To find it really odd how families workout their money, desperate to keep it to themseleves

[BodyBagEgg]

i find it very odd familes all keeping their money seperate and to themselves.

your either in it together or not imo.

Actually I would love to know how DP and I could share our money. We are both freelancers and my accountant works out my tax on my bank account. DP's income is not taxable, the lucky sod.

I swipe money out of my business account to top up the joint account we have for boring joint things like food and more exciting things like our yet-to-be-born baby.

I can't believe this is the only thread I've posted on today - the one about the guinea pig's sofa was much better.

Same here peachyfox. Can you imagine the nightmare of two businesses being run out of the same joint account?

I did a car boot sale today and sold all 'my stuff' that was in the loft from when I lived on my own. The money is now in a drawer in the kitchen and we can just take it.

OP what about savings. We each have isas in our own names, but to take out the maximum isa allowance each year its usually made up of 'uneven' amounts from both bank accounts depending who has any left over. If you want to be tax efficient with your savings (not that there's much point at the moment but hey ho here's hoping) then you need to have accounts in separate names.

Then there's the old Nat West account that I had donkeys years ago and I just use that for ebay 'takings' and we both use it for paypal payments.

So different accounts, different names, all family money.

Sorrento, I think it makes quite a big difference whether you own your house in joint names or not. If so, and you get divorced there is no question but that the division is 50/50 - noone looks at who paid what and where.

My understanding is if you own a house as tenants in common you get the value of the proportion of the house you own i.e. if you put in 30% of the money you get back 30% of the value.

If your DP owns the house in his name only then you have to prove you've made payments onto the mortgage otherwise you're in trouble.

BTW, I'm another one who has a joint a/c for all bills (inc childcare - thanks Xenia!) and mortgage. Any money over is mine, all mine!