The fairest way to split household bills?

[stripesew]

DP and I currently live in a rented flat and go halves on bills. We are due to move in to a mortgaged house soon and I’m wondering the fairest way to split bills, as at present I am left with a lot more money after bills than DP.

The joint household bills in the new house will be £2300 (including food shop). Our total joint monthly income after deductions is £4630 (this is due to increase slightly in April’s pay but not sure exactly what to).

My share of the earnings is £2550 (55% of household income) and DP earns £2080 (45% of household income).

At the minute our salaries get paid in to our own accounts and we transfer a set amount in to a joint account to cover bills and groceries (both paying the same). We pay our personal bills and petrol from our own accounts.

Should we:

Option A) pay appropriate percentages of the joint bills (ie I’d pay 55%, which is £1265, towards bills and DP would pay 45%, which is £1035) this would obviously leave me with £230 more leftover than DP per month

or

Option B) pay both salaries in to joint account, pay all joint household bills from this leaving £2330 leftover and we both split the £2330 down the middle meaning we both have £1165 of our ‘own money’ at the end of each month

Open to suggestions of any other options!

It's just crazy that you've got a mortgage and a baby on the way but find it difficult to talk about money.

@ShortLivedComment I get what you’re saying. I’ve probably made it out to be worse than it is. We of course can talk about money, having both discussed at length and agreed to go from £500 rent a month to a mortgage of £1100. However, my partner does get overwhelmed when we speak about it and would rather I just decided what works best in terms of joint spending and saving

Why don't you just both pay 60% of take home into the joint account? That way you can build up a shared buffer for big items/renovations/holidays.

DH and I have always paid 40% into the joint account for the mortgage and shared savings. At the end of the year some of the surplus is used as a mortgage overpayment. We try to keep a buffer of three months wages in case of emergencies, which has come in very handy over the years when a car has died or we need a new boiler.