How much does your part-time partner/spouse contribute?

[EatSleepRantRepeat]

DH is considering stepping down to part-time hours, after a long service in a long-hours, stressful career (he's a few years older than me). I've been the main earner for a while, but thankfully we've controlled our outgoings enough to pay for everything 50/50 when we were both working full time. He's now only earning 30% of my salary but has two more days off a week.

I'm not sure how we should split the finances now that he's earning significantly less than me, how much extra I should be willing to put into the family pot, or how we should split any chores at home now he has a 4 day weekend. I've never been in this situation before and I want to ensure it's fair.

What do other people do, percentage-wise? And do you give your spouses/ your spouses give you any "fun money", memberships etc as a top-up? Do you sacrifice any of your disposable income or expect your spouse/partner to make it up from their savings/cutbacks?

(Please no comments about cocklodgers - DH is amazing and even helped me pay off my student debt when the earning levels were reversed, plus we have done our budgeting and can afford to do this. Its for his health.).

I would think you both have equal spending money after costs and savings, but that he contributes more in terms of domestic work as he has more leisure time. But as a caveat, if your job is more corporate so you need certain work clothes etc I would not consider that spending money, that's a cost of working.

We use this, generally every month as we're freelancers but could be useful as a one off to see a fair split www.countcalculate.com/private-and-home-economics/split-payment-according-to-income

Everything gets paid into one account and everything gets paid out of the account.

If we are making a purchase of £100+ we give the other a heads up so we know the account hadn't been hacked 😂

It's family money and I really can't understand these couples who still have separate finances.

I'm the part time one in our house. Both our salaries go into one pot and that's used to pay for everything. So proportionally, DH obviously puts more money in than I do, but we don't really look at it that way. To be honest, if you're married I would find it really odd to be sitting down working out percentages and all that. It's all just family money.

Disclaimer - we have three young kids so my days 'off' are spent looking after them, therefore what I 'contribute' is more than just financial. If we had no kids and I (or DH) just fancied working less, I might see things differently.

All our money in and out of one account. When I was part time I did the lions share of the housework, shopping, household admin, pet care and cooking on my days off. Split cooking on days we both worked.

Omg this all sounds so confusing. Just put it all in one bank account and check with each other before big spending!

We put everything into one pot, then take out individual play money into our own spending accounts. That way the household is run jointly but we have some privacy in terms of spends.

If he's working less I would expect him to take more of the burden in terms of household management - not just doing a bit more under supervision in terms of cleaning, but also the food shop, coordinating repairs, clearing out DC's old clothes and toys, etc etc.

Another one who puts everything in one account, DH earns almost twice my salary but its not looked at like that. We both contribute towards our life, I have a much better pension than him as I work at a Uni.
Our only rule is big purchases anything over £200 we discuss first.

I’m a sahm now but even before this we would have the same amount of “pocket money” each and everything else when into the joint account for bills and joint spending.

DH earns about 4x my salary. Everything is joint and viewed as family money except we keep the same designated amount in our own accounts each month for personal spending. I like not having to account for everything I spend money on and I'm sure DH feels the same.

In terms of housework, I do the food shopping and the cooking, I do most of the general life admin.....all the school admin/booking appointments/going to post office/getting quotes from tradesmen etc. We share the cleaning and the laundry.

I work p/t.
Do most of the food shopping and pay for my own mobile, car insurance, clothes and personal hobbies.
DH pays for everything else and is generous buying me bits and pieces.
I mainly do the dishwasher, clear down after meals, clothes washing and put the robot hoover on. DH pays for the cleaner and does bins etc.
We share cooking.

Works well for us.

Our salaries have always gone into the one account too, and then from that joint account we have always had the same amount of personal spending - which has changed over the years, but has always been the same amount. This has been through maternity leaves, me working PT for some of it, dh not earning anything for some of it (when he was studying), through me earning more and through him earning more. It has always been our money.

Re 'stuff done at home', the person who is home more obviously does more of the things that need doing. I mean, I presume, over the years, you've realised it isn't a house share where each of you do 1/2 of each task and you have rotas ? Usually one person prefers one job, or really hates one job, or it is more practical to do something - particularly if one partner has not been arriving home until late, etc. Point being, you should both have similar amount of time to 'do what you want with'. Whether you choose to use that time in a hobby or volunteering or studying or prefer to lie in or watch rubbish TV or whatever your pleasure is.

We have always done the same thing since we got married. It’s gone from me earning more to two children later me working part time (30hrs).

All money goes in one account. All bills and stuff for the kids comes out of that account. We each get the same amount of ‘pocket money’ each month. We buy all our clothes, pay for hairdressers, gifts for our own families etc. out of this so there can be no conflict over this kind of spending. Then anything left goes into savings.

We are fortunate that we are quite generous with our pocket money but that is also the first thing to be cut back if/when needed.

In terms of house work I do the shopping and full house clean on one of my days off. I do most of the cooking (we used to share this 50/50). I probably do more of the day to day cleaning, tidying and laundry but this should be 50/50. We get the kids bathed and ready for bed together. And to be horribly stereotypical my husband does most of the DIY. Life admin is split pretty equally but I tend to sort the kids stuff.

Another one pot here. I earn less, but it's regular and PAYE. DH earns more but in random lump sums as it's via dividends. So I run the account and smooth the bumps using an instant access saving account, and also make sure there is enough in there to pay the tax bills. All the bills go out, we save some and then spend the rest

I think it all depends how old the DC are and what your husband is planning to do with his days off.

Will he do all the housework so both of you benefit at the weekends from him being part-time? Or is he just having extra time off for hobbies while you still work every day?

His attitude towards this would decide for me how I felt about pooling money.

We each have our own accounts and a 'joint' account for food and household items. We both pay our share into it and now ds is earning, he pays in as well.
They've been times when it hasn't worked so well, but on the whole I prefer to have my own money.