Joint bank account

maman

skimper wrote: »

When my Finance first moved in .....

Freudian slip??:rotfl:


DH and I like the independence of having separate accounts. Both of us spend mostly on our (separate) credit cards for personal and household items and then once a month he transfers money to me for his half of the household stuff. That's because I see to it that the bills are paid on time otherwise, left to him, we'd be paying interest.


I think what matters is that you have a system that works for you. DH and I have different spending habits. He buys lots of things for a hobby of his whereas I'm more likely to save and then splash out occasionally. For the poster who thought haircuts were a joint expense: my hair costs £100 a time but DH's costs a tenner. I think that would build resentment if it was from a joint pot.


Fortunately we've both got very similar incomes and I had very little time off with the children so we've always contributed 50:50 to the bills. I think I'd find it very difficult if DH had to subsidise me.

Hemera

NBLondon wrote: »

I'd say it's only a household expense if more than one household member can/will benefit from it. So food items are shared (even if only one of us likes it) and everyday toiletries can go on the general budget - it would be silly to quibble over a couple of quid for shower gel or say "You can't borrow any of mine if you've run out". But m'wife buys her own contact lens solution and makeup and I buy my own shaving stuff. Clothes and shoes are individual purchases- unless you are called Grayson and Phillippa :-)

Well I would feel kinda uncomfortable if my partner went around naked and barefooted, so I guess I kinda benefit from his wardrobe spending? Setting aside the hyperbole, I just wouldn't feel comfortable not sharing those expenses arising from necessities. If he needs a new pair of glasses or a new clothes since his are worn - I prefer to share the expense with him, instead of having my OH use up all of his money, while I have a generous portion of my salary lying around, and he feels the same when it's the other way round. But it is just a matter of choices (and habit), so I understand perfectly that some people might want to do things differently).

I do admit however that I kinda think that buying your own contact lenses solution / shaving sounds very strange to me We buy these things during our weekly shops normally, together with food, house toiletries etc and I would never go through the receipt to see what's his and what is mine :eek:

maman

Hemera wrote: »

I do admit however that I kinda think that buying your own contact lenses solution / shaving sounds very strange to me We buy these things during our weekly shops normally, together with food, house toiletries etc and I would never go through the receipt to see what's his and what is mine :eek:

We differentiate between basic stuff bought from the supermarket (like mouthwash and shampoo) and stuff that comes from say a cosmetics counter like after shave and perfume. I suppose one is a necessity, the other a luxury.

june89

My in-laws are the receipt checking type, and they get quite petty about it. I remember one conversation not long after DH and I got together where they were calculating how much wine they'd each drunk to split the cost of a £5 bottle down to the penny.

Anyway, he hated growing up in that environment so the one thing he insisted on was a joint account with no mine/yours discussions concerning money. So we've had one since a few days after we were married which all income/expenses go through, and it works for us.

FBaby

Me and my husband are a team.

Having a joint account doesn't make you more a team than not doing so! The reason why some couples prefer separate account is nothing to do with considering that the money their earn is theirs only. OH and I have just spent many years managing our money and we just like to be in control of it. I personally would hate to look at the account one morning, see there is £600 left, plan to stick to £100 spent until next payday so the rest could be saved, to realise that OH had spent £300 on something that I thought wasn't totally necessary. I don't want to be accountable for everything I spend, at the same time, I wouldn't want to spend money I didn't think wasn't mine to do what I want with.

I think many couple resort to having one joint account where both income goes in that is used to pay the bills and then each have their own disposable income to spend as they wish. That is not that different to our arrangement, instead, we just decided that one party give X sum to the other each month.

I also understand that some couple discuss every single item spent over £10, so everything is spent in agreement. I personally would hate this, as would my OH, I like my financial freedom and buying something as I see it without feeling I need to speak to my OH about it, but again, if you are the type of couple who do everything together, it makes sense.

Primrose

We have a "His" and "Hers" joint account and our respective incomes go into the separate accounts. My OH has a higher income than me so he takes care of the domestic bills from "his" joint A/c and I look after the savings and my my personal bills like car and mobile phone bills feom "my" joint account. We never argue about money. We have similar views on how we handle it but this allows us the freedom to have individual personal spends and of course protects us if one of us were to die, still sllowing us access to each account.

brianh

I have always found it odd when I hear other married couples have separate accounts. Perhaps it is a generation thing, we've been married 40 years and always had joint accounts. For the first 18 years, OH didn't work, and until retired only worked part-time, so perhaps that set the scene.

Obviously other arrangements do and can work but the powerful statement of joint interest has never given us a big problem.

Loz01

I don't find separate accounts weird at all - its your life, do what you want!! If you and your OH are happy, ignore everyone else.

selement

We have both. Our incomes go into 1 account, then we have separate accounts for our 'fun money' for the month. We completely share the money, I make £400 a month more than my partner but we totally share because it's our money not my money. We are saving for things and paying off credit cards a lot so we only get a little 'fun money' each anyway. We had to start managing that separately though because he kept overspending which kept leaving us overdrawn so that happens much less now!

FBaby

I think it comes down to this, whether having separate account mean that you consider you have your/their money, or whether you consider the totality of it our money, but just like some freedom to have control over some of it.