Do you give you and your partner 'pocket money'

Grumpygit

We do this as well although we do take £216 each per month - he has his £50 weekly and I have mine monthly hence the funny figures.

I know it's a lot, but we can afford it. OH tends to mostly save his and buys his camera bits and pieces ie new lenses etc, mine.....I took a loan out to have laser eye surgery so I pay that out of mine.

Out of it, we have to save up and budget for gifts for each other ie birthday/anniversay/christmas - that doesn't come out of joint funds.

I know that it's a lot more than other people have posted on here, but our bills/mortgage are covered as well as savings....we are very fortunate.

Umistboy

Both wife and I are paid into our seperate accounts. However, we are focussed on saving a lot as we earn good money and don't want to squander it.

We keep £250 each for the month and transfer the rest to a joint account which pays for all bills, mortgage extra payments (we over pay by £1000 each month), savings etc.

Works for us and we can do what we want with our cash.

Treevo

We don't do that - I'm not surprised it's not going over well!

We transfer an amount for the house (bills, mortgage, childcare etc) over to one account with some extra just in case there's an unexpectedly large bill, and then at the end of the year we either use the excess to either OP the mortgage (depending on whether we've hit the limit for that year or not) or treat it as 'free money'.

We keep our savings separate from any day to day living expenses anyway so what's left in our current accounts is what's left over when everything else has been taken care of.

FBaby

It seems that there are two ways to go about it. Everything in one account and what's left over divided 50/50 as 'pocket money', OR agreeing a share amount for bills, one transfer into the other's account, and what is left over in personal account left to be spent freely.

I personally would hate the first approach, would make me feel like I'm still a kid, waiting for my pocket money before I can go spending but I understand that it works well for many couples.

Grumpygit

So how does it work for you then FB?

aneres

We call it budget money rather than pocket money. We both get £40 a week. I give DH all his for the month but I prefer to work mine weekly.

The budget money is for beer (him), wine (me), going out, clothes, games, takeaway etc. We have a separate budget for food.

thehappybutterfly

We're in a trust deed so have a very strict budget set by the deed administrator but we squeezed in a pocket money budget for ourselves of £25 a month each. We're not deprived as we have a clothes and toiletries budget (my personal weakness!) so this is for extras like a dvd or cd etc. I think its something you should have "just for you" so you dont feel like every penny goes on bills. Life is for living!

thehappybutterfly

our pocket is also used to buy each other birthday and xmas pressies.

Tiglath

DH transfers money to me on payday, I pay all the bills from my current account plus handle food shopping through the month, and we've worked out a budget in advance to allow us both the same amount of 'spending money' per month. Currently that's about £300 each. DH spends all of his without fail; I save a fair chunk of mine (some in cash, some in a stocks & shares ISA) and spread the rest throughout the month. I plot weekly cashpoint withdrawals into my diary spreadsheet for my personal spends. All coins except £1s are saved from my purse and paid back into the savings account every couple of months. We considered having the bills come from a joint account but DH is notoriously bad at keeping receipts etc and I'd never know where I stood.

Catty89

Thanks everyone, i should also mention we do have £100 that we share between us.

Its still very much a work in progress, i find that my money tends to go more on household things rather than clothes or things for me although i enjoy buying these things.

Next month we might try and share it all. I budget for food, baby stuff, petrol, bills, gym, and there is £260 left. Although with this we need to buy xmas, bdays and any savings.

I agree with some people i dont want to seem like his mum or make him feel like i am controlling everything so might try and be a little more laid back next month but just being paranoid about living outwith our means as we have no way of paying of debts really.