couples and money

[Deleted User]

Yep i agree, i guess its because we are all so different, in age, opinion, background and experience. We are able to extract a huge amount of opinion at the click of our fingers these days, whereas 20 years ago, we consulted our nearest and dearest, so our advice was more limited.

TheCatCameBack

OH and I go 50/50.

Some people may find this unfair as I work full time and he has just been made redundant. He is happy with this though as I have has previous partners drop work and doss about the place doing nothing and paying for nothing. That will never happen again!

The broadband comes out of his account, everything else comes out of mine. All we have is rent, council tax (which is due to be cut owing to his benefits), gas, electric, water, food. The car is mine so I pay for all of that (he doesn't drive).

We used to live in a room in a house with friends and jointly paid out less than £300 a month. Circumstances changed though and we had to get out - luckily we moved into a beautiful (but v. expensive) flat but discuss bill shares etc beforehand. We knew we would be skint but we also knew what each other's outgoings would be.

We both have separate accounts, I also have 2 savings accounts (one which I don't seem to use). He has savings but doesn't use it all the while he's in his OD.

So that works for us, 50/50 and everything separate. However, I also pay for everything round the house (bookcases, sofas, curtains etc).

Sambucus_Nigra

epsilondraconis wrote: »

Perhaps I'm old fashioned; however I never really understand why married couples keep their own money (unless you can't trust the other person).

You could say that having separate accounts is more about trust than joint ones; as you are trusting that each other will pay their share without having an account to control it.

For us, I have a different method of dealing with my money and he likes to invest in the stock markets - and that's his money that he earnt that doesn't need to go to the shared cost of living so it's up to him how he spends it. I totally trust him to invest it wisely and to pay his share into our joint expenses each month. For him, he trusts me to save or spend mine wisely and to pay my share into the joint account each month. Likewise what I want to do with my money he trusts me to move it about and get the best interest rates as that's what I like to do. Plus I invest in other businesses and get returns from that. It's swings and roundabouts and it's what suits each couple - not a question of lack of trust at all.

rachbc

we have a joint account for bills that we both pay into, we each put cash into a pot each month for food and petrol and then whats left is our own for spending, saving, debts etc. All my friends where both partners work do the same

amyb_2

We both have seperate accounts for our money.

I buy all the bills, ren,t utlities, phone, net, council tax etc.

He pays for his mobile, and his car tax and insurance and also for Sky.

I take a small amount from him each month depening on what he earns.
The reason we do it like this is i earn a fixed salary and know exactly what i will be getting each month. His wage fluctuates - he is only on min wage and due to very little work around he only brought home about 400 in Jan/Feb. So there was very little he could contribute.

It works for us to an extent.
My BF is quite sensitive about not earning enough and hates having to ask me for money; but me managing our affairs he can spend what he wants an i just take whats left at the end of the month.

Kate78

Deleted_User wrote: »

We have a joint account for all our incomings, but from that we both have an allowance transferred to individual accounts for personal spending.

That way we aren't over spending on the joint account but we have a little privacy on what we spend our individual money on. Works well for us esp at birthday and xmas time as I deal the money, I would know where DH shopped and how much otherwise. Plus if he comes home with carp dvd's and modelway railway stuff, I don't care, its his money.

Replace model railway with model aeroplanes and that's pretty much us as well :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

GobbledyGook

I've never understood married couples (or even long-term non married couples) who end up with vastly different amounts of personal spending money because of their job differences.

Ex and I had a joint account and a personal account each. All money went into the joint account and all bills came out of it, along with any joint expenses like holidays, days trips, stuff for the kids.

Each month we transferred an amount into our personal accounts for us to do with whatever we pleased. Despite him being the "main breadwinner" we both took/got the same amount. There's no way he'd have ever accepted having loads more than me, just because his job paid much better than mine.

Friends of ours have a very bizarre, imo, set up where they each pay the same for everything. So because she earns less than him (and she was the one who took a step down the career ladder to move so they could live together and marry) he is going on holiday skiing with a mate because she can't "afford" it. Just baffles me.

Katexx

We have our own bank accounts, no joint account. All of the bills come out of my bank account. Whenever a bill comes, he sends me half the amount. Works fine for us because I'm better with money than he is and more organised...but mostly I just like to be in control of things, haha. I usually don't ask for money for food shopping because I earn more than him, but he'll pay for more 'treats' like if we go out for a meal or get takeaway. It works out alright for us - never had any issues or arguments over money. We each have our own savings accounts too. We don't share everything - he doesn't have a car and very rarely asks for a lift anywhere so all of the car expenses are mine alone, I wouldn't consider it fair to ask for anything towards that.

reehsetin

Joint account that pay goes in to, bills paid, individual regular savers/ISAs and a joint e-savings if there's anything left over

kbleigh

It took us a while to be at the stage we are now. But presently I earn one third of what he earns, so he pays 2 thirds of all bills, mortgage etc.. and I pay a third. This money is put into a joint account on the day that we both get paid. But we both have separate accounts for everything else. Hopefully once we are married (August this year) then the situation will be more like this one:-

Alikay wrote: »

Everything coming in goes into the pot, everything going out come out of that same pot. We take holidays together, agree big purchases together and everything we own (or debt we have owed) is considered "ours".

It's worked for us for 25 years.