Managing Finances in a Relationship

Northern78

That's the setup we have. Both wages paid into a joint account then 'spending money' transferred into our own personal accounts. Whatever is left in the joint account at the end of the month (never much!) goes into the joint savings account.

Mrs_Soup

We started out with salary paid into separate accounts and then both paid into a joint account from which household expenses were paid. The amounts paid in shifted a bit as husband started to earn more than me so he put in a bit more. Once kids came along though my earnings went through the floor and his have increased to the point where he earns more than 4 x my salary so we now do it the other way- all salary paid into joint account and pocket money amount paid out to own accounts by standing order. I console myself for this imbalance with the fact that when we combined properties mine had the bigger share of equity which he now has access to.

sulphate

When we rented, we used to earn quite similar amounts so we both just put half of what we needed into the joint account and had the rest to ourselves.

Now, I earn more than my husband and the amount he earns can vary enormously so we have a similar system to millysg1. We have an agreed amount that is the same for both of us, to cover luxuries like clothes and meals out. After we have both taken that into account my husband puts the rest of his money into the joint account. I top it up with whatever else is required. The rest of my wages go into the savings.

We don't put all the wages into the joint account and then put the leftover into the savings at the end of the month because I think that would encourage us to spend more from it i.e. buy more expensive food.

The amount of money that is put into the joint account every month generally only covers the bare essentials i.e. mortgage, bills, food. Anything extra like vet bills or house repairs has to come out of the savings. It means we're often transferring money from one account to another!

Newly_retired

We have separate accounts, but a joint account for the main regular household outgoings. We juggle other outgoings eg holidays, household appliances etc so that we more or less each spend the same.
After that, apart from a few personal spends and running my car, I save, but he spends on his hobbies. But as all expenses are fairly covered, it's up to us how we each use what' s left. Not always ideal, but it works for us.

Purplesky_2

To be honest, my partner and I earn vastly different amounts, and my parents have had difficulties with jpint accounts in the past. We figured out what our total bills were, split it proportionally and then figured out what combination of bills would make up that proportion. My partner pays for the car stuff, since he drives, he pays the mortgage and council tax is paid by me. This works well for us. We don't have any credit problems, but it would also work well for those who do have credit problems. We also have both our names on bills and the mortgage, so that if there is a problem, whoever has time can deal with the problem and we've never had trouble setting up a payment from individual accounts.

Tigsteroonie

OP you could:

Ask him for a contribution when you get an unexpected bill, and sit there while he goes onto his online banking and transfers it;

Help him set up a standing order into a savings account, so that you know he is saving regularly and not squandering all his spare money.

PeacefulWaters

There's no right or wrong answer.

But, like many others, we use sole accounts with agreed contribution into joint accounts to cover 110% of the cost of the bills (plus money being fired off to savings accounts for holiday, Xmas, white goods failing etc). Review every six months.

It may also be worth having two joint accounts. The second one with two direct debits on it. Then you can switch this one every few months from bank to bank bagging £100 incentives along the way.

saidan

We have a joint account-all monies come in and out of that.
I earn more, but dh spends more...I squirrel money away into a savings account and use for holidays etc and while dh could access that if he so wished, he wouldn't know where to start

ThinkPink

Me and my husband have our wages into our own individual bank accounts, we then transfer a set amount each month over into a joint account which pays all the bills, and covers things like car insurance x 2, car tax x 2, house insurance etc- anything that we pay annually. My husband pays slightly more into the account as he pays for the sky/ broadband and also because he earns more than me he also pays for the shopping (and usually ends up paying for any diy projects etc that we have). We also have a joint savings account that we both pay a small amount into each month which then pays for either a holiday or bigger house repair bills.

This works for us because I am the spender and my husband is the saver, but by doing it this way we know that whatever is in our own accounts is ours to do whatever we wish.

If we ever have a child we may need to reassess this, ie because my income would be reduced quite a bit, but at the moment this works well for us.

duchy

Why not have a budget for the emergency fund for unexpected expenses with a monthly amount for saving into the emergency fund treated as just another monthly bill you both contribute to