Couple finances: How do you do it?

Manual_Reversion

Hello,

Following several conversations at work I thought I'd ask you how you organise your finances as a couple. [Apologies if this has been done a thousand times before].

If I may set the scene: We are a married couple aged 30, we earn quite different salaries. We both pay everything into a joint account and both draw from the joint current account for things we want, as well as the usual living costs. Neither of us are particularly extravagant. We rent; the rent comes from the joint account (by definition, as that's all we use for day-to-day expenses).

We only use separate names for tax purposes e.g. ISAs etc.

My experience of people at work is that generally they have joint accounts, and each have separate accounts for their own 'pleasures'. These 'personal' accounts are often secret from their other halves.

What do you do?

Gorgeous_George

We have a joint account to pay for household bills etc., which we fund equally (as we both earn similar salaries) and an account (or accounts) each for our own stuff.

My view however, is that married people only need one account.

GG

mark5

We have a joint account but my wife also has an account for herself which we transfer money to on a monthly basis. This money is hers to do what she wants with. I just withdraw money from the joint account if i need it but over the course of the year only spend a fraction of what my wife spends.

LilacPixie

We are a married couple but things are a bit more complicated that that. Home is mine from pre marriage. we have multiple accounts. joint acount then OH funds and uses joijnt account I fund and use Both of us also have sole accounts. I pay bills from my account and OH see's to petrol/diesel, food and his own mobile bill. whatever is left at end of month in his joint account goes to debt/savings

uzubairu

Married couple with a bill paying account which is funded monthly from each of our personal accounts. OH contributes more than me because he earns a bit more.
All bills, joint savings and holiday fund are funded from this account.

Whatever is left in our personal accounts is our own to spend/save on whatever we want (including petrol/car insurance), but is not kept secret.

dannymccann

Similar to above really:

Joint account=
Mortgage (got to get used to saying this instead of rent :eek: )
Utilities
Sky (phone, tv, bb)
Food shopping
C/Tax
TV License
House Insurances
Everything for the car (we share our one car to work, we work the same hours as each other in the same building, but different companies, worked out well didnt it!?!)
Pet Stuff

This comes to £600 a month each (because I earn 15.5k and she earns 15k), which leaves us with £300 / £400 respectively in our own individual accounts - which goes to savings the day before we get paid. But lets not forget, we also have the joint and her sole account with Halifax = 2 x £5 a month reward (and £50 x 3 for opening them in the first place!) so the Halifax gives us a nice interest rate on our current accounts I might put my current account over there as well, but I do like HSBC

pie81

My view is that once you are married, all money is shared no matter whether it is kept in separate accounts or a joint account. "All that I have I share with you" and all that. And because the money is shared, spouses ought to discuss and agree their spending habits/priorities, even if they keep their bank accounts separate. It doesn't really matter where you keep the money. That said, we have a joint account and I think it's a lot easier that way. Never seen the point of keeping things separate or secret.

solodanceparty

We used to have just one joint account, then he wanted to switch banks, i didn't so we had our own bank accounts. He paid some bills I paid others. Worked out better with us, since I have my own money to spend, he has his own.

solodanceparty

pie81 wrote: »

My view is that once you are married, all money is shared no matter whether it is kept in separate accounts or a joint account. "All that I have I share with you" and all that. And because the money is shared, spouses ought to discuss and agree their spending habits/priorities, even if they keep their bank accounts separate. It doesn't really matter where you keep the money. That said, we have a joint account and I think it's a lot easier that way. Never seen the point of keeping things separate or secret.

Actually, you're right. Even though we had separate accounts, we still shared money. If he ever needed any or if I ever needed any, we'd give whatever to the other. I'd pay for the meal out one time, he'd pay the other. I'd buy groceries one week, he'd buy the next. Nothing was a secret, it's just the way we preferred it.

Wobblydeb

Not at the stage of joint accounts yet, but when we do, we'll both put 60-70% of our monthly income into a joint account and keep the remainder for our own spends. The reason it is a percentage is that there's quite a difference in salary, so it seems the fairest way.

The joint account will pay for daily living costs and everything we do together - mortgage, household bills, food, holidays, cars, pets, presents to other people, joint savings etc.

We will use the personal accounts for everything we do separately, like hobbies/clothes/shoes (me) games/technology (him) and gifts to eachother. That way, there's no grumbling if I decide to invest £600 on a Mulberry handbag, or he blows £300 on the latest PS4...

miniemma

We have a current account each and a joint account.

We used to transfer an equal percentage of our earnings each into the joint account and all bills and mortgage were paid from there.

Then we got married and have a daughter, I took 5 yrs off work to bring up baby so OH upped the amount paid into the Joint account and all bills still paid from there.

Now I am back at work part time. On paper it still looks like OH still pays all bills as it's his money that goes into the joint account but in reality all income is shared. We pay everything other than bills by joint credit card and the bill is paid in full every month by pooling all available funds from all 3 accounts.
All activities for our daughter (swimming lessons, school trips etc) are paid out of my account. Anything left goes to overpaying the mortgage and into savings.