pointed out the benefits of having a joint account for household bills, when I had seen a tragic case at CAB of a lady who was suddenly widowed and, because husband had dealt with all the money she was left without means to pay the electricity bill! This apparently was common in earlier generations although, thankfully, not with us.

We now have a joint account that we both tip into, have just increased to £145 a month, total £290 a month, no mortgage, but the biggest slice of that is council tax, £117 a month, next biggest is gas, £69 a month and that's with our new super-efficient boiler!

I transfer £120 a month to him because he buys all food - £240 a month for food between us. So, apart from car costs and broadband, our total living costs are £530 a month. If we worked it out weekly it would be £122.30 a week. Basic state pension is £90.70 each, £181.40, so everything else that we get - annuities etc - is car, broadband, holidays, days out, and savings.

Tinkabell25

Hi, My OH and i have been living together a year and have a joint account where all house related bills go out and we pay a set amount into it each month (he earns more so pays more voluntarily) and then we have our sole accounts for personal bills eg mobile bills and petrol.

Little_Pickle

We have seperate personal accounts
We have a joint savings account
We have a joint account for 'house' - Bills rent etc

The only thing that is 'down the middle' as it were is the rent. This goes in the 'house' account.
Then we put a set amount each in the 'house' account once per month which will cover bills - done by DD.

We have a look at the budget every 3 months and anything we have 'spare' in the house account we treat on 'us' (dinner / movies etc).

But having said all of that, we never say, I paid for this, you paid for that.
for example, we just shifted house and Mr P a lot of furniture on his CC. He plans to pay it in full at EOM so I'll cover rent this month.

It's not worked out to the penny... more like... oh I'll pay my credit card off when I get paid... 'cool' I say, I'll cover rent then.

You'll find that it changes over time. It's taken us 3 years to get to this comfy point!

good luck!
LP
xox

arthur_dent_2

My husband has control over all the money and I get £20 a week to buy all that myself and the kids need on top of food.

margaretclare

arthur_dent wrote: »

My husband has control over all the money and I get £20 a week to buy all that myself and the kids need on top of food.

Your husband is either a control freak and/or is living in cloud cuckoo land.

For us, pair of wrinklies, food costs approx £60 a week. Couldn't do it for less - at least, not if we eat 'food' and not rubbish.

You're in danger of being left in the state that I saw that poor lady in, the one whose husband died suddenly and she was left near-penniless, in danger of having the electricity cut off - the one I described in my post above.

Sounds as if he needs a kick up the ****!