Who manages the money in your house?

[joshandjamie]

Exactly what it says on the tin really. Who is the person in charge of household finances - i.e. how much is coming in, paying of bills, managing a budget (if you do this at all). Is it you, your partner or is it something that is done jointly?

In our house it's DH because I absolutely cannot stand thinking about money but we have our own bank accounts and sort of divvy up the bills. But largely, he is in charge of finances. I mentioned this to a friend and she was horrified - felt it was old fashioned and completely anti-feminist. My view is that I can't be arsed so am grateful he does it.

So who is the money manager in your house?

DH really...
He made a spreadsheet and we stick to that. It is the most helpful thing ever because I can look at bank balance and date and look at Ss and know exactly how much more has to come out, and therefore how much disposable I have lol

DH does the big stuff - savings, etc and shops around constantly for the best deals on mortgage, gas, etc. It's not because I can't do it, it's because he's inherited the "got-to-be-a-bargain" gene from his mother - I couldn't be bothered looking for the best deal on everything

I do the day-to-day shopping, etc and keep an eye on the bank balance and credit card.

Me

All our earnings go into a joint account, which I control (bills, weekly shop, mortgage, holidays, etc). We each have our own account, which I pay a standing order into each week and DH can do what he likes with his. I spend most of mine on DD and family birthday stuff.

We do big decisions together after DH does loads of research, but I take care of the day to day running of the home and finances. Since I became a SAHM his pay goes into our joint account and I budget for everything, savings, shopping etc. He likes it that way as it's one less thing for him to have to do! Hmmm, I'm actually wondering what he does do, except earn the money :o

Me.

But when we were really poor I put my head in the sand asked dh to do the finances as I got completely stressed by it. Ah the joys of being a student.

Now that we actually have money coming in rather than just out, I have the most fantastic spreadsheet and budget (to halfway thru 2012). There's colour coding and everything

I look after the details, because I'm a bit sad and like hanging around on money saving websites and making spreadsheets with our forecast spending/savings.

Obviously we make the big decisions together, although I often do the 'prep' and narrow it down to a few well calculated choices. I tell him what the impact is of doing X vs. Y, and then we jointly agree on what's best.

I guess we do it between us. Communication is the thing.