How do you budget with your other half?

RelievedSheff

We both get paid into a joint account and all of our Bill's and spending comes out of that account.

We dont have separate money. It all goes into one pot.

jaybeetoo

There have been some interesting radio broadcasts on this very subject. Check out the Money Clinic at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qjnv/episodes/player

Rich1976

Hi all

Thanks for your honest responses I really appreciate it.

Interestingly the running theme throughout centres around communication and yes this is probably the key area we need to look at.

Dreaming - you've summed up the situation perfectly thank you:T although not to the same extreme level as yours as apart from the financial situation the rest of our relationship is fine but I can relate to everything you've said.

He has agreed to sit down with me to look at the spreadsheet as I think part of the problem is that whilst i do show him it each month so he knows what his spending money is he doesnt appreciate why the savings amounts are what they are and is assuming I've just picked a random figure to impose control and tightness rather than being a reflection of what i estimate the costs to be that we are saving for.

The only area we can cut back on in the budget is food spending which averages 300 a month for 2 of us and includes cleaning products and toiletries. This is mainly because I cook everything from scratch and we have a lot of fresh items for lunches like salads or homemade soup.

All of the other bills have been reviewed and we have recently remortgaged to a lower rate and changed our energy deal.

So hopefully we can sort things out. The only thing now is to plan how his 250 overdraft will be paid off and decide on a plan going forward:o

StokieBecks

Rich1976 wrote: »

The only thing now is to plan how his 250 overdraft will be paid off and decide on a plan going forward:o

I think this is key to why the need for more spends has come from. Are daily fees for this into eating what they have for spends? Is it always maxed out?

Rich1976

Hi StokieBecks

His overdraft is fee free upto 250 and has been gradually increasing over the last 4 months as unfortunately his spending hasn't decreased to prevent it

[Deleted User]

So it’s not an income issue but a spending control issue?

Rich1976

Well neither of us earn anything close to the supposed National Mininum Wage. Our combined Net income is £2800 a month but is more than enough to cover our household Bill's and once the savings SO's have come out we are left with about 558 a month each. This then has to cover personal pocket money as well as our individual expenses.

So whilst I would say possibly an income issue it certainly isn't true in my case so I would say it's more of a spend problem.

Sea_Shell

Sorry, you have over £550 pm each to spend on yourselves!!?

What "individual" expenses have to come out of that, car payments etc?

Rich1976

In his case he has

Personal Loan for his car 155
Gym membership 44
Mobile 15
Health plan as he had a recurring back issue so it's for physio every so often part of which is claimed back 12.50
Credit card repayment 130

The remaining amount left is pocket money which covers fun and entertainment stuff

[Deleted User]

I would maybe suggest getting a SOA together and posting it back on here.

Is there any reason why you both cannot work more etc to pull more income in?