Sorting food budget- seperate for you/OH? how?

thriftylass

rebekahR wrote: »

We dont have children together, our money is not joint. My income is mine and his is his... paying for my own food thus seems to make sense

I take it you don't live together then. Or if you do, how do you split other bills? He might be showering more etc.

Our money isn't joint either despite having a child but not being married. So we split the bills according to our income i.e. 40/60. He pays the mortgage I pay the food and so one, so that both have about the same % amount come out of their wages for bills. Sometimes maybe not fair (e.g. I would choose a cheaper TV package but that's his bill and will change soon) but then I'm better at food shopping and he'll eat what he gets (obviously not an option in your case I know).

I guess whatever works for you as long as it's a mutual agreement and both are happy.

claire16c

burnoutbabe wrote: »

I just can't imagine, having got together with my partner in my late 30s, suddenly sharing a bank account and never quite knowing where i was financially. Much simpler to just keep accounts seperate, both budget for the bills at start of month and then split credit card at the end before it needs paying.

If you both earn the same, there doesn't seem to be any benefit in combining finances, and a ton of downsides as well.

What do you mean not knowing where you are financially? You look at your joint account balance, what else is there to do? It's easier to know infact as you only have the one account to check!

The benefit is that I don't spend time splitting bills and making payments back & forth.

There are no downsides for us.

rebekahR_2

We do live together yes!

I have to eat a restrictive diet (no dairy etc) and hes very strict with his food, so it can get pricey in this way. I dont have high earnings so have to be very careful with my budget

sharing the food budget wasn't working out for me, I just could not afford it and was ending up in a pretty dia position each month! Were doing it on a basis 1 orders 1 week, then 1 the next, then 1 the next..But just too much. Pricey items like berries and expensive yoghurts just too much for my own budget right now

Hope this makes more sense !!

BugglyB

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

See I just can't get my head around this? I find it odd that you think it's odd that couples pool their money together. Not meant as a criticism, just my opinion.

Like Mojisola says, what would you do if the SHTF and one of you couldn't work, or was made redundant etc?

I am one of those who has separate finances from my husband, I don’t really understand this question.

If we had a situation like that we would do what we always do when life throws us a lemon, which is sit down together, discuss different strategies, listen to each others opinions, think about it and then decide a way forward together.

FBaby

The benefit is that I don't spend time splitting bills and making payments back & forth.

It doesn't have to be like that though, I transfer the same amount of money at the same time each month. I have to say that I do find it much easier to know where I am with my balance without checking it every day or even other day knowing roughly in my head what I have spent and where I most likely am. I would hate to have to look at how much there is left in the joint account, to decide whether I can spend £50 on something because my partner might want to do that to and there is only £50 left in there.

Georgiegirl256

BugglyB wrote: »

I am one of those who has separate finances from my husband, I don’t really understand this question.

If we had a situation like that we would do what we always do when life throws us a lemon, which is sit down together, discuss different strategies, listen to each others opinions, think about it and then decide a way forward together.

What I meant by that question was, if one of you suddenly had no income coming in, what would happen then? The hubby and I are now in that situation, I got made redundant, he now pays for everything and doesn't mind doing so, tbh, as he earns about 4 times as much as I ever did, he's always paid for the majority of things anyhow, I paid what I could month by month, and we took turns getting a food shop in, and even though it probably would have been cheaper for me to pay for my own groceries/toiletries etc (he puts way more in the trolley than I do, and he has quite expensive tastes), we've always just chucked everything in the trolley and paid for it as one.

But having read Rebekah's last post, I can understand how their situation works better for them.

paulineb_2

rebekahR wrote: »

We do live together yes!

I have to eat a restrictive diet (no dairy etc) and hes very strict with his food, so it can get pricey in this way. I dont have high earnings so have to be very careful with my budget

sharing the food budget wasn't working out for me, I just could not afford it and was ending up in a pretty dia position each month! Were doing it on a basis 1 orders 1 week, then 1 the next, then 1 the next..But just too much. Pricey items like berries and expensive yoghurts just too much for my own budget right now

Hope this makes more sense !!

Or he could put a bigger proportion of his money towards the joint shop as he earns more. Would also make sense.

continualdiamond

Interesting read....

My husband and I share everything we earn, it's just 1 pot as far as we're concerned, so yes we have a joint bank account.

I am paid monthly so we worked it out that my wages covers the living costs for the roof over our heads.

He was paid weekly so his wage covered the food shopping, fuel for the car and anything else we wanted/had to pay for that particular week.

My husband is an extremely fussy eater, but he doesn't buy his own food and then me my own. It's just all done as one shop.

My husband for ex doesn't eat cereal so therefore doesn't drink milk, doesn't eat pasta or rice, but its not like these things are missed off the shopping or he insists I use 'my' money to buy them. I just put the amount in the trolley that I need.

My husband was unemployed from February this year up until 2 weeks ago and cannot imagine saying my money was my money and his £71 a week job seekers was his. Everything each of us earns is just 'ours'.

Mojisola

continualdiamond wrote: »

My husband and I share everything we earn, it's just 1 pot as far as we're concerned, so yes we have a joint bank account.

My husband for ex doesn't eat cereal so therefore doesn't drink milk, doesn't eat pasta or rice, but its not like these things are missed off the shopping or he insists I use 'my' money to buy them. I just put the amount in the trolley that I need..

I would find it very difficult to do anything else than this.

If a couple split food costs because they eat differently, do they also pay different amounts towards, say, the water bills because one likes full baths every day and the other has quick showers or different amounts towards the internet connection because one plays on-line games and the other hardly uses it?

If they don't split other costs like this, why is food such an issue?

Lagoon

Mojisola wrote: »

I would find it very difficult to do anything else than this.

If a couple split food costs because they eat differently, do they also pay different amounts towards, say, the water bills because one likes full baths every day and the other has quick showers or different amounts towards the internet connection because one plays on-line games and the other hardly uses it?

If they don't split other costs like this, why is food such an issue?

Regarding bills, we split them 50/50 for the most part as it's an essential and impossible to measure. In winter, because I want the heating on when he's happy to layer up, I pay whatever additional expense appears on our bill.

If I were happy with a slower internet connection and he wanted faster then yes, he would pay the extra. As it is, when he said he was going to upgrade to fibre optic I felt like the benefits were worth my money as well, which meant that we split the cost.

I don't watch TV. I actually pay for our license purely because I've had one since before I met him, and he didn't have one back then, though this is the anomaly for us. If he wanted any extra features, he would pay. He's paid for his Lovefilm account in the past, and if he wanted to keep Sky when they started charging us (we get it free, but who knows how many more years this will continue), then that would be another cost for him.

I know it obviously sounds odd to many people, and we perhaps take splitting money to the extreme, but it works for us and it really isn't any extra effort.

I think the idea of it being extra effort comes from a 'joint account' viewpoint, but look at it not as splitting money that SHOULD be joined and more as two individual budgets in the first place. Him paying for Sky wouldn't affect me, because it would never be a part of my budget.

The only place people really 'notice' it is with the groceries because those are done together, I guess. We don't walk around the shop with two different trollies - OH just knows how much he needs to give me, sends it my way at the start of the month and that's it.