Joint a/c's -good or bad idea?

FrankieM

I don't work outside of home. We have joint accounts but all savings accounts are in my name!
DH's salary goes into the joint account , covers all bills etc. I then sort out how much goes into savings...( try not to tell him how much though, otherwise he spends it!).
We each get £10 per week for pocket money thats ours to spend as we like. Maybe that would be worth looking at?

us,thecat&thedebt

Thanks thts made me giggle :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

piglet6

We have a joint account that all money goes in to. All household and joint expenses are paid from this account. From that we each get a set amount of money each month which is paid to individual accounts - this allows us to have "personal" spends, i.e. we can buy things for each other for birthdays/Christmas/anniversary without having to explain the outflows . It also covers evenings out with/collections at work, and if we have leftover money, we can treat ourselves with clothes/CDs/books/whatever, etc, without guilt.

This works for us because we take the view that we are a team . Everything we bring into the household is for the good of us both (and over the years, due to being a student (him _party_ )/opportunity for big-time profit share (him :j )/redundancy (me )/opportunity for lots of overtime (me :T ), etc, etc, our earning potential has fluctuated dramatically - sometimes I earn the larger salary, at other times Mr Piglet is the main breadwinner). However, because we are both working for "us", it doesn't matter who brings in the cash, as long as we have enough to cover the bills, and anything else is a bonus. :rolleyes:

Looking to the future, one day we hope to have baby piglets, in which case we would like for one of us to stop working at least for the first couple of years (most probably me...) but I would still be putting my fair share of hard work into the household (albeit not in hard cash income) so would not want to feel that I have "no money" at my disposal. The way we work things, I will still get an "allowance" and be entitled to my "fair share" of the "spare" spending money. I should point out that this "allowance" is reviewed regularly and is variable according to the "available pot of spare cash".

I'm not sure this would work for everyone, but it has worked for us for 12 years...

Piglet

laurahj

We had joint account for 20+ years. We separated for a short time and ended up with separate accounts.
When we got back together we decided to leave it that way which at first I found quite hard but now am happy with arrangement.
We both earn similar amounts ( me slightly more).
I pay all of the bills £ 900 + and save for the children. (£800ish left for other things each month)
He puts £250 a week in a tin which pays for food,going out,petrol and anything else we need (£650ish left over for other things each month).
It has worked well since last year and we share the cost of any other expenses that come up.( both save for hols/cars/xmas out of money left)
It also means we can spend our own money without feeling guilty.

:rolleyes:

margaretclare

Hi

My DH was cagey for a long time about the idea of a joint account. He'd had bad experiences in a previous marriage.

I convinced him, after I heard of a woman who was suddenly widowed, husband's estate was in probate and she literally had no money. When/if one of us goes before the other I wouldn't like to think of the essential bills being paid.

So we have a joint account just for the household bills, which all go out by direct debit between the 1st and 10th of every month. We both put into this account from our own personal current accounts. Best of both worlds, I think!

Aunty Margaret

Lucie_2

We used to have an account each, plus a joint one for household bills, but it got too complex, so now we have just one joint account that everything goes in & out of (we both earn the same, so no "inequalities" there).
Judi's story reminds me of Maggie in Angels by Marian Keyes. She has a "ladies nice things" account out of which to buy her make up & handbags without feeling guilty that she's frittering away the housekeeping!