Managing accounts

princess2102

Hi

Just wondered how you manage your accounts with your OH.

Me and my OH half will be debt free this month and beginning to save for a house. At the moment we have 3 bank accounts - our own each which our wages get paid into and also joint bank account.

Each pay day (I get paid on the 15th and he gets paid last Thursday of each month) I sit down and work out the outgoings (he leaves me with full access to his account - he's not so good with saving/ budgeting) and then transfer some money into the joint for us to spend on fuel, socialising etc. the only DD we have on the joint account is our pet insurance. All other DD's go out from our own accounts.

As we are starting to save for our deposit I am now wondering if this system is going to work when we have household bills to pay for etc.

Any advice would be great?!!

grumbler

princess2102 wrote: »

As we are starting to save for our deposit I am now wondering if this system is going to work when we have household bills to pay for etc.

What do you mean? Do you not have household bills to pay ATM? What is going to change? You'll just start saving money instead of paying your debts off.

mrgoggins

Hi, have had a joint account with wife all our married lives (32yrs),, we know what goes in, and goes out, has worked for us. Have only recently had access to some spare cash , and in recent weeks have opened at least nine separate accounts (with more to come) ,to accrue interest and perks, mainly by following these forums and MSE. Just do what works for you, but have a good look at whats available to get the most from your money from whatever accounts you decide on. Good Luck.

FireWyrm

FWIW, I think you ought to do it the other way around. You have a central account into which a fixed sum goes (your salaries) and your bills go out and then your own accounts for personal or ad-hoc spending. As long as you never spend from the Bills account, you'll never be surprised and you cant go overdrawn. You then bunt money out of the clearing account into your personal accounts after all the bills are paid.

SuperHan

We each have a sole account, which has our wages paid in to it, and we both pay a fixed sum in to the joint account on payday (I get paid the 20th, he gets paid every 4th Thursday).

The fixed amounts more than cover the bills going out by DD (by about £500), and then we also put discretional joint spending on there too, such as meals out, food, joint purchases.

I have a text alert so I know when the account drops below £200, and I log in to the online banking at least weekly so have an idea of how much is in there at any given point.

I have a CC that we are both cardholders on that gets paid out of this joint account too.

We both put our own spending on our own accounts, and in months of large joint purchases will sub the joint more money.

It's all very informal and flexible, but has worked very well for us so far!

princess2102

grumbler wrote: »

What do you mean? Do you not have household bills to pay ATM? What is going to change? You'll just start saving money instead of paying your debts off.

We live with my mum atm so only pay a small amount of rent and a little bit for food.

Thank you all for your replies - I tend to be leaning towards opening another joint account so that we have one for bills etc and the other for general spending - maybe just a cash card style account. Do you know if this will affect our credit rating?

grumbler

Extra accounts have very little effect, if any.
Joint accounts link your credit histories together, but you already have one anyway.

Racheya

Myself and the OH have just set up our system recently too. We both have an individual account that our wages are paid into (easiest for perks - using Club Lloyds atm) then we transfer the wage minus a set amount for personal purchases. Any bills/joint expenses then come out of the joint account.

We don't have a strict budgeting system as we've only just set this up, I'm planning to buy YNAB when it goes on offer during the Steam sale

mhmmhm

We have a joint account for house bills which we put a set amount in each month (I put in more as I get paid more), a joint account for food shopping, and a joint account for shared car expenses (which go out mainly annually like tax, insurance).

This leaves us both with enough money in our own accounts to do what we want with - spend, save etc.