How do you spilt the bills with your OH?

tara747

I am living with my OH and we manage our money as follows:

Separate bank a/cs
Separate DDs for each share of the rent
DD each for electricity and cable/broadband

We food shop together occasionally, but the rest of the time we just take in in turns to buy food/household stuff. Our finances are more or less as they were when we lived apart! :rotfl:

Although I recognise that this may not be the norm and perhaps we will merge our outgoings in the future, I don't ever want a joint bank a/c even if we get married, I am too used to my own independence! Am I weird/unusual?

whitewing

Not weird, just doing what suits you.

DH and I have a joint bank account. All bills and spending comes out of that, no matter who earns what. That's just what suits us. It keeps our sending down. Neither of us take any money out without mentioning it to the other.

A lot of people have joint acct for the bills only. The amount each person contributes is a percentage proportion of salary, ie tot up the total amount of bills. If OH earns twice as much as you, he puts twice as much into the joint account.

There are some other threads on this.

Krystaltips

All the bills come out of my account each month and when OH gets paid he puts all the bill money (including savings) straight into my account. Whatever is left goes on food shopping and anything else that needs to be bought (currently christmas things) anything further left out of this goes into the new baby fund. Tax credits and child benefit get put into my account weekly and we use these to get through the week...

basill

Like whitewing we have a joint account, on payday we transfer an agreed share from our sole accounts to the joint by standing order and pay all the shared bills by direct debit from there.

We started doing this just for the mortgage and bills but over the years have altered the shares we pay in to suite our circumstances and gradually upped the overall amount so the joint now has a surplus/saving account which contains holiday money and emergency funds for new washing machines and the like.

We find it a good way of budgeting and it is much simpler than trying to divide each bill up as it comes in.
We retain the independance of our own sole accounts, no longer get hammered when a large bill comes in and sometimes when out for dinner agree the `joint` will be paying!

Hope this helps,

B

Skint_Catt

When OH and I moved in together last year we sat down and added up all the bills. He earns twice what I do so we split the bills 66/33 as it were. It all goes into a spare current account he had (didn't want to open a joint acc at the mo in case he is implicated in my debt when we go for a mortgage - I have a large loan in my name for my mum which she is servicing but she couldn't have got it in her own name). Food I tend to buy and pay for and then ask him for half/contribution depending on what I've bought (I'm dieting so buy and eat different things and more than he does as I have three meals a day at home).

C xx

princess

All salaries paid into joint account, all bills etc paid from this account. This joint account pays £125 per month into out own individual accounts, to buy our own personal things, that the other one really shouldnt have to pay for. Things like each others birthday presents, make up, magazines, lunches out when we are too lazy to make our own, cds, haircuts etc
Ive always felt that in a partnership, both of you should have the same amount of disposable income. Loads of people disagree with this it seems though. Most of my friends being of the opinion that women need a lot more stuff than men and as everything from hairdressing to underwear is more expensive for women, then we should have more.

basill

princess wrote: »

All salaries paid into joint account, all bills etc paid from this account. This joint account pays £125 per month into out own individual accounts......................hairdressing to underwear is more expensive for women, then we should have more.

Almost the exact opposite of our system haircuts might be more expensive for women but I drink more beer and buy more gadgets than my partner!

B

elle_gee

Krystaltips wrote: »

All the bills come out of my account each month and when OH gets paid he puts all the bill money (including savings) straight into my account. Whatever is left goes on food shopping and anything else that needs to be bought (currently christmas things) anything further left out of this goes into the new baby fund. Tax credits and child benefit get put into my account weekly and we use these to get through the week...

Similar to what we do..

We don't have a joint account (cos OH has a bad credit history and I don't want him dragging me down!); we each have our own current accounts, plus I have another one that all the bills are paid from on direct debit. We each put £250 in by standing order which covers all the utilities, council tax, phone, tv licence etc plus food and any other household things we need.

He only earns £200 a year more than I do (but gets overtime on top whereas I don't) but he pays the mortgage too (I don't contribute - his house before I was on the scene and I make no claim on it).

We need to reassess really as we need baby savings too but are trying to concentrate on getting our debts paid off.

tara747

princess wrote: »

Ive always felt that in a partnership, both of you should have the same amount of disposable income. Loads of people disagree with this it seems though. Most of my friends being of the opinion that women need a lot more stuff than men and as everything from hairdressing to underwear is more expensive for women, then we should have more.

Hmmm...

As the higher earner in our relationship, I'm not sure where I stand on this one! Your friends are right, women's grooming etc does cost a lot more. And I think that I've earned my disposable income to spend as I like.

Mind you, I do save a lot and these savings will eventually be used to buy a house - not sure what to do then either, as I will probably have a way higher deposit than him! That's another dilemma... where do you all stand?

Having said all this, I'm sure I would change my tune if we were married/had children, although a joint a/c for the bills etc is as far as I would go. I wouldn't want our salaries paid into the same a/c!!!!

One last thing. £125 seems quite low for all the stuff you mention princess (such as clothes etc). What exactly does the £125 cover?

Thanks. :T

hayley11

princess wrote: »

All salaries paid into joint account, all bills etc paid from this account. This joint account pays £125 per month into out own individual accounts, to buy our own personal things, that the other one really shouldnt have to pay for. Things like each others birthday presents, make up, magazines, lunches out when we are too lazy to make our own, cds, haircuts etc

You know this is a really good idea. We've recently applied for a joint account so once that goes through, going to get everything changed over and do this. Have to work out exactly how much we're allowed each month. But I do think this is a brilliant idea, we earn pretty much the same at the moment so it'll be fair. Thanks princess

bringmeshoes

i was in my flat before i met oh so all of the bills come out of my account and he gives me half of the bills every month, i tend to pay for most of the food shopping but thats because he tends to work away in the week but when he's home at the weekend he tends to pay more for the takeaways that we have. as long as the bills are paid our spare money we spend on what we like as i have a penchant for shoes & getting my hair dyed pink, he he likes to buy rare playstaion games so neither of us bother what the other spends their money on.
we are looking to buy a house after christmas and we may well get a joint account for the mortgage and bills then but will still keep our own accounts for 'our' money