Confusion with who pays what!!

trampyblonde

Hi,

My Boyfriend and I have just moved into our first house. We both have our own bank accounts and also one joint account. The thing is, im starting to get a little confused with whats coming out from where. Also, we pretty much pay everything equally apart from the food shopping. We've not really discussed the best way to deal with this so I was wandering if you wouldnt mind giving me some advise as to who/how to pay for those joint things that we both benefit from.

Heres a list of what comes out from where at the mo (minus food shopping)

My Account:
£135pw - joint account
£20pw - OH account towards car finance
£34.80pm - sofa
£40pm - personal mobile phone
£12.50pm - BT phone bill

OH Account:
£135pw - joint account
£8.10pw - my account towards sofa
£180pm - car finance
£50pm car insurance

Joint Account:
£106pm - council tax
£750pm - mortgage
£20pm - house insurance
£14pm - contents insurance
£16pm - Broadband
£100pm - 4k loan


Now I think i've listed everything! What do you think is the easiest way to split the shopping (bearing in mind it's usually always me who does it so it would ba hard to say I pay one week, he pays the other!). Also, is this the easiest way to dea; with our finances?

You advise would be great! Thanks!

Susie :A

misswig

Could you not pay a bit extra each per week/month into the joint account aand pay for the shopping out of that??

pollyanna24

I just bung all our wages into the joint account and pay everything from that. Not sure if that is the best way or not. Okay, so he eats more than me and we have lodgers which also eat more than me, but I just set a budget of £250 on groceries and toiletries (toiletries for me and bf, lodgers can get their own!) and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

PS I also count our pin money as a monthly bill, and we have an allowance to spend money on what we like each month, saves fighting if one blows all their money on clothes.

This works for us as we earn roughly the same, I clear about £100 more than him a month.

Probably the best thing to do is set a budget for it (when it was just me and bf, we had £160 a month) and put aside this each a month for your food. It's what we did before we pooled all our money.

trampyblonde

Thanks for the replies. I think the best thing to do is to pay some more each week into the joint account and pay for it out of that. We both have cards for that so we can both get the shopping then.

Only thing is....I really dont know how much we're going to spend. I suppose only time will tell really. Maybe around £160pm like you said pollyanna24?

:A

flea72

whos paying for utilities?

trampyblonde

Arrr I knew i'd forgotten something! That comes out of our joint account too!

miss_pink

Hi Trampyblonde, me and my OH bought our house about 18 months ago and after loads of moaning and unpaid direct debits we decided to add up everything we pay out each month and split it equally. It meant that I would be paying more out each month (as he had more debt than I did). Then every month id put my £400 into the joint account and he would put his £400 in. Off of that all the bills and mortgage and shopping were paid and anything extra was left in the accoung for rainy days. The rest of our wages were ours to do what we want i.e go for meals, buy clothes ect.

TBH i wasnt happy with paying the extra out of my wages every month as I had cleared a lot of my debt before buying the house so id have more to play with every month, but my dad sat me down and told me this was the best way as it is a partenership and we should help out each other.:rolleyes: There was no point of him struggling each month whilst i was going on shopping sprees.

If i were you id set up all your direct debits to come out of the joint and set up a standing order to come from your accounts into the joint each month. That way you know that whats in your personal accounts can be spent.

Hope this helps

grahamliza4

Get a joint account and pay all your money into it and pay for everything out of it too. Agree that you will consult each other for large or frivolous purchases. We did this day we moved in together - saves lot of arguments.

trampyblonde

Thanks guys, I think we'll sit down tonight and have a chat about it. I must admit, it's quite daunting having to change all of our DD into one account but I think in the long run it will be easier.

Im getting tired of checking all 3 account s each week to make sure everything is correct!

Thanks again!

:T

DustDevil

Hi there,

Here's what we do. We worked out how much we spend every month on ALL joint things (food, bills, mortgage etc.) then, depending on how much we both earn, we split the amount we each pay into the joint account by the same ratio as our pay (we both work full time at the mo so this works fine for us). So we each have the same proportion of our wages left (otherwise, earning less money I would have hardly anything left at the end of the month!).

Anything left over in our own accounts is ours to spend as we wish! Not that's it's much money mind, but I like knowing I can do what I want with it

DD

honeypop

Instead of having the money for sofa and car finance crossing over between your accounts and being paid for out of your personal accounts, how about having all joint bills being paid for out of the joint account and each transferring a bit more into the joint account to cover these? That way what you end up with in your personal accounts is yours each to spend as you wish without having to remember bills are coming out.

IE:
Bills to come out of joint account: (split equally like you already do, unless you wish to change it depending on if one earns a lot more than other)

Council Tax £106
Mortgage £750
House Insurance £ 20
Contents Insurance £ 14
Broadband £ 16
Loan £100
Utilities & Other £160 (guessing from the remainder in your account)

Also now include food £150 (example)

Than also out of the current account: (Amounts from your post, adjust as appropriate if incorrect!)

Car Finance £260 (your contribution of £80pm plus OH £180)
Sofa £ 70 (OH contribution of £35pm plus your £35)
BT £ 13 (currently wholly paid by you)
Car Insurance £ 50 (currently wholly paid by OH)

Total coming out of joint account = £1710 (rounded up a bit)

So each transfer into the joint account:

You £785 per month (£660 joint bills + 80 Car Finance + 35 sofa + 13 BT)
OH £925 pm (£660 joint bills + 180 Car + 35 sofa + 50 Car Insurance)

Total = £1710.

You both pay out exactly the same each month as you currently are doing (now including food shopping) but without all the confusion of money changing accounts between you weekly, just to the joint account once a month (or if you still want to do it weekly, you £180pw, OH £215pw).

I know this sounds long-winded, but it's a lot simpler way to do it and you know what's left in your personal accounts is yours to spend how you each wish. Hope it makes sense! If not, let me know and I will try and explain what doesn't make sense!!