How do you organise your finances with partner?

girl_withno_name

I'll soon be purchasing a property with my partner of about 5 years (not married) and I'm just looking for advice/opinions/suggestions on how people in similar situations arrange their finances?

At the moment we rent together, each get paid into our own separate current accounts and subsequently pay a set amount paid into a joint account to cover rent and bills. Everything else is our own to do as we wish (e.g. paying for activities, meals out, haircuts, petrol, treats!) and we both have our own savings in our own names.

HappyMJ

It works however you wish. If you live as if married then you should at the very least each have half of the disposable household income to do with as you please. So combine income pay the household expenses out of the combined income and then split the rest into each of your own current accounts to do with as each of you please including having your own savings.

That is my opinion and you will get a wide range of opinion if you are going to start a thread like this which has been done many times.

girl_withno_name

HappyMJ wrote: »

That is my opinion and you will get a wide range of opinion if you are going to start a thread like this which has been done many times.

Thanks for sharing your opinion

A wide range of opinions is exactly what I'm hoping for ... people may well suggest an option which we hadn't considered, but which would work for us.

mgdavid

if the partnership is to work and is intended to be long-term then start making it look like a partnership, not two people sharing a house but having 'mine' and 'yours'.
Salaries into a joint account, bills paid from same. Agree an amount of cash each for day-to-day expenses (pocket money) and agree an amount to save too. What's left can be split into separate accounts if you must, but better to leave it in one place and just keep a rough check on where it goes so that one (dominant or selfish) partner doesn't spend it all on themselves.

psychopathbabble

I don't have anything to add, but I will be reading with interest as I've just moved into my boyfriends flat and am having to learn how to be 'joint' with everything. I've never lived with a boyfriend before so I'm very much used to 'mine' and 'yours' and keeping everything very separate!

floss2

As we have quite differing salaries, we each pay a percentage of the bills into our joint account based on our income. We then each save the same amount and what's left is ours, to spend as each wishes on things like football matches (DH) and clothes & "stuff" (me). We feel that this is the best way for us as all the bills related to the house or us (life insurance, car insurance, housekeeping, pensions etc) are paid jointly, we're both saving for whatever is being saved for, and we can each have a pot for frivoulous spending.

girl_withno_name

floss2 wrote: »

As we have quite differing salaries, we each pay a percentage of the bills into our joint account based on our income. We then each save the same amount and what's left is ours, to spend as each wishes on things like football matches (DH) and clothes & "stuff" (me). We feel that this is the best way for us as all the bills related to the house or us (life insurance, car insurance, housekeeping, pensions etc) are paid jointly, we're both saving for whatever is being saved for, and we can each have a pot for frivoulous spending.

Interestingly, we used having quite different salaries as an argument for pooling everything - so that one half doesn't have a much better lifestyle than the other, I imagined this could cause friction within the relationship...

martinthebandit

girl_withno_name wrote: »

Interestingly, we used having quite different salaries as an argument for pooling everything - so that one half doesn't have a much better lifestyle than the other, I imagined this could cause friction within the relationship...

Exactly, I can see no other way of doing it that doesn't result in an unequal partnership.

determined_new_ms

we have a joint account for joint expenses and pay a proportion into it in relation to our incomes, the rest is ours individually. I earn more so put more in, but it also means I have more money. I would totally be up for us just having a joint account and pooling our money but my oh doesn't want that!

Gra76

When I moved in with the missus we started out having a seperate account that we paid a set amount into each month to cover all the bills.

We had our own personal accounts as well. Whatever we wanted we bought from our own personal accounts.

This worked out quite well for a while but then I found the missus was racking up debt on credit cards and store cards and was starting to get bogged down with meeting the payments. She asked me if we could have a joint account and just pay everything into that and have the bills come out of the same account.

After a short period of resistance I agreed to it - after all, I enjoyed buying whatever I wanted whenever I wanted it. The way I looked at it was that we were married and it really should be a 'communal' pot for both of us. Even if I did earn a fair bit more than she did.

We now have a one joint account. I tend to look after the pennies on a regular basis and we paid all our debts off some time ago. Day to day purchases are ok but if either of us want to make a 'large' purchase we check it's ok with the other first, and I always make sure we have the money to do it first.

OP - Until you're married what you're doing is what we did. Keep it that way till you have a ring on your finger!

tattycath

We have separate bank accounts at the moment, however, we both pay a share of the bills. If I'm short OH will put money in my account and if OH is short I transfer money over-everything is viewed as very much joint.