How do you split your finances with partners?

[wildbuttercup]

My DP and I are planning on buying a house together quite soon. We aren't married and I think we aren't ready to have completely joint finances yet. We still want our wages to come into our own accounts but wouldn't mind having a separate joint account for bills, food etc. How do you all split your bills? Do you have a separate joint account to pay the bills out of? Is this an administrative headache?

Before we were married we did this, had a joint account for household stuff, insurance etc and paid in same amount each month (at the time we earned similar amounts). I now earn a lot more than him so contribute much more, he is uncomfortable having fully joint finances even though he would benefit more so this works for us for now.

Yes, joint account for bills etc. Also joint credit card for food, household purchases. This is paid on a direct debit from the joint current account.

We pay a set amount into the joint account. If a surplus builds up we can use it for big stuff like a new fence for example.

I think this makes it almost impossible to argue about money

Me and my partner go 50-50 and pay into a joint account, but keep our own account for wages.
I earn a lot more than my other half so I tend to pay more for bits here and there or can be the only one to put in savings sometimes, but happy to do this as he pays towards a loan in my name :)

Brill thank you. I think I will follow suit. Good to hear it works!

All wages to one account. Spend whatever is needed. Big purchases we have a discussion

We are unmarried and currently rent. As he is the bigger earner, he pays the rent and all household bills. I pay for the food, my own credit card, car insurance/fuel personal spending etc aswell as stuff for the kids (clothes, activities etc). We tend to split Christmas costs 50/50.

We are looking to buy in the new year and plan to have joint finances pooling both our wages to one account for all household outgoings, putting some to savings etc and then each having an amount transferred to our personal accounts for our own spending. Hoping that will work for us.

We pool our money into one ‘pot’ (though we do have separate accounts and a joint account but all three accounts are ‘our money’). We discuss big purchases. Have done this since we first moved in together 8 years ago and it works really well for us, we never argue about money.

My DH and I have separate current accounts that our wages are paid into. We also have a joint current account that we each pay money into for bills/food etc and a couple of joint savings accounts for various purposes. But, I think this only works because we earn very similar amounts. If one of us earned significantly more than the other we would have to rethink the way we do it. In fact I'm about to start maternity leave so we will need to have a chat about how things are going to work while I'm not on full pay.

Own accounts, then a joint account that all bills come out of. Regular monthly payments from each of us into it, amounts variable depending on circs (eg when I was on maternity pay I didn't pay anything in). Not an administrative hassle at all. Same for credit cards - have a joint one we both have cards for, and each have an individual one too.

If you’re ready to make one of the largest financial commitments you’re likely to make by buying a house together, why would you not be ready to have joint finances? To me that seems slightly backwards...

We did joint finances for a year before buying, we’d lived together for four years before that. We each had our own account, a joint account for bills but ran a joint budget using budgeting software.

If you do decide to buy a house as unmarried couple, make sure your legal set up is suitable. For example, we hold our house as tenants in common rather than joint tenancy.

All money into one account. We both spend what we need from that account - discuss big purchases. Works fine for us.

Similar here. In a previous relationship that wasn’t quite committed enough for joined finances, there was joint account. We both put the same amount of money in there every month. It covered bills, food + there was a buffer.

If you’re buying together, you’ll need to sit down with a solicitor to work out what percentage of the property you’re going to each buy and then work out your mortgage payments in proportion. And then it would make sense to pay the bills 50:50

If you're not committed to each other why buy a house together? it'll link you if you split up.

We are committed but I think I would prefer to have my own current account that my wages go into so that I don't feel like I'm spending his money whenever I buy anything for myself. But thanks guys I will Defo go with the separate joint account for now.

I have never had joint finances with partners, houses were Tenants in Common or Sole Ownership, no joint bank accounts. Lucky really as my baby's Dad was solvent when I met him then over a period of 2 years accumulated 23k of debt and 2 CCJ's (certainly not spending on me or our son).

If you don’t want joint finances the don’t buy a house together.

We each keep the same amount back from our wages for personal spends and put the rest into the joint account.

My fiance and I go a little further than joint bills, and go for a joint lifestyle account.

So part of the money we put in each month is to fund takeaways, meals out, bar tabs, some minor holiday expenses (soon to be all holiday expenses). When we have kids, all money for them will go into and come out of that account to, and we have a savings account for all joint savings goals too (mortgage overpayments, 6 months bills saved, wedding savings etc).

Then our money that's left over is for whatever we want to spend or save individually.