How do you manage your joint income?

Sadie23

Another vote for sole account each and one joint account for household costs.


OH earns more than me, we have our wages paid into our own personal accounts then will transfer an amount each into joint account to cover all monthly living costs included the weekly food shop.


If we go out for dinner, then we will take in turns paying out of own money, OH earns more than me so he tends to pay but I still like to pay my way too! Or if we know we have some money knocking about in the joint account we can also use that.


He has a company vehicle that business pays for, but we then share a personal car. He purchased the car, but I am main driver so I pay for petrol/insurance/tax/MOT/Services.


I am the budgeter in the household but I always ensure that OH understands exactly what is happening, and why because if anything were to happen he would need to know how its all working. We both enjoy spending our money on our hobbies/socialising ect, but don't see the need in seeing every penny each other spends especially when Christmas/birthdays come around its nice to have no idea whatsoever.




different strokes for different folks

Mojisola

Nevermind309 wrote: »

I am sure she would work it out...

It's always worth doing a trial run to see if things would work - if you were seriously ill in hospital, I doubt your OH would want to spend lots of time working out how to manage the family finances - better to be familiar with it all before an emergency happens.

copperclock

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Genuine question - if you drop down dead tomorrow, can she pay the bills until such time as the bank release the contents of your account to her?

Due to reading this post we've just added my name to my husband's account, so thank you!

Gilly1976

I actually find some of this quite sad really. My wife and I have 4 accounts. A current account for day to day expenses, a bills account that covers all household bills and car loan, one savings account for additional earnings outwith the 'living money' we leave in the current account and a regular savings account.


I earn more than double my wife but we're a partnership and we pool our money. I earn a bonus every year that generally pays our summer holiday. My wife works part time as we have 2 kids. I don't see why I should 'keep' my earnings when we decided as a couple that we would have kids and she would reduce her hours. Prior to getting married and moving we had our separate accounts and a bills account.


We budget for everything and use our combined funds for nights out, clothes, meals etc. We always know in advance what we can afford and both know what's in our accounts (although I tend to be the one checking).


I don't understand people that say 'my' money and 'your' money but everyone to their own and as long as it doesn't cause arguments or antagonism then fair enough (however that's not been my experience when speaking with friends).


We have talked about having a small monthly 'pocket money' outwith the budget but to be honest we can generally get what we want, as long as we have the money, so pocket money won't really make a difference to that

enthusiasticsaver

Nevermind309 wrote: »

funnily enough she is actually 3 months pregnant, we are saving a years worth of mortgage payments by her due date so we don't have to worry about the mortgage, she will be receiving approx £580 per month after the first 4 weeks - I am paying all other costs which would normally be split down the middle and any money she makes doing hair at home/outcall is hers as it always has been, so in answer to your question, no she will not have to ask me for money as me taking over the utilities/council tax etc will see her with about £200 on top of her statutory maternity pay plus hairdressing money she makes, see....it can work both ways!. Horses for courses and all that..

How do you pay for food and other general household spending then and if your wife pays do you pay her back for half? It is not only general utilities which need paying for. There are car and house improvement costs, pension savings (if she is on reduced income and I don't think hairdressing is a well paid occupation) and other costs like insurances, replacement white goods etc etc.

What about things for the baby or childcare when smp finishes? SMP only lasts until the baby is about 9 months old. Do you have the conversation then about what bills she will pay and which ones you will cover?

How do you work out entertainment/holiday money if you go out together? Do you pay half each?

It just seems very complicated to me to organise your finances completely separately when in all other respect you are a couple especially when there is a large disparity in income.Each to their own I guess.

The reason we do our finances jointly with the same spending money in separate spending accounts is when we had children both of us worked full time and earned roughly the same. When I moved to part time he earned considerably more than me due to the fact my hours had decreased and I dropped a grade due to the fact part time senior jobs weren't available then - this was 30 years ago.

My husband always made the point I was more financially literate and had more time so he wanted me to organise budgets, paying of bills, setting up utilities etc and sort out pension and savings arrangements. As I moved to part time his income was more than double mine so the easiest and fairest way to us seemed to be a joint account for all joint household spending and that included entertainment, meals out as a family.

A separate account for each of us where we both had access to spending we did not have to declare to the other, say for gifts for each other, clothing, personal entertainment and hobbies etc meant we were both happy. I am not sure I would have been happy were he to have a large bonus at his disposal to spend what he liked on when I was scratching around trying to find money for kids shoes. Also negotiating every little bit of expenditure would have been extremely trying.

pandy19691

I think different ways will suit different couples. For us all our money is pooled in joint accounts. All wages go into one, we leave enough in there for direct debits, then we have a separate account which we use for food and everything else.

Honeysucklelou2

I think the keys are openness/ honesty, effective communication and agreement. These might sound very obvious things and one would hope that they are present in committed adult relationships but sadly in some cases they are not.

Teacher2

My husband and I have been together since 1977 and very quickly set up a joint account. We keep an account book through which every penny goes so we can see from day to day exactly how much we have. We put in joint salaries (well, mine's a pension now) and take out the standing orders for the month straight away so we know that the amount we have is disposable, not committed, income. We share incoming amounts, bills and savings in common. We have paid down our mortgage using our Virgin One Offset Mortgage and have also borrowed against it when we have needed to although we aways pay this 'borrowed' money back quickly.

This works because we are both prudent and frugal and because we trust one another and, unlike friends of ours, we do not indulge in 'revenge spending' where, if one buys something, the other spends up to that amount to keep it 'fair'. We just buy what we want and need. My husband is always trying to get me to buy more but I am perfectly happy with what I have and only buy when I can get a bargain. In turn, I indulge his expensive shoe habit as I like to see him smartly turned out.

My dear daughter and her boyfriend have bought a house together and what works for them is to have separate accounts and also a joint account into which they both pay for the mortgage and household bills. She is a bit more 'spendaholic' than he is though they both save as well.

I guess the way you organise your finances depends on your respective attitudes to money and on the amount of trust you share.

Nevermind309

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

How do you pay for food and other general household spending then and if your wife pays do you pay her back for half? It is not only general utilities which need paying for. There are car and house improvement costs, pension savings (if she is on reduced income and I don't think hairdressing is a well paid occupation) and other costs like insurances, replacement white goods etc etc.

What about things for the baby or childcare when smp finishes? SMP only lasts until the baby is about 9 months old. Do you have the conversation then about what bills she will pay and which ones you will cover?

How do you work out entertainment/holiday money if you go out together? Do you pay half each?

It just seems very complicated to me to organise your finances completely separately when in all other respect you are a couple especially when there is a large disparity in income.Each to their own I guess.

The reason we do our finances jointly with the same spending money in separate spending accounts is when we had children both of us worked full time and earned roughly the same. When I moved to part time he earned considerably more than me due to the fact my hours had decreased and I dropped a grade due to the fact part time senior jobs weren't available then - this was 30 years ago.

My husband always made the point I was more financially literate and had more time so he wanted me to organise budgets, paying of bills, setting up utilities etc and sort out pension and savings arrangements. As I moved to part time his income was more than double mine so the easiest and fairest way to us seemed to be a joint account for all joint household spending and that included entertainment, meals out as a family.

A separate account for each of us where we both had access to spending we did not have to declare to the other, say for gifts for each other, clothing, personal entertainment and hobbies etc meant we were both happy. I am not sure I would have been happy were he to have a large bonus at his disposal to spend what he liked on when I was scratching around trying to find money for kids shoes. Also negotiating every little bit of expenditure would have been extremely trying.

She is better off working from home than the money she receives in from the salon she is employed at to be honest. Food budget is £240 a month which we each put £120 into a jar in the cupboard.
Going out we tend to take it in turns who pays for things and it to my knowledge works out pretty much equal so no problem there.

The second part i have made bold is a bit of an offensive assumption isn't it?! She certainly won't be ''scratching around'', we have never worked it out but i imagine if we did she would actually earn more than me over the year with all her work from home she does/wedding hair etc and that includes any bonuses i get, and that doesn't bother me just like it doesn't bother her

Nevermind309

Also something I didn't mention, my wife likes to be up to date with her phones and pays £XX.00 odd per month to have the latest phone, I get a brand new car every 6 months that I pay for (obviously), my partner owns her own car, why should my wife incur a cost because I get a new car every 6 months? my wife is pregnant so when she does go out it's to meet her friends for a bite to eat and is always very cheap, when I go out I spend a lot more than she does as I tend to go to Newcastle/Leeds to a nightclub and generally it involves a sleep over in a hotel, so...do you think she would be happy with me out at least once a month taking £150(+?) out of a joint account while she spends £25 meeting her friends for afternoon tea? No, of course not hence why we decided once the house stuff is sorted our money is exactly that, our money. I am not going to tell anyone how they should be running their finances as it is a personal choice.