How do you split expenses in your household?

Miss_Bolan

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

I really like this idea! I have been trying to balance mine and OH's finances for ages - at the moment I keep track of everything, the house account, my account and his (otherwise he just keeps spending money until the card stops working, and is clueless about whether any DD's etc are due to come out of his account). I have been trying to find a way to have our own 'spending' money -I hate keepig track of everything.

It's not easy though, because of the things you can't plan for i.e. extra petrol/food, birthday presents - whose 'spending' money do these things come out of? I wish there was an easy answer (I suppose having lots of disposable income is the only way to avoid this problem )

Debbie_A_3

Like several others we have three bank accounts: both our salaries go into one joint a/c from which all bills and direct debits get paid. It also pays an allowance into two personal accounts. Well that's the theory. In practice we still end up shuffling money between the two individual accounts depending on who has run out of money.

To be honest, after almost 20 years of marriage, and three children, the concept of individual funds has vanished.

It is different though if you are starting out and you already have some money of your own (though in our case we were both students with diddly squat).

Solstice_Twilight

My OH and I pay 50/50 on all the household costs. We have separate accounts (everything was joint with my ex and this is how he managed to fleece me when we split, so I like the security of having my own bank accounts) and every month I tot up the direct debits and mortgage, and OH transfers half of it to me.
We each contribute to shopping and fuel but we're not rigid about these - some months I pay more fuel and he buys more groceries, some months I pay a vet bill and OH covers more diesel... it all works out fairly square.

When we have meals out or buy stuff for the house (i.e. when we were decorating our bedroom) one or the other of us will pay. It's not a big deal to us. We tend to keep a running total of what's in our accounts in our heads, and we're both open about how much money we've each got left so we tend to take turns with things like that. But it's all very informal, and it depends on which of us has the spare cash and gets our card out first!

plane_boy2000

I pay all the household bills which takes care of most of my pay. My partners income varies a lot - sometimes she earns more or less than me so her money is for creditcard / spending etc

Ex-Spendaholic

In our house, I do all the financial stuff. This is how we work.

My salary goes into joint account. It pays all the bills and covers the online grocery shopping. There is usually a hundred or 2 leftover andthis is left to build up and is used towards holidays etc OH although joint on the account never uses it in any way.

OH is self employed so we take drawings. this amount is a few hundred more than my salary but its nothing to do with percentages. This money is withdrawn in cash once a month. It is used for school dinners, kids activities, petrol, haircuts, days out, day to day costs of milk etc. I use those dinner money envelopes from the pound shop and put each child's weekly amount
into the envelopes at the beginning of each money so that its there on a
Monday morning. I buy petrol on a Monday for the week and usually any milk, veg, meat etc.

I have to say it's a great system and much better than the continual use of debit cards. Whilst it may seem an old fashioned way of doing things, it means we know what we have and what we are spending.

In addition I have one of those tins from the pound shop. I chuck in at
least £1 per day and open it on1 December towards Christmas. It's a
great help. At the beginning of each month I set aside for any birthdays Etc.

As for spends if ones wants something then we buy it if we have the money. There is no mine and yours going on. OH rarely buys anything in ashop, I do the buying for the whole family. He does have an ebay fetish though but this is virtually free as I sell stuff we no longer need and leave the money in paypal for him.

neverdespairgirl

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?

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

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

Having children really does make a difference - obviously, the year our son was born I earned a lot less, but I was pregnant with and looking after our baby, so we both saw our incomes as joint, and family money, rather than his and mine.

neverdespairgirl

Gloomendoom wrote: »

We don't have spending money. No need, within reason, each of us spends what we like, on what we like, without feeling the need to justify it to the other. We are both sensible enough not to break the bank, so-to-speak.

We don't have a set amount of spending money each, either. We both just spend what we want to, and as our ideas of what is reasonable are very similar, that's fine with us.

neverdespairgirl

nic_santorini wrote: »

My previous partner was not on this planet, we used to go food shopping and then get home and tick off the items on the receipt that he did not intend to eat or would only eat some of and divide each bill up!!! Only 1 reason why he became an X

I think a partner would only do that to me once........

BugglyB

Solstice_Twilight wrote: »

My OH and I pay 50/50 on all the household costs. We have separate accounts (everything was joint with my ex and this is how he managed to fleece me when we split, so I like the security of having my own bank accounts) and every month I tot up the direct debits and mortgage, and OH transfers half of it to me.
We each contribute to shopping and fuel but we're not rigid about these - some months I pay more fuel and he buys more groceries, some months I pay a vet bill and OH covers more diesel... it all works out fairly square.

When we have meals out or buy stuff for the house (i.e. when we were decorating our bedroom) one or the other of us will pay. It's not a big deal to us. We tend to keep a running total of what's in our accounts in our heads, and we're both open about how much money we've each got left so we tend to take turns with things like that. But it's all very informal, and it depends on which of us has the spare cash and gets our card out first!

Yes this is pretty much how it works in our house.

What shines through on this thread is that its not really about what the arrangement is, more about both peoples attitude to it.

My partner earns a lot more than me, by choice, and we split all bills and food 50/50, however he is very kind towards me in everything he does, he would never ever say 'I've paid for this you're not having any of it' and if I was pregnant or ill or not able to work he would support me, of course. Likewise if he was ill or unable to work or chose to have a break from work I would get a higher paid job or increase my hours to support him. We have discussed this.

I very much resent the idea that because we have separate finances we are less of a couple or a unit. Thats just inaccurate, really. There are all sorts of tales of woe on these boards about people who have joint finances but their partner does not care and goes out and spends loads when they have not enough to spend on nappies or when they have scrimped and saved for something else. My oh would never do something like that and neither would I. We support each other.

tattycath

We have our own bank accounts but all the money in all accounts is ours. I pay over half of the bills-though i earn less but if i want/need any more money he's quick to transfer some over to my account-we are in the middle of trying to decide on a better way but we don't want a joint account at this stage-(ex partner, csa etc)