who deals with the finances in your house?

[zazzabeans]

Although we have a joint bank account, im the one that sorts out bills,food shopping , clothes etc. Both of our wages get paid into it and our child benefit into a seperate account for xmas, birthdays etc.
I suppose everyone does things differently, one of my friends has to ask her husband for everything and she is happy with that, yet another one of my friends has a different account and her husband covers all of the bills and gives her what she calls "pocket money" she is also happy with that.
just wondering what the norm is lol

I don't think there is a norm. I don't think there's one way that is used by a majority significant enough to make it the norm.

I think what matters is that everyone is happy with how it works in their family. Like you say, your friends are happy. I wouldn't be but it works for them.

In our house, I do the budget. I have designed an 18mth cashflow forecast on excel. page per month each page broken down week by week, each week 2 columns - 1st planned 2nd actual. It's got all sorts of formulas that carry forward, show spend to date, surplus/deficit... yup. I'm a big nerd My husband hasn't got a clue how much money we've got or what we spend on bills unless I tell or show him. This is cos he's idle . I don't even think he knows how to log onto the bank accounts. If I drop dead tomorrow, he's screwed

snap ! my husband is clueless aswell andwe are both happy with that
he earns twice as much as me but that's the way it goes lol.
He has just recently went back to work after being made redundant last December, times were hard but we got through it.
I don't keep spread sheets etc, but I do have a separate diary to write down incomings/outgoings each month, I don't know what I would do if I lost it its like my money bible

DP's wages get paid into his own account and he pays the bills with them. My mat pay gets paid into my account and I sort out food shopping and other expenses. Any left-over money gets transferred into our joint account for other things.

devils am in awe of your spreadsheet that's Friday night sorted

I run the money here but its all joint accounts apart from a savings account each.

I'm a SAHM so DH earns the dosh. He set up transfers each month from his wages into a joint/savings account and my own account to cover expenses. He never even activated his card for the joint account and I set up all the online access so he basically can't access any of our money!

I keep an eye on the balances and he just looks at the bottom line when we get the statements through.

I do, DH has very little interest.

There is definitely no norm or ideal. Too many variables between households.

I don't think there is a norm either - it's just what works for individuals. Dh and I both work FT, all our bank accounts are joint and I have the control (and a lovely spread sheet too!!!)

Dh has no idea on our finances, sometimes he asks me stuff and I tell him but he usually gets bored after a few mins. Just because I'm in control though I wouldn't make any big purchases without speaking to him about it first.

He has bank cards and doesn't have to ask permission to spend money.

my dh has very litte interest in money tbh -i like it that way although we have discussed buying a computer for the kids to use but he normally just lets me get on with it .

Me!
We have separate accounts - he pays me his half towards mortgage,bills,1/2 food shop and childcare on payday then all the dd's come out of my account.If there Is a shortfall e.g I overspend on food shop or childcare is slightly more expensive for the month then I cover it (as I am the main earner despite working half the hours dh does). Equally I pay for all the kids clothes,birthday/Xmas presents etc (but then the child benefit gets paid to me). our individual dd's eg for phone, come out of our own accounts.Whatever is left in my account is mine and same for dh - however it is him that will normally 'treat' us to a family meal,takeaway etc and me that pays for family days out such as longleat etc and me who puts away spare into holiday savings.All I ask is that dh pays whatever he
Can afford to spare in addition to his half of the bills for the month if we're saving for something in particular.
Holidays and big purchases are joint decisions but normally funded 70/30 by me I would have said although it does vary.dh hates discussing money and I rip up generic cc applications addressed to him before he has a chance to see them (know from past experience he can't be trusted with a cc!).Holidays/bigger purchases are joint decisions but it's usually me who figures out the best way to go about purchasing things.dh does have a cc in his name which is 0% interest until summer next year which we used to buy cheap flights on for our hol next year before price doubled butthe card is now in my possession and will be paid off in full within the interest free period (dh doesn't know much about importance if not spending on balance transfer cards etc so any cc he's had I've confiscated!).
Friends think we're crazy not to have a
Joint account but I am a control-freak and like to maintain some sort of independence and for us I think a joint account would put unnecessary tension on our relationship.sorry
Long winded answer but there you have it!

Po and kids activities paid for by me (as I receive the child benefit which is meant for them anyway!).

Ps

Also in my job I often have the capacity to work 'extra' hours -although I kiss out on sleep or weekends to do this so I am the one who can work a bit extra if I realise that we have bigger spends coming up eg mot,tax,hol,Xmas etc

Me. I work out how much we pay into joint account and decide if we can afford big purchases. Dh has no idea about our finances and always asks me if he can buy something big as I always know if we can afford it or not.

I'm an accountant.
I do both of our companies accounts and our personal accounts
I handle all bills etc etc
"why have a dog and bark yourself" says DH

We pool all our money - always have.

But the day to day management falls to my husband. He sorts everything out and reports back as necessary.

It's evolved that way over a number of years. Mainly because he's meticulous (spreadsheets and all) whereas I'm a bit slapdash.

It works for us.

Me, he earns about 5x what I do, I keep my own pay, he keeps an equivalent amount (this amount is enough for personal spending for each of us) and puts the rest in my offset mortgage, all joint expenses come out of that. He has access to it indirectly via a credit card paid out of it by direct debit. We are fortunate not to have to budget too strictly, so by and large it is all done automatically by DDs.

I do it all but thats because I'm a control freak good at it.

Everything gets paid into a joint account, we each then transfer "spends" into our own accounts.

I look after everything, mortgage, insurances, bills, credit cards, cars, childcare, activities, ,food budget, holidays, presents, house maintenance costs. H sorts out his mobile phone (just!). H doesn't have a clue how much time and effort goes into it, which has been a bone of contention sometimes, but he is hopeless at it so I don't really have a choice.

My dh pays me a wage, lucky me. Out of his money he pays the utilities and out of mine I pay for food, clothing, entertainment, xmas etc. We both have our own accounts. No joint account anymore as we stopped using it.
If one of us is ever short we just ask the other.

We have separate accounts but I am an accountant and so I control all of the money. I have short and long term forcasts for our mortgage and our savings so I know when it's best to be overpaying and when it's best to be saving.

We owe nothing but a small mortgage but use a credit card each for all our day to day spending to gain reward points that we use for extras. They get paid off at the end of every month so it's like free stuff.

Well both of us... being with a really crap man for years means I can't let go of all the reigns.

We each have our own bank account.. I bring in roughly half the husbands salary.. He takes care of all the big lumps and his debt and I take care of the little lumps and my debt... If either one of us runs out of money then the other person picks up the slack.

It works pretty good.. I would feel really stressed if it was just one bank account.

Ours is a pretty even split. We each pay a proportionate amount into the joint account, which covers all the communal expenses. He sorts out the broadband and phone, I arrange insurance, gas and electric, he works out the ratios we pay in and does our financial forecasts, I keep an eye on the financial climate and make the big decisions about the mortgage, we are both in the same final salary pension scheme. And he earns about 10% more than me, but I paid the deposit on our house from the sale of our previous one... Not a lot to choose between us.

I do like a good spreadsheet...mine goes to May 2020 as that's when I'm (currently!) due to be mortgage free...yay!

All joint bills come from my ac, DP moved in with me so everything was already set up from my ac anyway. He transfers his contribution to me when he gets paid...we split our contributions based on a %age of overall income, think its 47/53 split at the moment.

DP has little/no idea of day to day costs (bread, milk, etc) but keeps on top of house/utilities expenditure.

my mortgage free date is September 17th 2014
and counting

then the money starts to pile up for the DCs uni living expenses
diverted into some of the killer expensive but fab A level trips at PSC

we adjust the dividends we take from our companies depending on need and will probably make the kids share holders when they are older

Welljel Talkinpeace...that said, I've not updated spreadsheet to include twice yearly bonuses so I may pull it in a bit earlier