What percentage should we pay individually toward bills?

saajan_12

As people have described, there's no right or wrong way to be equitable. So first of all you need to start with a discussion on what you both want / expect, and not assume that there's one 'correct' answer that your partner couldn't object to. 

IF you both agreed to put in the same % of your earnings towards joint bills, then to calculate it, you could 
- add up all your joint bills and divide that by the total salary between you. say that's x%
- then you pay x% of your salary towards bills and partner pays x% of their salary
- either pay your respective contributions into a joint account, or each pay certain bills that typically add up to approx that amount.  

Ebe_Scrooge

This question gets asked fairly frequently - see this thread for lots of different opinions: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6339224/joint-household-budgeting-conundrum-any-takers/p1

As always, what works for one person won't work for another.  And there's a difference between a new couple who have just moved in together and a couple who have been happily married for 30-odd years.  Probably different if you've got kids as well.

To my mind (and this is purely a personal opinion), the problem is always "how far do you take it" if you start apportioning percentages?

" I cut the lawn, so you need to pay me £20 which is what a gardener would have charged"

"I spent 4 hours cleaning the house, so you should pay me £60"

"I spend 6 hours a week doing washing and ironing, so that's £300 please, 'cos my hourly rate at work is £50 an hour"

OK, maybe a bit flippant - but you get my drift ....

born_again

You could also argue it is not who earns the most pays the most. But who uses the most pays the most.

Daliah

born_again said:

You could also argue it is not who earns the most pays the most. But who uses the most pays the most.

How would you define "use", who would you monitor it and how, and how much is the "use rate"? 

SandyShores

Shakin_Steve said:

All of our money goes into a joint account and then my wife spends it. ☹️

We were the other way around with my husband spending it, (and more) .  Finally put a stop to that, and for a few years we have been earning around the same and contributing equally to the bills account.  But DH has recently had a promotion so I'm leaning more towards option 2, it means his payrise will reflect  an increase to his personal money as well as increasing the bills account, so more to our joint savings and/or the mortgage OPs.

born_again

Daliah said:

born_again said:

You could also argue it is not who earns the most pays the most. But who uses the most pays the most.

How would you define "use", who would you monitor it and how, and how much is the "use rate"? 

That's up to them to decide.

Someone works less hours, spends more time at home so uses electric/heating more. Is it fair that the one earning more pays more, despite using less?

50/50 after all you are a couple. So should look at it in that light. I think that questions like the OP's is a start down the slippery slope to a split.

When you go out with friends for drinks, do you expect the one earning more to buy more rounds?

D924

50/50 for sure. Anything else will just create a toxic situation where one partner is essentially being paid to be in a relationship with the other...

biscan25

We officially pay in 50%/50% to the joint account despite me earning several times more. We agreed that that would avoid a dependancy situation as suggested by D924.
In reality, I'm much better with money than she is, and am aware that we need to build a buffer for unforeseen expenses and capital expenditure. So I bung in an extra £100 a month on the sly.

penners324

Joint account. Everything in, everything out of 1 account 

Ergates

born_again said:

Daliah said:

born_again said:

You could also argue it is not who earns the most pays the most. But who uses the most pays the most.

How would you define "use", who would you monitor it and how, and how much is the "use rate"? 

That's up to them to decide.

Someone works less hours, spends more time at home so uses electric/heating more. Is it fair that the one earning more pays more, despite using less?

50/50 after all you are a couple. So should look at it in that light. I think that questions like the OP's is a start down the slippery slope to a split.

When you go out with friends for drinks, do you expect the one earning more to buy more rounds?

Except 50/50 doesn't work when one person earns significantly more than the other.   Joint expenditure is likely to be commensurate with joint income - if one of you is making a decent wage you're probably living in a bigger house with a larger mortgage and higher bills.  If the difference is income is large enough, then 100% of one person's income could not be enough to cover 50% of the bills  - what do you do then?

One very common example of this is for women returning to the workforce after having taken a career break to raise kids and/or only working part time to fit around schools.

Working out fair proportion of each persons income to contribute to the joint expenditures isn't hard - especially as a couple should be trying to work together.