Hello, looking for advice about dividing finances when baby arrives.
My husband and I earn very similar salaries so we have always paid our bills 50:50 by transferring an equal amount into a joint account each month.
I will be receiving SMP when baby arrives and am planning to take at least 6 months off. We have both been saving this past year so have discussed putting an equal chunk into the joint account to act as a buffer on top of our monthly family income.
My husband plans to pay half of his salary into our joint account to cover the bills and has suggested I pay my SMP into the joint account to top-up the initial savings and then use the joint account for anything I need for personal spending. Although this plan should cover our living costs and anything extra I might need, I can't help feeling that it is unfair that he gets to keep half of his salary for personal spending - my husband says he doesn't understand what I 'need' the extra money for but for me it's more the principle that he still sees this money as 'his' rather than 'ours'.
We have also discussed what will happen when I go back to work part-time (on half my previous salary) - he has suggested I pay half of that into the joint account and keep half for my personal spending but again this will mean he gets to keep double what I will for personal spending. He says that if I ever need more for something he will be happy to pay for it but the idea of asking him for money makes me feel uncomfortable as I have never had to previously do this.
As a side note, he bought the house we live in before we met and since living together I have contributed to half of the mortgage. I greatly appreciate the large chunk of financial investment he made before we met and partly wonder if my lack of contribution to this makes things more complicated for him, although he denies this is the case. Am I being unreasonable?