Couple finances: How do you do it?

Person_one

We are in our mid twenties and live together in the flat we own jointly, no marriage plans, we earn similar amounts, him a little bit more than me.

We each get paid into our own current accounts then pay a set amount each month (both the same) into a joint account. The mortgage and all the bills for the flat come out of that and there is a little bit of surplus building up in case of a giant bill or something unforeseen!

We keep our savings separate but are hoping to make a lump sum overpayment on the mortgage soon. This will be 50/50.

Things like food shopping, eating out, entertainment stuff we're pretty laid back about, we roughly take turns paying but don't keep track. I'm fairly sure it works out even in the end.

Nothing is 'secret' but we don't open each other's bank statements or anything like that. Luckily the only debt we have is the mortgage and our respective student loans.

chappers

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I was once in the bank with a friend of mine and she was transferring £2.50 into her husband's bank as he had paid for something of hers on his card.:eek:

Up to them I know, but there is no way I could be doing with that.

We too have friends like that.

My wife and I have similar incomes but I, being a self-employed builder get paid at irregular intervals, we have a joint account for bills, into which ,every month my wife pays into to cover all of our direct debits. Everything else she has she can do with as she wishes, but I pay for everything else, e.g food shopping, when we go out together I always pay , I pay for all our holidays, including her annual girls long-weekend away, if we are out together and she wants to buy shoes etc I usually pay, same with regards to present buying etc, I also cover car expenses such as repairs and servicing.
Basically she covers the regular bills and I pay for everything else.

ET1976

miniemma wrote: »

I too know married couples who 'lend' each other money. I really don't like hearing them saying "You owe me ££ for that"

Whilst I agree that the £2.50 scenario is utterly ludicrous, sometimes there is a good reason for the lending. Example - my husband has a company car, I don't have a car as I have no need of or use for one as a rule. Occasionally I borrow his car if I need to transport some heavy gear (I'm a musician part-time), so then I 'owe' him the expenses from that trip as all his car payments are taken care of through his salary, rather than out of a joint account or anything. I just give him the cash for the rough amount the journey has cost, rather than factoring it into what I put into the joint account.

So yes, sometimes friends may see me in the pub handing over £10 I owe him, but it makes sense in that situation. I don't think it's being petty as I'm earning money which I wouldn't be able to do if his job wasn't financing the car.

Edit - I'm talking 100 mile journeys here, not 5 minutes round the corner!

Squish_21

Me and my bf have a joint account which all things joint including the mortgage and bills come out of. We transfer an equal percentage of our salaries to this joint account on pay day each month to cover outgoings. We also have a joint e-savings account which we save a little into each month to cover us for emergency's e.b boiler breaks down.

Whatever we have left in our own current accounts is ours to spend & save.

If we ever got married the arrangment would stay the same.

niklepic

We have a joint account that both our wages get paid into and bills come out of. I get paid on the last day of the month and all bills come out on the first so my wages are basically the bill money and his are our savings/spending money for the month. I also have two separate accounts in my name. One for child benefit and the other for tax credits. Child benefit pays for school meals, trips etc and tax credit for child care. That way we never spend money that's not technically "ours".

OH has an ISA in his name but that we both contribute to. We keep meaning to make it joint and im sure we'll get around to it eventually!

seven-day-weekend

niklepic wrote: »

We have a joint account that both our wages get paid into and bills come out of. I get paid on the last day of the month and all bills come out on the first so my wages are basically the bill money and his are our savings/spending money for the month. I also have two separate accounts in my name. One for child benefit and the other for tax credits. Child benefit pays for school meals, trips etc and tax credit for child care. That way we never spend money that's not technically "ours".

OH has an ISA in his name but that we both contribute to. We keep meaning to make it joint and im sure we'll get around to it eventually!

I don't think you can have ISAs in joint names, but you could both contribute to one in your name as well!

LandyAndy

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I don't think you can have ISAs in joint names, but you could both contribute to one in your name as well!

That's correct, you can't.

mlz1413

I'm in a different situation as the house is mine therefore I pay all the bills, but I think sharing money depends on the individuals within the partnership.

I am very good with money and my fella is (IMO) dreadful, but he believes he is good with money. As we think of money differently (a credit card debt to me needs paying in full ASAP, he believes credit cards aren't in debt until you go over the limit allowed) I would never have joint funds with him as it would worry me all the time and that just leads to arguments.

niklepic

LandyAndy wrote: »

That's correct, you can't.

Whoops - oh well its the excuse i need to set up one of my own! Can't have him running off with some tall (blind) blonde and taking all of our money with him. :rotfl:

seven-day-weekend

mlz1413 wrote: »

I'm in a different situation as the house is mine therefore I pay all the bills, but I think sharing money depends on the individuals within the partnership.

I am very good with money and my fella is (IMO) dreadful, but he believes he is good with money. As we think of money differently (a credit card debt to me needs paying in full ASAP, he believes credit cards aren't in debt until you go over the limit allowed) I would never have joint funds with him as it would worry me all the time and that just leads to arguments.

Yes, I do think you have to have the same attitudes towards money and debt to have everything joint. It must be quite difficult to deal with.