How do you split expenses in your household?

maginot

When I was first going out with my OH, bills were split 50/50 even though I earnt more. I don't think income should matter, otherwise it could cause resentment from the the higher earning partner. If the person had to share with someone else they would pay 50/50, so why should a boyfriend/girlfriend think they should pay less?
Now we are married all money is paid into a joint account and we each take £200 a month for our own spending funds. Also if any of us do overtime we also get to add this to our funds, this is fine as we expect to support each other and be together forever, but before you reach this stage in your relationship it should be split equally.

VestanPance

I'm single now, but previously we had a joint account all bills came out of and a joint saving account for things like holidays/emergencies. The money going into those was split on percentage of earnings.

Anything left over was in our own accounts for us to spend as we wish.

antrobus

Giddytimes wrote: »

My view was always that the split should be according to % of total household income. ...Is this fair?

Well yes. But splitting everything 50:50 on the basis that you were enjoying 50% of the benefits of the spend would be just as fair.

Giddytimes wrote: »

It also makes me uncomfortable that I'll only be paying about 33%, yet any future house purchase will be 50% mine.

Well you might think that, but a judge might take quite a different view, should it ever come to that.

Giddytimes wrote: »

I want to have this conversation with him but I'm not sure he will see it the same way.

You should indeed have a conversation with your OH, but I suggest you have the conversation on the basis of discussing what arrangements you should make for your future household expenses, rather than presenting them with your predetermined solution.

How anyone else splits their household expenses isn't really relevant to your situation. Of course I quite understand what you're doing. You've already decided what you'd like to do, and are hoping that a number of random strangers will agree with you, thereby bolstering your resolve to do so. But none of that matters, it's only your opinion and your OH's opinion that matter.

Mojisola

Giddytimes wrote: »

Do people who just use a joint account for everything not find this causes any issues? For example I can't imagine my OH being overly pleased when I spend £45 on a haircut, but to me this is budgetted for and I'd rather cut back in other areas.
I also am not sure I'd be able to bite my tongue if my OH were to go and pee £100 up the wall on a night out with his friends. :rotfl:
If these things are coming out of our own accounts, after all bills have been paid, then there is no need to mention it to each other.

princess wrote: »

All wages pooled, everything financed from this joint account.

£125 per month paid from joint account into our own personal accounts for our own personal things eg presents to each other, evenings out independently from each other, hair cuts, clothes etc

Giddytimes - if how personal money is spent would cause arguments, the system princess uses would be best for you.

We have pooled all our money since we first got together. That's what works for us.

BugglyB

I earn a lot less than my partner because of the job I have chosen and the hours I have chosen. So why should we have the same amount of disposable spending money?

We contribute 50/50 to household bills and mortgage etc.

I appreciate it would be different of course if we had a family.

Dear_Deirdre

Me & my husband know how much our rent & bills come too and we pay a set amount of money into a joint account to cover this, it's a 70/30 split, as he earns much more then me.

Other then that our salaries go into our own accounts and I have no visibility on his spending and vice versa. Although sometimes I try and encourage him to save as he doesn't at the moment, however he gets so annoyed if I discuss this, so I let it go.

vroombroom

everything is split 50/50 in our house - even though OH earns a lot more than me. We have our own accounts and the bills/rent come out of one account.

x

Mojisola

BugglyB wrote: »

I earn a lot less than my partner because of the job I have chosen and the hours I have chosen. So why should we have the same amount of disposable spending money?

It's everyone's choice how they arrange these things but, to us, we are partners and share our lives. That includes the money that comes into the household.

make_me_wise

We have 2 joint accounts and then a few individual accounts each.

One of the joint accounts is for all our bills, which we have set up on direct debit. Everything from utilities, council tax, phones, TV license, sky, broadband, insurances etc. We are both a bit mse ocd so check regularly that we are getting the best deals on things. We split whatever amount needs to go into this account 50/50.

We have another account that covers food which we put into 50/50.

After that our money is our own. From our own accounts we pay for things like petrol or travelling expenses, clothes, hair cuts, entertainment, birthday/xmas gifts, car tax, mots etc.

We each have an ISA account that we put the maximum in to each year. We also put the same amount each month into an emergency fund and a holiday saving fund.

We do have credit cards but use them for emergencies only and pay them off in full each month from our own accounts.

It helps that we both earn very similar amounts I guess, although to be honest I had never looked at it that way. I like that we contribute equally to the household expenses. That said though I wouldn't like our finances to be completely joint. I am a very independant person and enjoy being able to go and buy what I want/need without having to ask hubby if it is okay with him first. We trust each other to be sensible with money and not get ourselves into debt.

debtdesperado

I think the best way is to split the mortgage 50/50, but the rest of the bills are then split proportionally to income. That way you both own half the property so you are protecting yourself (and reducing arguments) if you ever split.

Also don't forget a 'joint savings' amount, which you can either split equally or proportionally.

In my experience, things seem to work the best when you can both move from thinking about what's mine and yours, to treating it as 'ours'...
That's not to say that everything is pooled (my ex and I found that we would overspend when everything went into the joint account as we would both look at the total and think, wow, loads of money!), but I think if the relationship is going to be a long term success, you need to see yourselves as a joint financial unit, otherwise you are just flatmates who sleep together.

Have the discussion...it's not really something to 'argue' about, but you need to know what everybody's expectations are before you go in.