How do you and your partner split the bills?

KS2008

Hi there,

I am a bit of a newbie so hi!

Myself and my partner live together and have done for a couple of years now. We have always split the bills 50/50, anyway we are going to be moving in with his mum next month (eek!) so that we can pay off debts and start to save for a house deposit...

Whilst in conversation about how he never has any money left he said it was because he earn a bit less than me but had to pay the same out (nothing to do with going out with the lads every weekend :cool:!!) so we start to talk about paying our monthly bills as an equal percentage of our wages.

I earn £21,000 per year and he earns £15,000. I am more than happy to try this method out, but just wondered what other couples methods are?

And whether other MSE's do think this is a fairer method?

I am not sure seeing as I will be the one who spends more.... :rotfl:

wannabehermit

I know of a few people who work it out as a percentage and then put another equal percentage share away for savings and then what's left over is theirs. It works for some, fair enough to those who do it that way.

I'm a bit old fashioned perhaps in that I see a marriage/partnership as equal and that includes the money. The bills are paid from whichever account has money in it at the time:D or if a DD is due out of one account then money is trasferred from the other one into that to cover it. Once we are able to have a joint account then simply all the income will go into that and bills, savings & other spending will just come from that. I don't believe in all this my money & your money business in relationships (except at the start of course).

turbo.jet

Hmmm, I'd be inclined to say 50/50 is fairer as presumably you use 50% of the utilities each?

As far as my finances are concerned, the amount I need for bills are put aside every payday and I don't consider that money to be mine - I even have a seperate bank account for bills. Spending money for 'nights out with lads' comes from what's left.

This would give him an incentive to better his career perhaps?

Maybe I'm being really harsh. If you are happy to do the percentage thing then go for it. When I lived with my partner he paid all the mortgage and I paid all the bills. We were both better off as a result.

loveGSDs

i earn more than my partner - approx 8k more but we split the bills 50/50 - each paying the same amount into a joint account with the rest in our personal accounts for nights out, cars, trips etc

having said that, we're saving up for a deposit to move and im saving way more than him each month so i suppose its swings n roundabouts :cool:

Miss_Orangey_Goodness

When I was with my ex we both put the same amount of money for bills/birthday presents/meals out in the "bills account" - what was left in our own accounts was ours. So 50/50

oldtractor

DH works so he pays for everything.

dell33

Everything we have is in joint names, everything goes into one account & all bills are paid out of this account.

PeedieKat

My hubby works while I stay at home and look after the kids. I tend to look after the money (he's happy this way) and we have joint accounts. All our income goes into the one account and then we transfer money into separate account that all the direct debits/mortgage etc come out of. He knows there is always money in our income account if there is something he needs and if it's a bigger purchase he checks with me to make sure the cash is there. Saying that, we have 4 kids so buying things for ourselves and going out don't feature that much for us anymore:o

Tixy

When ex and I first bought a house our salaries were approx 65 / 35, and at the time I could not have afforded to pay 50% of the bills. But to us it didn't seem fair to split them 65/35, and we compromised on 60/40 and he paid £600 into the joint account and I paid £400. Over time as my salary caught up his this changed to 55/45 and eventually 50/50.

OP in your situation as you earn 58% of the income, how about suggesting you pay 55% of the bills and he pays 45%, a middle ground really between your existing and new method.

We preferred to have our wages go into our personal accounts and then paid a standing order to our joint accounts, this means each partner has some privacy over their spending and personal situation.

I do think it depends on your long term goals together though and each couples situation, as to why one partner earns less - its obviously a different situation if you have kids than for a couple who do not.

KS2008

Thanks to everybody for the replies.

turbo.jet - my partner hasnt really had his LBM yet, so part of the reason I want to actually do it this % way is so that he sees it makes no difference - the difference is that he is not in full control his spending! As at the moment he is blaming other things and not honing in on the real reason! His job has good progression routes but he only came out of uni last year and needs experience before he can progress.

Tixy - thanks for that I will suggest that to him.

Archer0710

I am a bit late on this one. DH and I both work full time. We just have a joint account that all bills go out of as we constantly used to bicker about who paid what when we had separate accounts.

I tend to deal with the finances but tbh 50/50 seems fair in utilities and bills as I know in our house DH may earn more but he also eats more, his car costs more etc etc whereas I spend more on cosmetics etc so it probably evens itself out.

I guess it depends what your utilities /bills are.