Couples who live together: how do you deal with bills when you're paid on different dates?

MSE_Laura_F

Hello folks,

I'm keen to know:

If you live with your partner and you have different paydays, does this affect how you pay your bills? If so, how do you deal with it?

Joint account experiences and suggestions are very welcome, but I also hope to hear ideas for couples who don't want to set up a joint account at the moment.

Thank you,

MSE Laura F

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

MSE_Laura_F said:

Hello folks,

I'm keen to know:

If you live with your partner and you have different paydays, does this affect how you pay your bills? If so, how do you deal with it?

Joint account experiences and suggestions are very welcome, but I also hope to hear ideas for couples who don't want to set up a joint account at the moment.

Thank you,

MSE Laura F

Surely the easy answer would be that person A takes bills 1 2 3 4 and person B takes 5 6 7 8 and they set up direct debits around their pay dates?! 

SunnyCyprus

My husband is paid on the 8th every month, I get paid every 4 weeks, so my payday moves bit by bit in the month. 
We had to live very frugally for about 3 months so that we could save up a month's worth of wages for upcoming bills. 

I have a savings account which I named "Holding Account", and the money sits in there until the 1st of the month when I transfer it all over to our dd account.  So it doesn't matter when we get paid, as we move money into the Holding Account on our respective paydays, and it all builds up and is ready to go on 1st. 

MovingForwards

No joint account.
Bills come out of my account just after my payday, OH transfers money to me on his payday.
It works for us, but probably wouldn't for the majority of people.

HampshireH

No joint account but we have a house account

OH gives me 50% and I pay it in. Bills are then paid

If you're paid different days get yourselves a month ahead so you always have a month in the account then it doesn't matter when you get paid as bills will always be covered .

otb666

Could not get a joint account because i had too much credit available on credit cards. So i transfer money via SO to his and all bills and spending come out of that. Been married 31 years and works for us.

Pebbles1986

We both have own accounts but keep a spreadsheet of what goes out of who's account, we spend majority on a 0% credit card each month and pay it off at the end of the month as we get paid again that way there's always money to pay the bills regardless and cash in the bank if we need it, the spreadsheet always shows a joint balance at the end doesn't really matter who spends what if one account goes low we just transfer money between each other 🤷 he gets paid the same day each month I'm 4 weekly but just works out we get an extra pay one month 🤷

Thrugelmir

Always had a seperate bills bank account. Makes budgeting very straightforward.

kaMelo

The best advice I ever had was to set your monthly bills up to be paid before you get paid.

The reality is it's not always possible to move payment dates to suit like that however the advice is still sound, essentially pay this months bills with last months salary. It then matters not who gets paid what, when or into what bank account and  you're not stressing either if the bank has issues/salary get delayed.

Lavendyr

When I lived with my now ex and we didn't have a joint account, we had certain bills come out of each account and a standing order from the other to cover the difference. Everything was set to come out after payday - e.g. standing order from OH came in the day after his pay, then the bills were set to come out on the 3rd/8th/15th of the month. 

Now I have a joint account with my current partner and we both pay a standing order into the account on the 1st of the month. All our bills then come out of that amount. 

I have to say I'm not sure why this is an exciting topic?

Mnoee

My partner and I each take responsibility for certain bills/expenses and just manage our accounts separately. His income is about double mine, but he's happy enough to pay a larger share if he doesn't have to deal with things like the food shopping or finding the best energy/broadband deals. 

We're financially linked by the mortgage but don't have a joint account as we just don't need one.