Joint budgeting

enthusiasticsaver

Finances definitely need to be reviewed when you have children and one of you either works less to cover childcare or if the mum is on maternity leave and on reduced income.  Personally the only way it worked for us was for a joint account for all income and joint expenditure and an agreed personal spends for each of us (the same amount).  I would do a budget on payday, put aside the money for direct debits and repaying the credit card bill and put some into savings pots and various savings accounts.   We would leave enough in the joint account to cover food, fuel for the car and joint entertainment like the odd day out or takeaway and some to cover household spends like window cleaner etc etc.  We also transfer the personal spends into our own sole accounts.  We still do that now 40 years later although the amounts have changed. 

enthusiasticsaver

If one of you  already has  a lot of savings you really need to come to some agreement with that.  If you are married it will be considered joint savings unless it is an inheritance. Personally for us all our savings are in  joint names apart from ISAs and we both have starling savings spaces attached to our sole accounts for things we want personally.  

toomuchinfo

All our money is in joint accounts except for ISAs.

trailingspouse

In my first marriage we had a joint account that all income and all expenditure came out of. Two disadvantages - occasionally we'd both spend money without having the chance to tell the other about it, so the balance could go very low very quickly (this was the days before banking apps that give you the real-time balance in a couple of clicks); and OH would complain that I was spending 'too much' on clothes - he wore a uniform so had no idea how much smart professional clothing cost, whereas as I worked for a high-end insurance brokers in a public-facing role, so had to dress accordingly. That second one caused a lot of arguments.

In my second marriage we had separate accounts...

My third relationship is very different, as we both own our own homes, run our own cars and generally have our own lives. We have a joint account for the fun stuff, we pay in the same amount each every month and if there's a big spend coming up (eg paying for a holiday) we top up the account accordingly and then all 'joint' expenditure comes out of it. I suggested this as a way forward very early in the relationship, as he (being a gentleman) wanted to pay for all drinks, meals out etc but me (being an independent woman in my own right) didn't think that was fair, especially as at the time he was retired and I was still working full time.

So to answer your question, do what works for you. There are advantages and disadvantages whatever method you choose. The important thing is to talk to each other about it.