How do you split your bills with your partner?

[Newmum8990]

My partner and I have just had our first baby! I’m currently on maternity leave and luckily we are fortunate enough that I can have around 13/14 months off with her.

I am returning to work doing 30 hours per week and I’ll be taking home £1777, to be precise. My partner takes home £2400

My expenses are higher (£165) compared to my partner (£60).

Our bills combined (taking into consideration increasing energy prices) is £1850 but we want to put in £1900 so we have a float for emergencies.

How does everyone split their bills with their partner, e.g. do you do a 50/50 split regardless of income? Or 60/40?

We were thinking of £850 for me and £1050 for my partner OR £900 for me and £1000 for my partner.

Intrigued to know how everyone works it.

Ours goes in the same pot. So the bills get paid. We put money aside for petrol and food. Then the rest is either savings or spending.
we don’t and have never had a separate bank account. If we want to buy something we do. We discuss larger items to buy. But we have the same money.

my grandparents always had seperate money. And even at the age of 80 she was saying he owed her 50 p.

Each to their own.

What do your 'expenses' cover? Travel to work costs should be accounted for, hair and nails perhaps not so much so?

If we ignore expenses then you should pay 42.5% of the bills as that's the percentage of the income you earn. So £807 to your partners £1093...

Or you both have the same 'left over' which would mean your partner paying a bit more.

That's assuming you rent your home or are joint tenants/ 50/50 on the house deeds. As you are not married I would protect your interests in the property particualry given there are now children involved.

@Paranoidandroidmarvin so you put your whole monthly income into the same pot??

We put into the same joint bank account but as I was earning more on full time we were splitting the bills straight down the middle so we were both putting the same amount into the joint account..

I was trying to get an understanding of what other households do in terms of income and what they each put in.

We have separate money in terms of going out or buying things for ourselves..

This won't work for everyone but because we have different attitudes to left over money it works for us.

We have a joint account which we pay for bills proportionately into, DH earns a bit more than me but not much so we pay roughly 45/55. We then have a joint savings account where we put money in each month to the same ratio, any left over we then have in personal savings accounts. This works for us because I'm a saver and pretty thrifty whereas DH is a bit of a spender; as long as we have household stuff covered it works as I don't get stressed about his spending and he doesn't get frustrated with my being careful hah.

As long as its fair for you both so whatever works :)

The same as pp, all our money goes into one pot and we use it for bills, own spending etc. we are not married but share our wages, we earned roughly the same till we had children, now I’m part time, but we never think my money, your money, our savings are the same, except for ISAs. Either of us are big personal spenders though.

@LittleOwl153

My expenses cover fuel for my car, rabbit insurance (as they are my rabbits), phone bill, Spotify and Netflix.

We mortgage our home. My partner put the deposit down, however we have a pre nup should anything go wrong..

Thank you for the advice!

@Crocwok sounds as though you’ve got a good deal going on there! I like how you have worked that. Seems fair on you both x

@Manzana ah okay! Makes sense as I guess when children are involved the dynamics change as you are looking after something you’ve both created! X

I earn quite a bit more than DH, but we both put the same amount into our joint account each month, to cover mortgage, bills, eating out, our main holiday.
He covers all petrol and car expenses (as it’s his, and he uses it for his work), and I cover all decorating and house maintenance, such as refitting bathroom, as the house is mine.
I also tend to pay for more of the treats such as takeaways, plus extra holidays.

I couldn't live like that. Does he not watch Netflix or listen to Spotify? There are rabbits in the house but the rabbits are yours alone?
Yet you have a child together and have formed a family.

Get married to protect yourself as you drop your hours, lose current income, risk promotion prospects so risk future income and also the opportunity to build up your pension so lose retirement income as well.

Then pool everything, pay all the bills and set aside agreed amount of savings then agree an equal amount of spending money for genuine personal spending after that.

We don't even do that, we just personal spending from the joint account because we have similar approach to money and genuinely don't care if one spends more than the other at various times. But I do understand that wouldn't work for everyone.

Yup. All our money is together. It’s our money. I have always earned less. That would have meant that we would never have been able to have gone on holidays together as I could never have afforded the ones he wanted. Our lifestyles would have been different.

we are and will always be doing this together. Again. Each to their own. But if my husband was off doing lots of expensive things and buying expensive stuff while I was sitting around with holes in my clothes our relationship would never have lasted.

I'd say 1093 to 807 =1900 which is basically 0.46% of both salaries. However as he'd have 1307 left to your 970 is expect him to pick up more incidentals and as you'll prob end up doing most of the baby shopping (clothes etc) an extra £50 a month towards incidentals.

Alt is MN so all money MUST go into one pot and you get equal spend

We go for the proportional and keep our own accounts

We put everything in one pot and have done since we were engaged (though it was a very small pot back then!) in the last 10 years we have both spent several years studying not earning (different times) and both have been the higher earner at various points, I’m part time now after maternity leave.
It works because both have a similar approach to money - neither spends loads more on themselves and we discuss / agree on big expenses.

If my husband wants to buy something expensive. We put money in a pot for him to be able to save and do that. Yes it means there is less money. But I don’t really care. And the same the other way round. My husband isn’t a bit spender but I have hobbies. So I tend to spend more. But he doesn’t care or nor would I if it was the other way round

@tigerbear your set up sounds very similar to ours! X

@academicyeah no he actually doesn’t watch Netflix and I have a personal Spotify account. It was my decision to get the rabbits so I am
more than happy to pay for them.

We are engaged and planning on getting married.

Thank you for sharing your way of doing it! X

Total income £4177 into one account.
Less £225 expenses
Less £1850 bills

Left over = £2102

Save a chunk and enjoy life with your lovely family.

All money is shared we don’t really have his and my money, it’s been this way since we got engaged. Which was over 22 years ago. We have since got married, bought a house and had children but still works well for us. Dh has always earned much more than me, it’s only recently that we have started earning roughly he same,

technically dh pays all the bills(with some left over) and my wages are for saving and spending .

We do same percentage into joint account to match our incomes. So i earn 65% and my DH earns 35% of our joint income so i pay for 65% of our joint bills from our joint account. We pay for our own seperate bills ourselves and then have our own spending money.

I would never want both salaries going into a joint account, always my personal account and then we move money.

We share all. I pay all household bills he pays childcare and food. Works out about the same tbh. We both take money for our phones and expenses (his are £150 more than mine due to his hobby which is fine) and a set amount each to do with as we want (we call it our monthly pocket money lol) Whatever is left is put into joint savings. Works well for us. We are currently on the same salary but soon DP will be earning £400-500 more than me a month due to a promotion. He is happy for us to continue as we are and the extra go into joint savings. If we need more though we can both just access what we need.

DH and I earn similar amounts. We both have salary paid to our own accounts. Then we both transfer £1100 into joint account and mortgage, utilities, council tax, insurances for house, lives, travel, TV licence, water rates, maintenance on home, car fuel, food, toiletries, joint gifts come from joint account. We each pay out for our own mobile, hair cuts, dentist, hobbies, gifts for each other, personal spends like a new laptop or watch etc, lunch out with friends without partner, treating my sister or niece to something she could not afford etc. We go halves on holidays. It works because we earn very similar amounts. If one earned more than other then higher earner would pay in more proportionally to lower earner.

This might seem disorganised to others..
We have been together ~10 years, engaged and married more recently in that time. We've long-distanced and lived together. We just pay for things without really thinking about it. Both earn similar (I currently earn a little more). Separate accounts (haven't bothered merging yet but both happy to, got an online joint bank account for this purpose but just not familiar enough to use it, its not a mainstream bank).

Currently he pays all bills in short-term set up in a relatives home. I have previously paid his rent when long-distancing. He has previously paid rent, bills everything when I was a student. We don't think too much about it. He goes out grocery shopping etc far more than me. If we're out together I tend to be faster offering my card out for dinners/ food shops etc.

We see both of our money as ours and are using that total amount to make a house purchase. Almost just seems like it doesn't really matter who pays for what on a daily basis as its all both of ours. We run things by or at least mention to the other before making any big purchases even if using our own money (whether its a car or a coffee machine). Works for us. Maybe wouldnt be so easy if we earnt vastly differing amounts.

I am married. All our day to day money is in one pot. All bills come from that and we treat ourselves (or each other) from that. Major purchases are discussed and agreed. It's worked for us for 25 years.

All money in joint account, then a certain amount per month is put in our personal accounts for personal spending.

We're the same. Share all our money.