Family Budget

ciderwithrosie_2

We also pool all our money and always have done. I keep a rolling spreadsheet of all income/outcome so know at any given time what's left over for personal spends (which is not a lot at the moment tbh) - we don't have a set amount allocated to each. If anything needs purchasing, over and above the normal bills that month then we have a discussion about it.

Sambucus_Nigra

Riversong wrote: »

So you and your wife/hubby earn the same wage. Put half towards all bills each month. But say your OH has less 'free money' at the end of it. So thats money to spend how they want, on whatever. The reason they have less is due to child maintenance, debt from before you got together. You yourself have no debts or child maintenance to pay.

Would you equally split what was left over between you. Is it tough on them for having these outgoings? Or how would 'free money' be divided with you?

Depends - does the person in question want to pay towards their OH's child or debts?

fannyanna

My husband pays child maintenance and it comes out of our joint account. Part of the money that's paid out is mine as I subsidise him so that we end up with the same amount of spare money each month.

I'm happy to do this because he's my husband and we're a couple and share. Does annoy me though if I ever mention that "we" pay child maintenance. People are very quick to jump in and say that "he" pays maintenance and that I should mind my own business.

Brallaqueen

I think, not having been in this situation, I would support any non-res parent who is doing their duty to provide for their child. Family is important to me and supporting a child is, to me, the right thing to be doing.

Debts I have no sympathy for, oddly enough, so wouldn't be taking those into account.

LannieDuck

I think i'd see child maintenance as a bill, similar to council tax and utilities, so it would come out of joint. I would expect my OH to be working hard at paying off his debts, so would expect his free money to be severely restricted until they were paid off. As such, I'd probably pay for meals out etc.

I think it would be important for OH to pay off the debt, not me. If he doesn't go through the hard work of getting out of debt, what's to stop him doing it again? But at the same time we're a team, so I'd volunteer to cover more of the 'treats' until he was done.

Faith177

All bills are spilt between us i.e council tax, gas ect.

OH isn't living at home so I pay for my food. When he is home for the night he'll get dinner in this is only once every 2-3 weeks so not too bothered.

Eating out we take it in turns. Same with the animal food as that is about £80 a month.

Personal debt if it is from when we were together we pay together. Anything from before that is our own problem. Though I have paid OH's credit cards off for him twice now

However the tables are turning now and for the first time in our nearly 4 year relationship he is beginning to earn more than me so I'm hoping he'll help me out as much as I helped him.

As for child maintaince I think it depends on how you get on with the child. If you never seen them, don't spend time with them ect then he should pay on his own. If the child is treated as one of your children then I would say you should split it

maman

Brallaqueen wrote: »

I think, not having been in this situation, I would support any non-res parent who is doing their duty to provide for their child. Family is important to me and supporting a child is, to me, the right thing to be doing.

Debts I have no sympathy for, oddly enough, so wouldn't be taking those into account.

For me, it depends how the debts were incurred. If it was booze or fags, holidays or gambling then no sympathy. If it was perhaps legal fees or sorting out housing for his child then I'd feel differently.

rachbc

Perosnal debt is just that - I have debt form before my relationship and no way would I expect OH to subsidise it.

Given that Child Support arrangements are assessed on the NRP's income then imo its his/her's to pay. To those saying its a family bill does this not imply that the joint household income should be used to assess it? If my ex's wives income was taken into account we'd be loaded! But quite rightly its not

lowlitmemory

Rebecca01 wrote: »

Most definitely this.

Dont know your age or your plans etc but what if you had a child and were on maternity and your money reduced, or had to reduce hours for some unknown reason. Would you expect your partner to keep more free money then?

That'd be completely different surely as the child would be both of yours. In this case the child is the husband's non-resident child, not his partner's child.

Personally, we don't have any pre-existing debts or commitments, so it was easy enough to share everything. I genuinely don't know how I'd feel in the case outlined in the OP.

fannyanna

rachbc wrote: »

To those saying its a family bill does this not imply that the joint household income should be used to assess it? If my ex's wives income was taken into account we'd be loaded! But quite rightly its not

To an extent that is what happens with the old CSA cases. An NRPP's salary is taking into consideration to assess the housing element of child maintenance.