How do you manage your joint income?

abby1234519

We used to have a joint account but closed that when husband started a DMP.

My wages go into my account, his wages go into his. He pays me his wages. I give him £250 at the start of the month (sounds convoluted but it's because he is paid 4 weekly)

All bills come out of my account.

EVENTUALLY we will have a joint account and it will all go into that, and then we will have our personal spending money in personal accounts but it won't be proportionate to what we earn, it will be fair and equal.

LKRDN_Morgan

1 joint account. Husbands salary and mine paid into this account. All bills come out. What's left is ours.

I can't understand the logic behind having 1 joint account for bills then 2 separate accounts for whatever's left. What happens if you go out for dinner? Who pays? Him or her? Does the other then have to transfer 50% of the meal back to the partner who paid? Seems really odd in a marriage

EssexHebridean

LKRDN_Morgan wrote: »

1 joint account. Husbands salary and mine paid into this account. All bills come out. What's left is ours.

I can't understand the logic behind having 1 joint account for bills then 2 separate accounts for whatever's left. What happens if you go out for dinner? Who pays? Him or her? Does the other then have to transfer 50% of the meal back to the partner who paid? Seems really odd in a marriage

Well with a proper budget, it's really quite simple.

If we go out to dinner together, it comes from our budget for joint entertainment.
If I go out to dinner with friends of mine, but not MrEH - I pay.
If Mr EH goes out to dinner with friends of his, but not me - he pays.

See - how easy is that? of course, if you don't have a budget that accounts for things like entertainment, then that's a whole other slippery slope...

fromtheshires

LKRDN_Morgan wrote: »

1 joint account. Husbands salary and mine paid into this account. All bills come out. What's left is ours.

I can't understand the logic behind having 1 joint account for bills then 2 separate accounts for whatever's left. What happens if you go out for dinner? Who pays? Him or her? Does the other then have to transfer 50% of the meal back to the partner who paid? Seems really odd in a marriage

I am married and we both have single accounts. If we go out for dinner we just take it in turns. Sometimes you have a big bill and others you have a smaller bill. Its just how it works out. Yes it could be manufactured so every time I pay its a four course meal and every time he pays its Spud-U-Like but its not.

Its the same with food shopping, each taking a turn every week. This week it cost me £22 for the weekly shop, next week it may cost him £40 if the rarer things like toothpaste / bleach that we dont buy every week are needed, but it balances out in the long run.

The only time the other person in our relationship would pay money is if it was a new sofa etc and then its jsut a case of oh can up bounce the money over when you can. It helps we are chilled about this I guess

abby1234519

LKRDN_Morgan wrote: »

1 joint account. Husbands salary and mine paid into this account. All bills come out. What's left is ours.

I can't understand the logic behind having 1 joint account for bills then 2 separate accounts for whatever's left. What happens if you go out for dinner? Who pays? Him or her? Does the other then have to transfer 50% of the meal back to the partner who paid? Seems really odd in a marriage

We use an app called Splitwise to track things. The reason we have separate accounts for personal spending is that husbands freedom and so do I. He doesn't want me judging him for spending £100 on snacks in a month (but oh do I judge anyway)

If we go out for food, one of us pays and enters it on splitwise. If I ask him to go get me some chocolate whilst he is at the shop, well that needs to come out of my personal money. But if he pays then he adds it to splitwise. Over the month it works out who owes what, and then at the end of the month one of us probably owes the other some money and so pays that back. We are really rigid about not encroaching on each others personal money as we are quite defensive of it.

ManicRower

LKRDN_Morgan wrote: »

1 joint account. Husbands salary and mine paid into this account. All bills come out. What's left is ours.

I can't understand the logic behind having 1 joint account for bills then 2 separate accounts for whatever's left. What happens if you go out for dinner? Who pays? Him or her? Does the other then have to transfer 50% of the meal back to the partner who paid? Seems really odd in a marriage

Either:
- We pay it out of the joint account
- If my wife's had a particularly rubbish day, or a birthday or I just fancy 'treating' her in some way, I would pay for it out of 'my' pot of money.


Playing devils advocate (whilst admitting there is no right or wrong way), if all money is shared in a single joint account, how do you sort birthday/Christmas presents for your significant other? As surely that person has effectively paid for half (or whatever they proportionately contribute) of their own present?

Poppy3008

We have a joint account, a few in fact, one for all bills which hubbys pay gets paid into and a current account which mine goes into. I sort it all out. But even though my husband earns a lot more than me, it's always been our money. We still have our own private account, out of laziness mainly! I use our own accounts to allocate money so it's out of the way now - electricians fees to me, campervan money to him. For birthdays and Christmas, I use the jount account as husband never looks at it and I transfer money to his personal account if he wants me to or he uses his credit card. I have come across many a wife when I worked at a bank whose husband never let them near their money and gave an allowance (my sister included) - not for me thanks! And my husband agrees.

Mojisola

Poppy3008 wrote: »

I have come across many a wife when I worked at a bank whose husband never let them near their money and gave an allowance (my sister included)

And this causes so many problems if the husband dies first - the widow is left with no knowledge of their financial affairs and no experience of managing money.

Nick_C

My OH and I have separate accounts.

We drew up a budget nearly two years ago when we bought our first property together. I pay all the major expenses from my account, my partner gives me an agreed payment each month. The budget gives each of us a surplus income.

I reviewed the budget recently as the mortgage repayment has dropped slightly and I am paying less for utilities than I had expected, and dropped my partner's contribution.

Any big items that we have not budgeted for, we usually split 50/50.

I would hate to have a joint account. I manage my accounts to maximise the amount in interest bearing current accounts, and keep just enough in the non interest / low interest bearing accounts to cover direct debits.

I also want us each to feel we can do what we like with our surplus monies, and not feel we have to account to each other for every penny we are spending.

EssexHebridean

Mojisola wrote: »

And this causes so many problems if the husband dies first - the widow is left with no knowledge of their financial affairs and no experience of managing money.

Happens the other way round just as often. Something for all those on here saying how their other half has "no interest" in the finances to think about - you're doing them no favours in the long run. Insist that they take an interest, and gain a working knowledge of what goes where, when, and for what.

A point a lot of people have missed - just because you have sole accounts for personal spending doesn't mean that you can't see the household finances as "joint" money. It's perfectly possible to have both - just requires a certain degree of trust. If that trust isn't present, then perhaps there are bigger questions to be asked.