If you have joint and separate accounts-

[Bernadine]

How did you decide what gets paid from which accounts?  Also, I'm being nosey- if your separate accounts are just "fun" money, how much do you each get?

I think J and I are going to combine almost everything, keeping our separate accounts only for fun money- going out to lunch, picking up a little something, etc.  All bills will be paid out of the combined account.

[Deleted]

ah, my favorite topic! for real!

we have joint and separate checking, savings, and credit cards. we pay major and nonmajor "joint" things out of joint--mortgage, house/housekeeping-related purchases, groceries, car payments, stuff for the kid, eating out. almost everything goes on the credit card for points and then is paid off out of the joint checking. we agreed collectively to max out our 401(k)s each year (although that sort of comes out of our individual money since it's pretax), and make collective savings decisions.

we pay major individual things + individual fun stuff out of our separate accounts--student loans, shoes, stuff i want for the house that my husband will hate so i buy it out of my own money so there, eating out at work for lunch, etc. one day before i die, i'm totally getting a vespa. that will come out of my individual account even though it's a vehicle.

our contributions are based upon a percentage of our income, taking into account that the family is on my health insurance so i have less take home pay as a result. we tracked expenses for a month and then worked backwards from there to figure out how much needed to be available in joint accounts for all of our goals. i think it's been 70 joint/30 individual for awhile now. it was 60/40 before L came along when we had fewer joint expenses and were both aggressively paying off our student loans.

[ax2]

I've done the math and calculated our monthly bills. We each put 50% of that number into the joint account to pay bills. The rest of our pay stays in our own accounts.

Things like groceries, meals out, etc, we alternate fairly well, but whoever has more fun money at the time often pays.  It's not perfect, but it works for us.

[Deleted]

This is really easy.

Any shared costs come from the joint account. Nanny, rent, groceries, etc.

Our student loans and credit card bills come from our personal accounts.

Jake mentioned putting all our money in a joint account and I'm honestly just not comfortable with that. It may be weird but whatever. I want my own money. MINE.

ETA Cville basically answered for us, lol.  We did almost that same math to decide how much comes from each.  We take home the same amount of money (after health insurance off mine) but Jake has a higher student loan bill each month so he puts in a little less.  It all works out.

[Bernadine]

Do you guys count some kind of savings into your joint expenses?

[Deleted]

Not right now, but we used to. Right now that comes from personal b/c we can't save a lot so it's sort of ad-hoc, whatever we can throw into the savings at the time thing. But our big savings IS joint.

[Deleted]

Jun 27, 2013 9:14:25 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

Do you guys count some kind of savings into your joint expenses?

yes.  when we tracked expenses to figure our our percentages we also looked at our savings goals--some present and some future (pretty standard stuff, build an e-fund, save for major planned future expenses **cough cough pool house that may kill me cough cough**, building a nest egg, setting aside money each year for vacations, investments, etc.).   in addition, our 401(k)s, though individual, are "joint" expenses.  as is the kid's 529. 

we also have automatic distributions monthly from our joint checking to our joint savings accounts/funds/what have you.  that makes it sound like we're really fancy and have scads of money like scrooge mcduck in 10,000 accounts, but the truth is i just don't know precisely off the top of my head without a tutorial from my husband.  he's the money manager, but i have access to and can control everything on my own, goddamnit.

[lizrd7579]

We each get $50/pay direct deposited into our separate accounts for fun money. Everything else is direct deposit into our joint account.

[BaliHai]

We decided $100/week from H's paycheck was plenty for our fun money/separate accounts. My paycheck goes into our joint, with the rest of H's, and our bills get paid that way. Anything extra goes into joint savings. I pay my credit card and contribute to my personal savings account from my play money.

[Deleted]

booby just reminded me. all of this is possible for us because we're salaried, we both work, and our expenses are largely fixed (even eating out. we don't go to very expensive places, usually, and usually only on the weekend, so we can predict that within a few dollars pretty easily). if any of that changed, we'd adapt.

i just love my system for two working people with fixed salaries because it's so ron popeil set it and forget it. unless it's something way off the radar (like when i got smashed up in the parking lot by some asshole who didn't leave a note and had to get the car fixed), we don't have to address money stuff other than to touch base a couple times a month. i hate talking about money (only our money system).

[FastHands]

Similar to others -- We have a joint acct that we both contribute to, and we base it on income. We have a monthly goal for joint, based on expenses plus some extra for savings. H makes 65% of the household income, so he puts in 65% of that amount and keeps the rest for "fun."

Things that come out of joint: mortgage, utilities, groceries, eating out together, car insurance, vacations etc.

Things that come out of sole/"fun": car payments, clothes (usually), eating out at lunch, going out individually with friends etc.

[Deleted]

cville, we used to do what Booby+H did before we had the boys and Jake went back to work. Oct-Nov was like, NOTHING but money talk, omg. I almost died. I also hate talking about money. Set it and forget it is right, lol.

ETA I hate talking about it so much that Jake is the one who like balances our checking account and all that jazz.  I am the matron of spending in the moment and setting shopping budgets.  It works for us.

[Bernadine]

I make a good deal more than him, so I'd have a lot of extra money if we did the percentage thing. Is this fair? I can't decide.

[Deleted]

Jun 27, 2013 9:35:34 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

I make a good deal more than him, so I'd have a lot of extra money if we did the percentage thing. Is this fair? I can't decide.

when we started doing this, i made more than 2x my husband's salary.  i also had more than 2x his student loan debt because he's a brilliant mofo and had a thousand scholarships and our very same law school was like "be grateful you got in, cville."

he saw it as fair since i worked more.  i saw it as fair because i wanted my private student loan company to go to hell.

i think if we were still in such a disparate position, we might have different percentage contributions (like i'd be 80/20 and he'd be 50/50).

[candreco]

Our payrolls allow for direct deposit to multiple accounts, so we both have allotments set up to go first into the joint checking account, then the joint savings account, then DD's account (that's transferred out to a college savings fund periodically) and then whatever is leftover goes into our personal accounts for fun money/clothes/gifts/savings/etc. All household and most kid expenses come out of the joint account, and it kind of helps us stick to a budget because it's intended to just cover those expenses and if it's approaching $0 too quickly between paychecks, we know we need to cut back or hold off on less than necessary purchases.

In our case, we each contribute equally since our paychecks are almost exactly the same, but if one of us were to make more than the other, we'd adjust that accordingly.

[alottagoodeggs]

Wow! Some of these "systems" are pretty impressive. We each have separate accounts and no joint account. When the hubby gets paid, I let him keep some gas/lunch/fun money ($150) and the rest of it gets transferred into my account which I pay the bills out of. When I get paid, I transfer $150 into his account and keep the rest for bills. We both get paid biweekly and it so happens that he gets paid one week and I get paid the next. He wants nothing to do with paying the bills or managing the money and refuses to talk about it or learn how to do it. Ugh, I don't know what would happen if something were to happen to me... He wouldn't have a clue what bill to pay when, how much, etc. It's very frustrating.

[Cricket0619]

We have a joint savings account, but otherwise we have our own. Everything is in H's name because he lived at our house before me, so I write out checks to him for certain bills. I use my account to pay off my own credit cards, medical bills, dental etc. H does the same. When we make bigger purchases we both pay towards them. It really works well for us to do it this way.

[dana2006]

We each have our salaries direct deposit into our own checking accts and have a joint acct for savings (usually only tax returns go into it) and checking for household expenses. In reality the joint acct is rarely touched. Mortgages and other recurring monthly payments are paid out of our own checking accts b/c the automated payment system can only be set up with checking accts with direct deposits. H pays all the utility bills, while I pay for all of our travels with my own credit card. We are both too lazy to keep track of everything and ensure fair divisions. If I have a particularly large cc bill due to an expensive trip, I'd transfer some funds from the joint acct to my own to help pay for it, but most of the time we just pay out of our own accts.

[pantsparty]

We have separate joint and savings, and one joint checking. We also have our own credit cards, which are mainly used for business travel.

I pay for groceries, my cell, my car, and little things around the house throughout the month. On the first of the month, I transfer a set sum to my H, which is calculated based on how much we earn. We're at about a 40/60 split right now.

H pays for the rent and all utilities, as well as his cell and his 2 cars (LOL).

I transfer another sum of money to our joint account which is "fun" money. H pays most of the time when we got out, sometimes he takes money out of the account for it out of our checking, sometimes he doesn't. But it's meant to account for dinners, movies, dates, etc.

If we are looking to go on a vacation or purchase a big ticket item, we discuss the cost in advance and figure out what is fair, then adjust our monthly contributions accordingly.

All the rest of my income is technically "mine", although I also contribute to a 401k and have another savings account of my own. Some months, I spend a ton of fun money. As long as I'm hitting our/my savings goals and financial obligations, this doesn't bother me. It's been less as of late because of our upcoming house purchase.