Thanks for helping!Married couples, how do you deal with $ matters if you both work?
We have a joint account and we both go over the budget each month together. We sit down and pay the bills, go over the grocery budget, decide what we should put into spending, then we give each other a little play money for the month. If we have to go over our budget, we let each other know, redo the budget, no harm done. I try not to make any large purchases ( unless it is out of my saving play money), together.Married couples, how do you deal with $ matters if you both work?
We put both checks in one account for the bills (mortgage utilities,insurances,etc.) some goes into an account for any emergency, then what is left over is for groceries, cleaning products and wants not needs. It would also be a good idea to give each other a set amount of money, not much like $20-$50 whatever you decide, so you each have money that will not be questioned so you can by makeup, hair stuff, lunch out, Starbucks etc. Also have only one person use the check book. If there are no debts to pay down it is always good to save for a vacation.
My wife and I are happily married for 9 years... no kids. We have separate checking accounts and a joint savings account. We split the bills, let each other know how we are doing financially and confer on all major purchases, choices, and financial matters.
My wife pays our car insurance, property tax, part of the mortgage, and most of our entertainment expenses. I pay utilities, groceries, odds and ends like the bug man, security, cell phones, most of the mortgage, and our lone car payment.
It works like a charm, we never fight over money in a serious way. My wife has reformed me from an irresponsible spender to a dedicated saver. If we want something bad enough then we save for it and buy it when we have the cash.
I am not married, but am getting married in a few months
My fiance and I have been sharing accounts for 3 years
Our entire income goes into one account. No matter who earns more. We are a family unit now, I dont see the point in one person owning 3/4 of the savings and the other owning less. From our point of view, we both contribute equally to the relationship as a whole - to us we are a family - and thus the money is the family's money, and does not belong to each indivdual person. At the moment, I am earning more, but it is not MY money, it is OUR money. Last year, he was earning more than me and it was still OUR money.
Out of our pay packets, we put $100 each a fortnight away into a savings account for ourselves, for holidays, the wedding etc. The rest of our pays go into one bank account and from here we pay everything such as bills, groceries, phone bills etc. Everything that is shared and essential to the running of the family. No bills are individual even if we do have separate mobiles. All purchases are discussed though -groceries and bills are obviously a given and we just pay automatically. But if we (for example) wanted to buy a new set of saucepans, we would ring the other and say ';hey we need this, it is $X, what do you think?';. That way if there are purchases out of the ordinary, we both have a say in whether or not we want to get it.
My fiance and I still have separate spendings accounts. Every fortnight, we will give ourselves our ';pocket money'; into these accounts. At the moment money is tight so we give ourselves $40 a fortnight each. Some weeks we relax a little, some weeks we have to tighten our belts. But this is our own individual money to spend or save as we like, without worrying if the other half will approve, or if there is a bill coming in next week. I use this for lunch at work, when I get my hair done, my chocolate craving (groan...). By giving ourselves the same amount it also prevents jealosy - ie if one person earns more than the other, then they have more spending money than the other and more freedom - we don't want this in our relationship. So by giving ourselves the same amount of pocket money each fortnight, we are giving ourselves individual freedom without one person having more than the other
This works very well for us, but each couple is different. We know that if the other person wanted to make a purchase that was not on our agreed budget, then we would talk about it as a couple.
Some people find that separate accounts works best. Some people find that joint accounts work best. Find what works best for you and stick to it :)
Goodluck
My husband takes care of the mortgage with his check, and I take care of the utilities. I monitor both accounts to let him know what we have so that we can plan accordingly.
BUT we have kids.
Anyway, until you get the kinks worked out, you have to work together to discover what works best for you. Everyone, and every relationship is different.
Good luck!
My wife and I sat down right before we got married and added all our monthly bills up such as rent, groceries, car note, gas and utilities then split them fairly. I pay rent, car, and a few utilities and she pays for groceries, gas and a few other utilities. Then we each keep a little bit for savings and a little cash for fun. Hope this helps.
joint account. and we communicate before buying something thats not in the budget.
communication is the key.
other than that for those that can't have a joint.. add up all the bills, and split accordingly to your net income.
All our money goes into one account and I do all the bills and if he needs to spend he does but he is very responsible, so am I.
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