Joint Finances - paying for bills

maman

I pay for our food and some other household expenses with my own card and when the bill comes in DH and I split those items 50/50 and he transfers that to my bank account. The same applies to any household stuff that DH has paid for. Despite being married for 40+ years we prefer to keep separate accounts and cards. It just takes about 10 minutes a month of simple arithmetic.

Pre Covid we kept some petty cash at home for small purchases but now shops are happy with cards for everything we haven't used that for ages. 

pxxls51

a joint account for bills is a perfect option

getmore4less

the time to have finances linked is when you want a mortgage.

Before that there is no need to link finances.

If you do plan a joint you want a look at each others credit files from all sources.

My suggestion is she mirrors your setup with an account for joint expenses(one each)

You move all your house ownership payments out of your bills account.

Another option is create a virtual joint account in one of the financial packages that you both update with the joint stuff.

Just needs a decent list of categories that cove most joint things

MSMoney would work a treat as the reporting is built in to see who paid for what when and how.

TBagpuss

could you take it in turns to pay for food, so that one week she pays for the 'big shop' and the next week you do, if you don't want a joint account? 
It doesn't need to be rigid - if you have an agrement along those lines in pricipal you can then chekc who has paid for what once amonth and transfer funds to even up as necessary .

You could open a new credit card with a low credit limit and have her as anaffitonal card holder - that would reduce the risk of you being liabke for any spenfing spree to whatever the credit limit was (you can typically ask for a limit to be reduced, as well as increased, you fon't have to thave the max the card issuer is willing to give you - and if you both agree that that card will ony be used for food shops 

Scorpio33

TBagpuss said:

could you take it in turns to pay for food, so that one week she pays for the 'big shop' and the next week you do, if you don't want a joint account? 
It doesn't need to be rigid - if you have an agrement along those lines in pricipal you can then chekc who has paid for what once amonth and transfer funds to even up as necessary .

You could open a new credit card with a low credit limit and have her as anaffitonal card holder - that would reduce the risk of you being liabke for any spenfing spree to whatever the credit limit was (you can typically ask for a limit to be reduced, as well as increased, you fon't have to thave the max the card issuer is willing to give you - and if you both agree that that card will ony be used for food shops 

Thank you, my head is straight now, I was clearly over complicating it.

She will pay me an agreed amount for share of bills (excluding food), which will be a nominal amount.

Then we can take it in turns to pay for the food. In our relationship lots is share anyway, so it'll never be 50/50- for example, she may pay for a day away, I will pay for some take aways etc etc.