How do you budget with your other half?

getmore4less

You might benefit from doing 3 SOA.

One for All the joint stuff.

Decide what is joint and what is personal

One for each of you that covers the personal stuff.

It might be some thing need adjustment form one to the other.

You can still have the slush fund spend it on what you want but going over everything may help your OH understand budgeting a bit better.


Credit card payment?
Does he have debt or is that just spending?


Most of the time the problem is people don't know where the money goes.
One you do it's priorities.


Question like why are car repairs joint but the loan in the person need to be addressed.

Sea_Shell

Also, what, if any, pension provision are you both making? Is that already included in your monthly "savings" figures?

Rich1976

GetMore4Less - the credit card payment I mentioned of 130 per month is repaying existing debt. This is due to finish in December and then we will have no more card debt ( hopefully )

Seashell - as regards pension provision we both have Nest Pensions with work on auto enrollment. Mine and my employer contributions total 108 per month and his is 80ish I think but could be wrong as it has only just started.

In addition I pay into a pension with HL of 156.25 per month gross and is in additon to the 485 allocated to savings.I am also looking to start an investment ISA in the New Year of a further 100 per month.

We each have been paying into pensions for over 20 years and my total fund value is 67k and his is 71k

edgex

Rich1976 wrote: »

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

Surely once the credit card is paid off, he will have extra spending money.

Why does he want more money now, & not at a known point in the future?

Rich1976 wrote: »

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

Spending must have increased to have ended up with an overdraft. (& credit card debt)

That's where the issue is.
So, the spending needs to be identified, & dealt with.

For September, do a reconciliation;
he keeps all receipts of purchases
for those where there is no receipt given, a note is kept
Once September is finished, get a statement & match everything off
for anything where there isn't a receipt or note, identify it.

At the end of the process, every single item on the statement must be accounted for.
Then spending can be properly identified & categorised.

ratechaser

RelievedSheff wrote: »

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.

Yep, that sounds like my situation.

AKA, it's all hers

Seriously though we have joined at the hip finances, we are both on decent money, I was just lucky to have married a wannabe accountant. So all the double entry bookkeeping is done by her, I know exactly where it all is, and I am the one keeping an eye on good new accounts to open/switch to as needed.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

We have our joint account. It is our money. Savings are joint as well. BoPsie gets her £10 a weak whine allowance on top!

Takmon

Rich1976 wrote: »

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.

From what you have said it all sounds perfectly fair and you have a decent amount of money each to spend considering you both earn below average wages.

Like other have said sit him down and show him how everything is budgeted and show him how you are actually subsidising his lower wage because you earn more. He only takes home £1312 a month from what you have said so he's doing well to have £558 a month to spend after bills and savings and that's only because you have taken the time to budget properly.

He should also considering ways he can earn more money, maybe changing jobs.

getmore4less

Seems some don't bother with a budget, planning in advance what you will be spending.

not very helpful for the op that wants to budget.

Rich1976

Takmon wrote: »

From what you have said it all sounds perfectly fair and you have a decent amount of money each to spend considering you both earn below average wages.

Like other have said sit him down and show him how everything is budgeted and show him how you are actually subsidising his lower wage because you earn more. He only takes home £1312 a month from what you have said so he's doing well to have £558 a month to spend after bills and savings and that's only because you have taken the time to budget properly.

He should also considering ways he can earn more money, maybe changing jobs.

Yes we realise we are more fortunate than a lot of people on similar salaries. Partly due to not having kids but mainly because we sold our first house and bought our second at a good profit. Our Mortgage is only 400 a month for a 220k house so this helps offset the lower than average salaries. Our household expenses ( joint ) are currently between 43 and 45% of total combined income.

As regards his job he has taken on a higher paid salary about 5 months ago which is 1500 more than previously. Unfortunately admin based jobs are limited to how much they will pay. I dont however think the salaries are a problem as we have a good work life balance and it's only because I keep a detailed spreadsheet that is fully categorised that I know how much we have going out every month.

Rich1976

So a couple of positive outcomes since the weekend. Firstly he has agreed to review his £44 gym membership as that is coming to an end beginning of October and has potentially found a better offer at £15 per month. He has also agreed to limit his monthly massage/treatments to 6 to 8 weeks and try and try and not impulse buy so frequently.
Part of the issue is communication but then he has never been interested in finances and therefore wouldnt be able to tell you how much the Bill's are. Hes happy to,leave it to me but equally needs to learn that you cant just tap your debit or credit card and to have a continual pit of money.