How do you do money?

[LadyVampire]

Me and Dh currently get paid into separate accounts, we each take off what we need a month for personal expenses eg phone, petrol and whatever is left goes into joint account.

We also each have £100 a month pocket money to spend as we wish. We also have a joint savings.

Just wondering how others do it for any better ideas?

Earn roughly the same. CB and Tax Credits go into my account.
I pay: Mortgage, utilities, mobile phones, savings (such as they are!) kids clothes and holidays.
He pays: Car related expenses, weekly shop, childcare.
I get paid monthly and he gets paid weekly so there's a certain amount of swapping cash cards around if one of us runs low.

We both have our own accounts and are wages are paid into there. We each then pay a set amount, enough to comfortably cover all household costs, into a joint account from which all direct debits and bills come out.

We also use the joint account money to pay the credit card bill every month, but may need to top up from our personal accounts if something big (e.g. holiday) has come out.

The remainder of money in our own accounts is used for our own savings and spendings, for example phone bills, however we like. If one of us is skint then the other transfers some in to their account, we are quite relaxed about this as neither of us is a shopaholic or has expensive hobbies.

The amount going into the joint account has varied over the years depending on how much we are each earning and spending. For example, childcare was paid by a salary sacrifice scheme from my account so I dropped the amount I was paying in and DH increased his. I earn less (higher salary but part time) so I pay less, at the moment I think it is about a 60/40 split

It seems to work well and we have no financial worries or stress.

Couples we know who dont have a joint account for household stuff and pay different bills from their own accounts always seem to be arguing about who paid more. One couple we know pay everything 50/50 despite a huge difference in salary, leaving one permanently skint and the other spending extravagantly. That looks like a recipe for divorce to us

Joint account, both salaries go in, then a couple of days later a fixed amount is transferred into a second joint account for all bills. We both take what we need from the remainder, but discuss large spends (over about £50) first. Whatever is left at the end of the month is transferred into a third joint account for savings.

We have a joint santander so both salaries get paid in, and all bills etc come out of it. It doubles as our savings atm as the interest rate and cash back % is higher than most savings. Now that's nearly maxed out we will need to look at our other options. But we both have free and easy access to our shared pot of money. We both maintain our old current accounts and that has a relatively small balance in it but our main money pot is shared

1st marriage: got together at uni & opened a joint account for food & bills although both had separate accounts as well. Moved abroad for a few years and just had 1 account there then just joint accounts when we came back to UK.

Currently: been with DH 5+ years, married last Jun. Completely separate finances, he moved into my house and has a monthly SO to me to cover his share of costs. I have my salary, his SO and CM from exH. I pay all house bills, except Sky which he wanted. Both buy food, he mainly pays when we go out. Holidays about 50/50. We'd probably have combined finances a bit more given time, but he has terminal cancer and we haven't.

I get paid monthly and my salary pretty much exactly covers our monthly bills (all housing/joint costs as well as individual bills like mobiles etc). So when I get paid, the full amount goes into the joint account to cover all our living expenses.

Dh gets paid four weekly and it's his money we live off/save. So we have X amount per week (divide it by four)...we don't do the £X per month each personal money as it's not that rigid...we just both spend what we need or want (within reason) from that weeks money.

Both salaries into joint account, I get an amount into my account for all child related expenses, food, petrol for my car & anything I need, Dh gets an amount for his petrol and anything he needs. Anything that's left in the joint account is for luxuries/extras.

All money goes into and out of our joint account. We have separate work-based retirement savings accounts into which money is deposited from our pay pre-tax.

By MN standards my dh is the victim of a financially absuive relationship. Except that he's not we just don't do money the MN way. Dh pays for everything by paying a large sum into the joint account. What money I make goes into my personal account and is my own

Everything either of us earn goes into a joint account. Everything gets paid out of there: tax (we live in a non-PAYE country), savings, pension, bills, childcare, groceries, frittering etc. We use YNAB and I do all the budgeting because it makes me anxious if I don't know what money we have, and he doesn't care so much. I run all the financial decisions past him (such as "I've found a cheaper travel insurance policy, you ok with this?") and insist that he sits down with me regularly so I can show him where everything is up to. Other than that, I get on with it, including paying his CC bills and phone bill. We have the same budgeted fritter money a month, but we earn well and are very comfortable so we don't always stick to it. If we do overspend and need to take a couple of months a bit carefully I warn him and he doesn't spend with his usual willful abandon :).

We're currently in a very comfortable position - earning a lot and building up our savings (although arguably not as fast as we should given what's coming in every month) but it hasn't always been this way. We came to 2 days short of declaring bankruptcy not so long ago after a succession of horribly timed disasters. That's NOT going to happen again. I know we're very lucky in that we have been a true partnership for a long time and we have the same attitude to money and similar priorities, so it works well for us.

The only downside I can see to our way of living is that I always know where he's bought my Christmas present and how much he's spent on it :).

We have separate accounts, divided direct debits between us and it works well.
Stopped having a joint account (that I hadn't used for years, I didn't even have a card for it) when the bank contacted me to pay of DH's overdraft he'd run up on it. That taught me a lesson as no way could I pay it off ☹️, but I was jointly responsible because it was a joint account!
Beware!

Salaries go into separate accounts, then majority is transferred into joint account to cover bills, food shopping, petrol etc. An amount goes into my savings account to cover holidays, treats, Xmas etc, and a larger amount goes into DH's savings account for major renovations we are saving up for.

The amount we each pay into various accounts changes (as I have moved from working f/t, SAHM, p/t) but we are always each left with an equal amount of 'pocket money' every month.

Both salaries paid into joint account and all DD come out of that account.
Joint CC that is paid off in full each month from joint account.

We just spend as we wish, discussing bigger purchases (what fall in that category has changed over the years).

DH keeps a firm handle of the account (often checking it daily) and will let me know if we need to cut back a bit.

With ex DH we used to put both salaries into a joint current account and then a lump sum was paid into expenses account at the start of the month to cover all monthly DD and any annual expenses. Then we just spent from the joint current account.

A joint savings account, Individual ISAs and shares (but very much view them as ours not an individuals).

We've got disparate incomes now I'm part-time after having DS.

We're both paid into our personal account, I use a spreadsheet to calculate all of the outgoings for the coming month.

I then calculate how much we each send to the joint which covers all bills (except mobile phones) and joint savings but will leave us with equal amounts of disposable income.

We are both usually left with about £400 each to 'play' with after savings of around £300 and £160 to a separate account for car expenses.

Prior to my being part-time we just halved everything as we earned pretty much the same.

Separate just because we are too lazy to set up a joint account

DH pays most bills and rent etc. I pay for food and buy clothes for us and stuff for the house. I earn significantly less. Because of a quirk in German tax law we pay the same amount of tax

Everything in and out of knew joint account. A few instant access savings accounts for non-monthly bills, holidays, school stuff. Proper savings accounts for rainy day saving. Every single penny is written up on a spreadsheet.

One not knew...

All one pot.

And same as SquidgeyMidgey, some goes into instant access savings (holidays etc) and some goes in to investments/long term savings. The 'one pot' covers everything else (bills, mortgage, personal expenditure, food, petrol etc)

I pay for everything and pay the bloke a salary from my company.

He uses that for food, wood, pets, his phone, some oil and some car expenses. Some childcare too. There's probably other stuff I have forgotten.

We aren't married, have 4 kids and the house is in my name. I work but he doesn't. It's a wonderfully financially abusive relationship if you listen to other people but works for us.

Always been separate. No joint account. I had a prenup. Our homes are in my name because dh is self employed.

We have never had an Rgument over money because we have the same attitude to it careful