If you and H have seperate finances, how do you do it?

[meggers5]

For those with fully or partially split finances, how do you do it?
1 joint account and each an individual one as well?
Who pays mortgage, bills, etc?

Just investigating.

[Deleted]

We merged our finances a couple of months before the wedding. Prior to this, we split up the bills as evenly as possible. So I paid rent and he paid for most of our other joint household expenses. At the end of the month we'd put it all in the spreadsheet and, if there was a big imbalance, then that person would "owe" the other person money. It usually came out pretty even and, when it didn't, then the person who owed would pick up the next dinner out. It worked for us because we were already tracking our spending individually.

[Deleted]

I don't know if we count as split, but we have a joint checking and joint savings, then we each have our own checking and savings. We get an allowance every month that auto transfers. I don't have access to H's and he doesn't have access to mine. We also have a joint credit card and our own individual ones. Our allowances are for personal things (clothes, books, entertainment when we're not together, etc) and everything else comes out of joint.

[catwithspots]

Jun 24, 2013 12:15:01 GMT -5 @thereigninglorelai said:

I don't know if we count as split, but we have a joint checking and joint savings, then we each have our own checking and savings. We get an allowance every month that auto transfers. I don't have access to H's and he doesn't have access to mine. We also have a joint credit card and our own individual ones. Our allowances are for personal things (clothes, books, entertainment when we're not together, etc) and everything else comes out of joint.

Exactly for us, too.

Love this method! It works great b/c house and combined bills are paid and neither of us has to ask the other for spending money for haircuts, books, lunches, etc. Win/Win

[nooby]

We each have our own checking/savings, and then a joint checking/savings. We don't really use the joint checking at all, and the majority of our savings is in the joint savings account.

I pay the bulk of the house bills/mortgage, and he pays childcare, cable, and groceries. I make more, so I took on more of the bills.

I don't know why we haven't taken the plunge to combine finances. We keep saying that we should, but we never do. We both have full access to each other's accounts though, and we consider our income as "our money" as opposed to "my money/his money".

[Deleted]

We each have our own accounts, and we have the bills divided up pretty much equally. He pays the mortgage and I pay daycare plus groceries (comes out to be even). Then we divide the rest of the utilities pretty informally as the bills come in. Then we each pay our own personal expenses, (car payments, etc.) We take turns buying when we eat out or buying stuff for DS, but again, its all very informal. We have no issues. Also, our incomes are pretty similar, so we can be equal about it.

[noodleoo]

Jun 24, 2013 12:15:01 GMT -5 @thereigninglorelai said:

I don't know if we count as split, but we have a joint checking and joint savings, then we each have our own checking and savings. We get an allowance every month that auto transfers. I don't have access to H's and he doesn't have access to mine. We also have a joint credit card and our own individual ones. Our allowances are for personal things (clothes, books, entertainment when we're not together, etc) and everything else comes out of joint.

This is how we do it too. All joint expenses go on the joint credit cards, all bills get paid out of the joint account. Our paychecks get direct deposited into the joint account and we each transfer a small amount to our individuals each month (like fun money, although we never use it all).

Although, we've been combining more and more over the years and I'm thinking about just putting it all together. It is hard to keep track of so many accounts. It was a comfort thing for us in the beginning, we started it when we moved in together before we were married and then just never changed it. But I think I"m ready to combine it all now.

[candreco]

Another joint and individual accounts household. We have joint checking and savings accounts that we each direct deposit a specific amount to, whatever is leftover after those allotments goes into our personal checking accounts for clothes, gifts, hobbies, etc. This works especially well for us since we make almost exactly the same amount. Otherwise we'd probably go by percentages.

[Deleted]

We have no joint accounts.

I pay for boring stuff (mortgage, utility bills, etc.).

He pays for fun (travel, dining, etc.).

[Bernadine]

Jun 24, 2013 12:15:01 GMT -5 @thereigninglorelai said:

I don't know if we count as split, but we have a joint checking and joint savings, then we each have our own checking and savings. We get an allowance every month that auto transfers. I don't have access to H's and he doesn't have access to mine. We also have a joint credit card and our own individual ones. Our allowances are for personal things (clothes, books, entertainment when we're not together, etc) and everything else comes out of joint.

This is our future plan as well.

[lightbulbsun]

H and I each have separate bank accts, but we consider all the money "ours".

H pays most of the monthly bills (mortgage, electric, water, etc), which is the majority of his paycheck. I pay cell phones, groceries and extras (gym membership, clothes, haircuts, etc.)

I also fund our savings acct and IRAs. We each have our own 401ks through work.

It's worked well for us. We have a mint account, which we both have access to, so we can see where all the money is going.

[pantsparty]

We have separate checking and savings, and one joint checking/savings account.

I pay for groceries and then transfer him a set sum on the first of the month which takes into account other bills.

He pays for utilities, rent, electricity, etc.

We usually transfer a certain amount of "fun money" into our joint checking each month. In buying this house, we've had increased savings goals, so more money has been put into the joint account.

For travel, we usually discuss an estimated budget and figure out who's going to pick up what, or just adjust our monthly joint deposits to cover the costs.

It works well for us.

[vallarta]

We put a percentage of our income into a joint account. He makes a lot more than me, so it wasn't really fair to do halves and leave me with no money.

[iamgrace]

Well, he makes about 5 times what I make, so basically he pays for everything and I take care of my own spending. And that's it.

[nomad100]

DH and I have separate accounts. We also make about the same amount of money.

The way we handle it is that we added up all the household bills and then added in the average food spending for the month. We divided that in half. Then we took a look at the bills and divided them up to be equitable. We are then each repsonsible for those bills.

For example, I pay the mortgage/PITI, electric and natural gas (on the budget plan so this payment stays the same every month), hard line phone, city water, 2 weeks worth of groceries. DH pays his child support, cable/internet, auto insurance for both cars, both our cell phone bills, garbage pick up, security system, his car payment and 2 weeks worth of groceries. There may be a couple of small bills I am forgetting but those are the big ones.

We review twice a year and redistribute the bills as needed.

We each then are also responsible for our own credit cards and savings.

We do have 1 joint checking and joint savings account that we each put a specific amount of money into each month for emergencies and household projects. If there is a big purchase that isn't house related (for example, we bought a big flat screen tv in January) we both put in 50% from our separate savings. On one offs, like the CSA share or stuff for the garden, we switch off. DH covered the CSA share and I covered the stuff from the garden. It all eventually works out pretty evenly. But we are not "to the penny" people. So as long as neither one feels like they are always paying for everything, we are good.

ETA:  Or ditto to many of the posters above.

[katietornado]

Jun 24, 2013 12:08:38 GMT -5 meggers5 said:

For those with fully or partially split finances, how do you do it?
1 joint account and each an individual one as well?
Who pays mortgage, bills, etc?

Just investigating.

We have our own bank accounts.  We do not have any joint accounts.

We set up a Mint account; we can see an overview of our finances at all times, including my bank accounts, his bank accounts, his credit cards, his 401K, my 401K, my investments, etc.

He pays everything: mortgage, food, gas, etc.  We put it all on our Amex to get the rewards, and he pays it off from his account.  My entire paycheck gets banked in my savings or invested in a mutual fund.

We were together for so long before we were married that it just naturally evolved this way.

[textbookcase]

Jun 24, 2013 12:15:01 GMT -5 @thereigninglorelai said:

I don't know if we count as split, but we have a joint checking and joint savings, then we each have our own checking and savings. We get an allowance every month that auto transfers. I don't have access to H's and he doesn't have access to mine. We also have a joint credit card and our own individual ones. Our allowances are for personal things (clothes, books, entertainment when we're not together, etc) and everything else comes out of joint.

This is basically how we do it.

[wowhead]

We have all separate accounts. DH pays all the household bills and I take care of taxes, most of the groceries and the fluff. Right now, the fluff is home improvement stuff. My income is irregular so I take care of the things that aren't really on a schedule. We still consider it "our" money and transfer from account to account whenever needed.

[meggers5]

I'm liking the looks of joint for household/saving/etc, and separate for spending money. That seems to work for quite a few people.

Of course I'm not married or engaged, but I'm planning ahead lol.

[cutecloud]

We each have separate checking accounts for our own individual "fun stuff" and a joint account for most bills and rent, and a joint savings account also. Our credit cards are all separate except I think I have H on my Kohls charge from back when I worked there and he could use it to get my discount. I think it works out well for us!

[pantsparty]

Jun 24, 2013 12:48:25 GMT -5 meggers5 said:

I'm liking the looks of joint for household/saving/etc, and separate for spending money. That seems to work for quite a few people.

Of course I'm not married or engaged, but I'm planning ahead lol.

I do enjoy the fact that I don't clear purchases with my H. Not that he'd deny me, but I DO WHAT I WANT. He does the same, although his purchases tend to be a bit higher than mine, like coming home with a convertible BMW. LOL.

[dapotato]

Jun 24, 2013 12:20:33 GMT -5 nooby said:

We each have our own checking/savings, and then a joint checking/savings. We don't really use the joint checking at all, and the majority of our savings is in the joint savings account.

I pay the bulk of the house bills/mortgage, and he pays childcare, cable, and groceries. I make more, so I took on more of the bills.

I don't know why we haven't taken the plunge to combine finances. We keep saying that we should, but we never do. We both have full access to each other's accounts though, and we consider our income as "our money" as opposed to "my money/his money".

Our setup is similar to this. Except like @misoangry, he pays for the boring stuff & I pay for the fun stuff. We also don't have access to each others' individual accounts but may change that soon.

[Kit]

Eventually we'll probably combine, maybe not, but for now they're still separate. We just haven't gotten to the bank yet to join accounts and move everything.

Right now, everything is paid through my account, and he just transfers money to pay me back for his half. He usually pays if we go out to eat, or to the movies, or stuff like that.

[fuckyourcouch]

we have separate checking and savings accounts.
he pays the mortgage and his car payment and student loans. he usually pays when we dine out.
i pay everything else (utilities, insurances, groceries, big things like appliances or landscaping, travel).

[stephlove]

We don't exactly have separate finances, but H basically has no part of them. I pay for most of the bills, and the mortgages, H pays for his car payment and insurance (well, I pay it with his paycheck). His spending money comes from his tips from his 2nd job. He doesn't really touch any money in our bank account. He has no interest in getting involved with the finances (which can be annoying), and if he wants something he asks if we can afford it.

[Deleted]

I suppose, to be clear, we don't have separate finances.

Everything is shared and ours, not mine and his.

The structure, however, is comprised of separate accounts.

[fuckyourcouch]

i guess i should add it is split so it's "even" (i pay more because i make more though), but if something came up where one of us needed help we would just cover it, it doesn't matter.
we just keep it separate because his spending habits drive me insane and i'm a money hoarder which drives him insane.