How to split bills - help!

NBLondon

Gavin83 said:

I’m married and we lived together for about 5 years before that. We both have our own bank accounts that we pay our salaries into and then we have a joint account that we pay the same amount into each month for bills. We also have a joint savings account as well as our own separate savings accounts.

Similar - set up the joint account with the mortgage; agreed on how much we would put it in each month (not quite equal but in proportion to salary difference) and review that every few years or if the joint balance didn't look healthy.  Initially excess went to overpay the mortgage and then to save for house improvements.

Maybe the fact that we married in our 30s and were used to managing finances was a factor; plus we didn't have children so there was never a major re-arrangement of incomes.  We know roughly what each other has tucked away but not the detail.  If either of us was struggling, we'd rethink. 

Bluegreen143

Haven’t read all the replies.

When I was a SAHM with no income, my husband put the majority of his pay (keeping a couple of hundred £ in his account for his own personal spending) into my account and I would do all the family budgeting etc and was free to budget whatever I needed for my own spending. Tbh I am pretty frugal so I didn’t budget an equal spending amount to what he kept as would rather work on our financial goals but that was my choice. Our budget was pretty tight at that point so I preferred to pay down the debt we had & then save once that was gone.

I started working again in Feb and we had a lot of discussions about what to do. My husband is a little fatigued of living on a tight budget after several years of being the only breadwinner, and is keen to have control over a bit more and just to feel he can splurge a bit now we have a higher joint income and no debts.

What we have decided is that when we get paid we each put 80% of our income into the joint account, and that makes up our family budget - bills, groceries, funds for car/home etc, our joint savings. Kids expenses I’m now taking from child benefit.

The other 20% we keep in our own accounts. In reality once I’ve budgeted a bit for my own phone bill and fun money I put the rest back into the joint savings, because I’m really focused on that goal.

My husband is free to spend his on what he likes once he has contributed an extra £50 to his pension (his pension fund is dire and much less than mine even though I didn’t work for a few years). But whatever he has left he will pop into the joint account towards one of our current goals.

We don’t have an even amount of spending money - he earns £2,000-2,200 per month, I work part time (26 hours a week) and earn £1,320. So he gets about £400 into his account and I take about £265. However, it doesn’t need to be equal. We both get what we need to feel good which is more important. Just as my husband was happy to support me while I chose not to work, I’m happy that now we have more flex in the budget he has the spending money he’s been really missing. We try to work as a team and be flexible in our approach as our circumstances change. If they change again (eg we had another child, or I took more time off after this 12 month contract is up) we would adjust our plan again.

So I don’t think there is any one “right way”!

hob_nob_bob

Ibrahim5 said:

I've got loads of clothes from the charity shops. A lot of the stuff is like new. You never know what you are going to find. Not sure if I have ever been seen.

I buy so much from charity shops, probably 70% of my wardrobe is second hand (and I have a LOT of clothes). I have zero shame in doing so and don't give a hoot if I'm seen