Sharing a car with girfriend

Lum

Works for me and my partner. We share the bills gas/rent/elec/water/food/adsl etc. and pay our own way for everything else, car, commuting, mobile phone.

That way there's no arguments about "irresponsible" spending on gadgets. My disposable income is mine and hers is hers.

When times are tougher, e.g. if one of us is out of work then obviously we support the other until they're back on their feet, but that's the exception not the norm.

pendulum

cutandshut wrote: »

You sound like a tight git. She's your girlfriend for goodness sake.
My advice to her would be to get as far away from you as possible.

All he's trying to do is find a fair way of splitting the costs of a shared vehicle in a way which suits both him and his partner. I can't see how that makes him tight. If he was that tight I doubt he'd have said this: "I cant expect her to pay for all the petrol as the only reason she lives 22 miles away from work is for me."

I'd like to see his girlfriend come on here and tell you where to stick your 'relationship advice' as well.

spiro

You say you are living near your job because rents are cheaper, 2 questions -
How much per week are you saving on rent by living there instead of living near her job?
Who pays the rent?

JournalGirl

Some of these responses are a bit picky at the OP.

He's not being tight, he's already said that he doesn't think it's fair to give her all the petrol costs when it was their decision to live near to his work. He's also said they're both on tight budgets, so it makes perfect moneysaving sense to work this one out up front rather than argue about it later when each thinks the other should be contributing more.

OP, you chose to live in your town because renting was cheaper, so I think that you should add the car costs (insurance, petrol, repairs etc) to the household rental costs and split everything 50/50. When my OH and I moved in we opened a joint account, each put the same in every month, and ran everything household from that.

dannymccann

Depends how long you have been together or how serious you are I guess, we have been together for 7 years (only 23 though).

We have a joint account (halifax reward, £5 a month cashback too) and we both pay in £600 a month into it, this covers everything we share like mortgage, c/tax, gas and leccy, food and our single car, leaving us both £550 a month in disposable income to spend on what we want for ourselves, meaning we dont get in to debt over stupid things like monthly bills and everything is budgeted for that stays the same on direct debit.

As for your insurance, again depends how old you are, at 23 my 6 years NCB against her 0 (never had her own car) means a yearly saving of £800, so even if I wasnt the main driver it would still be insured in my name until we get a bit older / she gets her own car, which would then obviously be insured appropriately. I'm not telling you to break the law, but there's plenty of ways you could argue against the main driver accusation (maybe you do more miles at the weekend socially?)

Tinks74

How do you work out who a main driver is if there are 2 cars and 2 drivers and they operate on a first come first served basis i.e. neither driver insists on driving a particular car, you just take whichever car was easiest to get off the drive in the morning?

I'm not being delliberately obtuse here, but it is more of a genuine question as it is how my partner and I operate and we are both named drivers on each other's policies. Would a multicar policy be the answer?

Flyboy152

pendulum wrote: »

All he's trying to do is find a fair way of splitting the costs of a shared vehicle in a way which suits both him and his partner. I can't see how that makes him tight. If he was that tight I doubt he'd have said this: "I cant expect her to pay for all the petrol as the only reason she lives 22 miles away from work is for me."

I'd like to see his girlfriend come on here and tell you where to stick your 'relationship advice' as well.

Surely if they were both committed to this relationship and truly want to called it a partnership, they should just pool their money and take out all their expenses from that. Isn't that what normal couples do?

Olokia

I have exactly the same situation. He owns the car but I use it for work as there is no bus for me to use.

My OH paid for the car but we each pay half of everything else. Fuel, MOT, service, repairs etc

pendulum

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Surely if they were both committed to this relationship and truly want to called it a partnership, they should just pool their money and take out all their expenses from that. Isn't that what normal couples do?

They are only boyfriend and girlfriend, they're not married. I personally think it is an awful idea to set up joint accounts and split every expense whilst early on in a relationship (pre-marriage stage). If/When they are both ready to commit to sharing everything, then perhaps they will... in their own time!

Now to answer your question, some "normal couples" will share their resources. Other "normal couples" choose to remain quite independent with their finances.

nearlyrich

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Surely if they were both committed to this relationship and truly want to called it a partnership, they should just pool their money and take out all their expenses from that. Isn't that what normal couples do?

Why does it have to be that way, whatever works for a couple is right for them and who wants to be "normal"?

My DH & I only share an account for household expenses, other than that we don't pool our cash. It's worked for us for around 22 years and we have never had a row about money.