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Original poster

How do you organise your finances?

48 replies

bebesequin · 06/12/2009 19:33

Dh and I both have well paid jobs and since we got together have had a joint account-we both earn almost the same -however we seem to constantly argue about money!

I think he is excessive with grocery shopping he's a bit of a foodie and in my opinion spends far too much on that-whereas he thinks my clothes an hairdressing bills are excessive- we have had another 'discussion' today- his quite modest car is due replacing and he is set on buying a gas guzzling 4x4 as he does a lot of fishing and shooting- I have a nice company car and feel he should be happy with a smaller car- how do other people organise their finances?seperate accounts and joint one for the house?

OP posts:
tethersend · 06/12/2009 19:43

How do we organise finances?

  1. Close eyes
  2. Stick fingers in ears
  3. Strike up a chorus of "Lalalalala"
  4. Hope
  5. Pray

I'm not sure if that was quite the answer you were looking for, though...

serinBrightside · 06/12/2009 21:23

One joint account on line so that I can check what we have.

One account with high street bank that we make a monthly payment into and all our direct debits go out of.

Two savings accounts, one for kids and one for holidays.

TBH I am far more likely to buy stuff or spend unwisely, DH is pretty sensible, he just does this from time to time!

notcitrus · 06/12/2009 21:43

MrNC and I have never got a joint account as there was too much paperwork. Instead he pays the mortgage (he's always earnt more and never reads paperwork) and I pay all the other bills, getting him to transfer money to my account halfway through the month as necessary.

We have a joint credit card account that all spending goes on, so we stack up the John Lewis points.
Sometimes we agree how much money can be transferred each month to a savings account but having baby and building work means we've spent all that.

We generally discuss any potential outgoings of over £100 - it's got easier now all 'discretionary' spending goes on the 2 sheets of credit card bill as it's obvious to MrNC how his treating friends to meals out mounts up.

AMerryScot · 06/12/2009 21:46

We have one big pot that the money goes into. I can't get my mind around families who carve things up.

I think we are quite good at knowing how much discretionary spending we can do, and if we overdo it, we put it on the mortgage!

We are not generally extravagent, but have our moments.

CakeBuddy · 06/12/2009 21:48

Glad I saw this was posted under 'credit crunch' before i responded, as I read your post title as "How do you organise your fiances?" and wondered how many people it was possible to be engaged to at once.....!!

"Well, I keep one under the stairs, one in the airing cupboard, and one in the boot of the car. Fortunately they've never spotted each other".

Sorry. Not helpful in financial planning. Maybe it's time to go to bed.

jaquelinehyde · 06/12/2009 21:53

I try to stay withing my student overdraft, epically fail, cry, cancel Christmas, and then live hand to mouth.

As far as the car thing goes, I don't have a car but my brothers who are all keen fishermen swear by a decent estate like the Skoda Octavia (sp) gets everything in no problem. I suppose it depends on how much of a car snob your DH is.

jaquelinehyde · 06/12/2009 21:53

*within not withing.

snigger · 06/12/2009 21:54

A 'receiving' account. All household income (salaries & child benefit) arrives here. From here, a monthly debit goes to :

(1) An account for standing orders (council tax/insurances/utilities etc).

(2) An account in each of our names for personal spending

(3) Another joint account for groceries & fuel.

It's a bit convoluted, I suppose, but neither of us has 'cash' access to the bill a/c, and we just card our fuel and food from a/c 3. It makes it easier to attribute blame account for expenditure.

Why not set a car budget, and anything beyond that has to be met from his personal
'fun' budget? If he really wants a 4x4 he'll have to give up other things for it.

fluffles · 06/12/2009 21:56

we put what we 'need' to spend into the joint account and then keep our 'luxurious non-essential' money in our own seperate accounts.

however, this wouldn't solve the question of a new car. DP chose the car and it's definately 'his' rather than ours as he uses it 90% of the time.
to be honest if you've got a nice car you like then it's a bit mean to not allow him to choose a car he likes if you can afford it.. but i would speak to him about emissions and tax etc and try to encourage him to make a sensible decision.

as to food and clothes/hairdressing.. that's where our seperate accounts come in.. basic food shopping is joint but luxurious food and drink and clothes and hairdressing comes from our seperate accounts where each of us has free reign.

if we were less well off than we are now then the amount of money left behind in our seperate 'treats' accounts would just dwindle down to nothing and all money would be joint.

hf128219 · 06/12/2009 21:56

Just one joint account from which everything comes out.

ABetaDad · 06/12/2009 22:01

One way to resolve this might be for both of you to put 75% of your respective take home pay in the family account for mortgage, food utilities, council tax, and holiday with no overspend allowed over that amount.

The other 25% is for each of you to have your own personal spending on what each of you want.

scoobi6 · 06/12/2009 22:07

we each have our own accounts but pay equal amounts each month into a joint account from which all direct debits (mortgage, bills etc) go out. We treat ourselves to meals out when the joint account looks flush, too.

He runs a newish car but makes the loan repayments himself, all in his name. I bought an old banger and pay for the breakdown cover, (frequent) repairs etc myself.

We both work full time and it saves on arguments if we just spend our own money how we want. We both contribute to savings as much as we can, and towards big DIY projects and stuff like that. But we try not to worry too much or scrutinise each other, as long as the essentials are paid for through the joint account its all fine.

bluejeans · 06/12/2009 22:09

separate accounts as we have v different spending habits, with a joint account we both pay into at the start of the month by standing order for mortgage, bills, food, petrol, alcohol and all DD's necessities. I'm on a higher salary and pay for the car and childcare costs. Seems to work for us, money is one of the only things we don't argue over

SixtyFootDoll · 06/12/2009 22:10

Just one joint account
DH is Ft I am Pt but we never argue over what each other spnds

Judy1234 · 06/12/2009 22:41

We had a joint account and it was fine because we had very very similar views on spending and married quite young but you need to do what works for you both. We didn't ever argue over money, except over the divorce settlement I made to him.

SpangleMaker · 06/12/2009 23:22

Separate accounts for income & personal spending, joint account for household/bills/DS-related stuff and a joint credit card for big purchases/holidays etc. Works for us because I have a monthly salary (well, I will when I'm back after ML) and DH has his own business and takes out random amounts. He is more frugal by nature but can't be arsed with paperwork whereas I'm more of a spender but also a spreadsheet nerd!

My DH is like yours, bebe, likes his cars but is better left in blissful ignorance about how much I spend on clothes/hair. Any time he mentions it I remind him that I have never gone out and blown £9k on an old sports car We both save and have the same broad ideas about where our money should be going, though, so we don't argue about it.

scottishmummy · 06/12/2009 23:30

separate individual accounts
joint for mortgage,nursery,bills
dd for utilities,council tax from joint acc
joint account isa and shares for children both have dd to it

and because separate accs each of us is responsible for our own spending.LOL if he skint well tough titty that is his look out

however we are both very prudent

Ambi · 29/12/2009 14:13

Similar to snigger,

  1. a receiving joint ac; all income in and keep approx £600 per month for food, petrol and misc spending.
  2. Transfer funds to another joint ac for all DDs and SOs which is the same every month.
  3. The difference is transferred to joint savings.

We don't have spending sprees and are careful with each purchase at the moment. This system is simple for us and works really well but doesn't seem to work for everyone as some like to have their separate acs.

fanjolina · 29/12/2009 14:20

Same as AMerryScot

RealityIsRoastingChestnuts · 29/12/2009 14:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

mvemjsunp · 29/12/2009 14:30

All of our accounts are joint. Apart from investments, we have a single account for the mortgage, current account and savings. Our paychecks go in there, and we basically don't worry about it too much.

We have a knack of knowing what we can afford, so don't actually go into debt beyond the mortgage.

We don't have 'his' and 'her' money.

Georgimama · 29/12/2009 14:34

We genuinely consider all money to be family money, but as DH is self employed it is simpler to keep business money and household money separate by him having one account and me having another. Obviously he meets all his business expenses (although there have been times when I have subsidised when things looking like collapsing, because otherwise we really would have ended up down shit creek)and he pays our rent and council tax and his own credit card from his net earnings. I pay CM fees, electric DD, water DD and household insurance. From what's left over we pay for everything else between us, although as he has more left over he pays more. We only divide this way because it represents a fairish proportion of our respective earnings and has evolved over time rathern than being a sit down, "right, I'll pay this, you pay that" (he earns much more than me).

As I will shortly earn almost as much as him, and he is going to go limited commpany rather than being a sole trader, I think we will set up a joint account into which we pay a fixed amount each to cover all the bills and then pay them from that account, leaving money left over each for own expenditure.

Heqet · 29/12/2009 14:35

Got an excel spreadsheet that is an 18 month cashflow forecast. 1 month per page, broken down into weeks, each week has 2 columns - estimated and actual, regular expenses then ad hoc expenses, and suplus / deficit is carried forward to next week / month.

That way I am always on top of what is coming in / going out and only spend what we can afford. - if that's nothing, then it's nothing!

accounts - bill account and cash account. direct debit / SO / bank transfer money is held in the bill account, withdrawals are done from the cash account. Then there are 2 esvaings accounts - holiday and emergency fund! (both are almost always empty but hey, it's the thought that counts!!)

Itsjustafleshwound · 29/12/2009 14:37

Pre-children DH and I had our own accounts and a joint account where all the DD for mortgages, utilities and everything relating to living expenses. We both paid in an agreed amount and our own accounts we used for luxuries.

Our food is paid for by joint credit card and the c/card bill is itemised so we really just pay the normal items out of our jpint and transfer the necessary cash if we have made a non-essrential' purchase (ana;, I know!!).

Now that I am not working, DH pays a set amount into our joint account for household expenses and leaves me to it.

Savings - when/if and in my name

thirdisbest · 30/12/2009 23:22

I deal with everything all the time and I dont do debt. I pay everything on time every month. I am very funny about finance. I eat sleep and breath everything to do with finance. My wages pay everything. My mortage and all the debt my husbands ex wife left us with.

My husbands part time wages pay his child support and the food bill.

I cant live without savings for a rainy day. I never have a rainy day (at least so far) but you never know.