How do you divide up finances? Blended family.

kimplus8

Between yourself and your DP/ DH.
1. Split all bills and rent 50/50 and whatever you have left over is yours regardless of what you both earn.

2. split bills equatable to who earns more/less, ie the person earning more pays more.

3. Split the household bills relative to who is in the home eg one person has 2 children and the other has one, so the person with 2 kids contributes 3/5 of the bills and the person with one child pays 2/5. And then what is left is your own.

4. pay into one family pot, bills all come out and the rest is for shared savings and equal spending.

Spendless

I suppose this is different because we're not a blended family but my DH has always been the breadwinner and bills go from his (ours) account. I have worked on and off for various reasons, sometimes not working due to childcare expenses, ill-health of our child, losing jobs, studying but when I do my wages has gone into a separate account for 'additional stuff' as it just makes it easier to keep track that way. The most recent example I can give is that I saved my wages to meet our daughter's student accommodation costs. Currently my wages from the last few weeks will be spent on some wedding costs as our DS marries this summer and also a trip me and DH are doing to celebrate our wedding anniversary. 

powerspowers

I think another question to go with 2 is does the person earning less do more of the childcare, eg because they work part time or have taken a job closer to home to be nearer school etc. Also, are there differences in time you have the children? 

There’s no right or wrong here, it all comes down to good communication with your partner and keeping talking as your circumstances change. I don’t think a straw poll of randomers on the internet will solve the issue! 

For what it’s worth, my partner has 2 children and I have none. We have the children 50/50 with their mum.  He earns more than me but has a long, expensive commute. We put equal amounts into a joint pot that covers bills & joint savings. He keeps a bit more of his wage but has more to pay out in travel costs and kid costs. It works for a few reasons-
1. We talk about money regularly, at least once a month, agreeing what our shared aims are and working towards them
2. even though I earn less and work from home, I’m not stepping into a mum role. I’ll help out, but not at expense of my work/studies which are important to me 

3. I contribute to nice to haves for the kids eg holidays, Christmas, birthdays because I love them and I like to treat them. Holidays etc we will split 50/50- I don’t make him pay more for the kiddos. However, I don’t contribute to maintenance money, school uniform, dinner money etc as they are his children and his responsibility. 

Things may change as his company are making redundancies this year, but I’m not worried because our communication is really strong and we will figure it out. I think I’d feel different if I was already carrying some resentment towards him re money & childcare (which I think is really easy to have if you don’t talk it out first!) 

good luck working through things x