Married Couple division of bills

W

Winnie

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Hey,

Ive been married for 2 years now & myself + other half still keep very separate finances. Joint account for all joint bills where we both t/f money into from our own current accounts. But apart from that everything completely separate (savings/loans etc)

Now I like it the way it is but a lot of my friends look at us strange when a bill comes for say a meal out & we each take out our wallets or one of us says 'can you pay for me & I'll pay you back'. I suppose this does look a little scabby?

No kids so i suppose that would make a difference.

Basically question is - how do other people do it.
 
We have basically the same set up. For meals etc. we pay by Laser (from the joint a/c). Holidays etc. we pay by credit card and repay whoever paid when the bill arrives.

We're not married, but I don't see what difference it makes.
 
Same again - except we transfer more cash than just for the monthly bills, so it builds up a cash reserve, this covers any one-off expenses - like car insurance, annual maintenance fees. Then any meals etc, which we both enjoy is also joint account territory.

Any personal spending / savings comes from our own account.

Very good system, we both pay our way fairly and never have had any arguements.

although if I ever do pay for something we do together out of my own account it is as a treat to my wife - i'd never think of saying money is owed for it.......
 
im not married but have recently moved in with my partner. we basically leave my wages in the bank to cover the mortgage and bills and we split his wages 50/50. if i get a bonus i would give him half and same if he got a bonus or done a nixer the money is split 50/50.

i got a couple of thousand of my job to help towards the deposit of the house and just put it in our savings from both of us
 
I'm married and I'm probably one of those people who give you a funny look when you both take out your wallets!! I only married late in life, and yet found it completely natural for us to pool everything together. We don't look on money as his or mine .... we just spend it when necessary and leave it there when we don't need it. As it happens I earn a lot more than himself at the moment. If we looked at it strictly from a numbers aspect, he doesn't actually pay his way. But we just look on it as a joint enterprise, and it pays its way and it works for us. My salary goes straight into the bank monthly, and pays bills etc. His cash comes in weekly and pays for shopping, petrol and cash spending (meal out etc). If we go on holidays then I write the cheques. All my friends think I'm mad!! They think I should be keeping some secret stash somewhere! ("running away money" they call it!). I suppose you can laugh at it (and I do), but on a more serious note I feel that keeping separate monies (or even secret stashes) insinuates a mistrust of the other, and that's not a great start in a marriage. On the other hand, your way might be best, as my way certainly means that I'm spending a lot more than I used to (and he isn't)!!! Whatever turns you on, I suppose. Does anybody else out there have the same set up as me/us?
 
We are married, and have a joint account, that we transfer money to each month, this covers mortgage, bills, car costs etc etc...

We have the rest for our selves then to do as we wish. We get paid at different times of the month, himself at the end and myself in the middle. When we go out, either together, or with friends, it's whoever is most flush(ie whoever has been paid most recently!!) will pay for meal/drinks etc...
 
If she has it ..she pays..if I have it I pay....never a dispute...I earn more...I pay more & perhaps all of the bills...... it does not bother me or mrs ninsaga ..... we both look as all money is belong to both of us.... that's the way its been probably since day 1.

Alot more important things in life than a marrier couple squibbling over who pays for what. I don't see it any other way.

ninsaga
 
You're not on your own on this one at all - we have a similar system going - my other half pays the mortgage and I pay all the house bills, food bills etc. We sat down and worked to out and over the year they both average out to be the same - for going out nights, we take turns in paying for meals or if we're going out for drinks we have a "kitty" system going where both of us put 100.00 in before we go out and we take turns in being "kitty" on nights out. If theres anything left over - we split the difference. It works for us.
Our loans and savings are completely seperate to one anothers then.
 
Not married yet but I haven't thought about money being hers or mine for a couple of years now. If we need something we buy it and whoever has the cash handy pays. Never an argument about it. Haven't set up a joint account yet but are planning to in the next few months. Share the bills pretty equally but neither of us are big spenders so I suppose that helps
 
not married but have a joint account to pay mortgage , bills etc....

We have a daughter and I buy her clothes, toys , ballet lessons ,fairy wings etc etc :rolleyes: so partner pays for nights out... he can be very alpha male about treating the little lady to a few drinks and a meal..:rolleyes: not that in complaining about it. it works out fair and square....
 
We are married and have a joint account and pool all our money together. This was always the case from once we got engaged. All our money is spent jointly and we don't take inot acconut what the other contributes. This was important when my partner was off work for a while through illness,I was on maternity leave etc...It was never an issue of one person funding the other as I feel marriage is a joint venture. Think it is more important when kids come along as how do people aportion the spend on kids? Whatever works for people but I do find it strange when married couples have completely seperate finances and have to "pay each other back" for things.
 
Its not an issue of trust with us & neither is there ever any arguments over money...............although if we did just pool our money 100% I suspect there would be.........I wouldnt like to be subsidising my husbands fancy new car while I choose to drive around in an older car & im sure that he wouldnt appreciate my spending on clothes!

I guess its different strokes for different folks!

And yes sorry for title......i get the hint - should have called it something politically correct like 'Partners' rather than marrieds!
 
We both earn almost the same. We have a joint account where we transfer X each every month. This pays for mortgage, bills, food etc. We both use are own credit cards for shopping, stuff for the house etc then transfer whats due each month from the joint account.

For nights out we normally go dutch as more often than not we meet up with friends and there is ususally a round in operation..don't think the lads would be too happy keeping lil ol me in beer for the night:D

Different strokes for different folks...We have different attitudes to money.I'm a spender and he's a saver so we'd have lots of rows if it was all in the one pot...because yes dear...I really did need another pair of shoes.

If one of us was out of work/ on maternity leave/working part time etc then it'll be all in the one pot.
 
We've been married for 37 years and have separate bank accounts.

I pay all the bills and paid the mortagage when we had one.

While we were overseas, for five years, I continued the standing order to pay the housekeeping money into my wife's account, as well, obviously, paying the household bills where we were.
When I retired nine years ago I transferred a £20K lump sum into her accounts as she does not pay tax.

For weekends away I pay the tab but if we are away for a week or more we split the cost.

Works for us.
 
We have been married 15 years and everything goes into (and out again from) the one account. I would earn more but we trust one another and feel that we wouldn't have it any other way. If you are in a partnership trust is important. If you don't trust your partner then you should question the whole relationship. We feel that if we were splitting the money as other posters have described then it would only add to the conflict.
 
I'm not engaged or married . ..we have all separate accounts etc I pay the mortgage and food and he pays me rent and pays the household bills. But it's a temporary arrangement. If I envisage us getting engaged and married, I think about us planning a future together - I can't see how to do it unless our joint resources are all pooled together as belonging to both of us.

Savings is done surely with some sort of end goal in mind, how can it be completely separate from your spouse's savings?

I can see how it must be separate if 2 people have different spending habits but I would have trouble with that anyway. Probably because of the above . ..I consider it my money :)
 
We pay everything )credit card, groceries, gas, electricity, petrol, mortgage, etc . . ) out of a joint current account, but judging from the above we are in a minority. What I earn goes into the account and what she earns goes into the account. No effort is made to balance up/adjust for whoever earns more. I would think it would be strange if we both maintained seperate accounts and our own little pots of money. Any savings we make are either generally assigned to some capital spending, re-invested or knowingly (and quite happily) frittered away on a few weeks/months of excess spending.

To those who keep their own accounts - what will you do if/when your SSIAs mature and one of you ends up with 20K and the other with 5K or none at all ? I would find that situation a bit weird. We are just going to pool the money and spendre-invest it jointly.

z
 
zag said:
To those who keep their own accounts - what will you do if/when your SSIAs mature and one of you ends up with 20K and the other with 5K or none at all ? I would find that situation a bit weird. We are just going to pool the money and spendre-invest it jointly.
Click to expand...

I don't have an SSIA. My loss. She has. Good for her. I neither want nor expect anything from her SSIA. She says it's our money-but as far as I am concerned it's hers, and she has earned it (bar the 25% of course!).
 
Pooled finances all the way, from day 1. All earnings into joint account, all expenses out. All savings and investments in joint names. We both have equal and unlimited access to all accounts.

The way we see it, we're in this together. When we married, we had similar salaries and similar prospects. Kids intervened and we made the joint decision that career should take a back seat for one of us. This was good for the kids and good for our souls. And we never even considered that the resulting income disparity between us would ever be a problem. I would consider that our combined income now is greater than it would be if we'd both continued fulltime in our careers at the time, hobbled by "joint responsibility" for kids, domestic work etc.

Anyway, in the eyes of the law all assets are jointly owned anyway, right? :)
 
Not nessascarily. I don't own my wifes house for example. She pays the morgtage I don't.
 
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