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.

We put both of our wages in joint account, all bills and any socialising we do together comes out of that. We also both have £240 each transferred to our individual accounts to spend on what ever we like. That way we both have same disposable income to play with and don't feel like we're being watched on our spending. Mine gets frittered away meeting friends for coffee and dinner, he spends his on his hobby and a big lads night out every other month.
If we have something big coming up, eg I'm off for a weekend with my girl friends, we will discuss and take a bit extra out the joint account for the occasion. It's not an issue.

I never understand the % thing. To us we are a team and it's more important to us to have the same disposable income so that we don't feel resentment if the other is able to do more. I earn about £4k a year more than DH. I don't begrudge him having the same spending money as me out of the account. 10 years ago he was the higher earner and we had the same system then too.

Problem with this is as you are married the house is a joint asset - on divorce it would be part of the assets and could leave your husband homeless if you have high care needs etc.

We have separate bank accounts. I don't personally like joint bank accounts.

DP earns slightly more so pays for gas and electric. Other than that everything is 50/50.

We have separate accounts, but money is kind of joint. I earn a lot less, so DH pays most of the bills- I pay car, pet, and life insurances. I usually pay for holidays, because I book them. We don’t keep watch on one another’s spending, but we are respectful. We don’t tend to ask one another for money for personal stuff.

I bet he's not looking forward to the price increases.

Splitting bills 50/50 or even by percentage of income works when you dont have children, but it doesnt work when you have children because its not fair.

You put everything into one account to cover all the bills, food, travel, clothes, takeaways. gifts - LIFE. You can agree to both have an agreed personal pot in your own accounts to spend how you want (I like this, so my DH cannot judge how many times a week I go to Pret...) but again, it should be fair. You shouldnt be on less just because you are on maternity.

Another one who has a joint account.
there's no my money, his money. We share it all.
A big purchase etc we discuss and save if needed.
Otherwise we spend what we want from it.

To add.
We've had this since we moved in together.
We've both been paid higher than each other at different times, I've been on mat leave etc.

Everyone is different, but for me, if I was invested enough to have a baby with someone then everything would just be shared in one pot with no fuss over how things are split.

Splitting is understandable when you are just partners and still living separately, but once you have a baby you are one unit.

All in one pot, we pay bills and spending from there. Separate savings accounts but we discuss and agree any big spending. We’ve been together nearly 25 years, sometimes I earned more, since having kids he earns much more than me, it’s always been family money.

All into one account. Bills come out. Put money into a joint saving account. Then when we need money we transfer amounts into our own individual accounts - this is haphazard and not planned well! If an item is over eg £100 we check in with each other. Works well for us.

I massively out earn my husband and our living costs reflect my salary - there was no point doing a proportionate split. Have to hope and pray we don't get a divorce - he promises me it isn't on his agenda...!

Separate accounts where salary goes in.

Then joint account for all expenses.

No kids: we pay proportionally to income.

If we had kids, we'd just plan so that were both left over with the exact same amount for personal use each, regardless of income - you can't put a price on one parent doing more childcare and housework.

We share everything (I earn significantly more, but when we first got together it was vice versa). It’s one pot.

When we earned roughly the same - within 10% of each other (net) we each put the same into the joint account. From that we'd pay all bills, household expenses, joint savings, etc., etc.

When DH was out-earning me significantly, we (well he, actually) decided it was much fairer to split it so we each had exactly the same left over at the end of the month.

I didn't take a long maternity leave anyway, but at that point it meant that he out-earned me by more than our total regular outgoings so I just stopped putting anything into the joint account and he also gave me extra money each month, too.

In your position I'd say you putting in £700 and him £1200 is very fair on him.

You’ve got a baby. Of course it all goes into one pot.

DH and I put the same amount into a joint account each month - all household bills, mortgage, pet stuff, Netflix etc comes from there. The rest of our money remains in our own accounts.

Once we had our first we got a joint account and a budgeting app, everything we earn goes into that and is subsequently divided up into bills, holidays, kids stuff, food shopping - we get an equal amount of “pocket money” regardless of what we each bring in

We both put the same into the joint account, he pays for food shopping I deal with the kids activities and general expenditure, phone bills, clothes etc and holidays. I earn more than him. It all works out in the wash.

We don’t split anything. All money goes in one pot. The money for regular direct debits gets transferred to another account and the rest stays in joint account and used jointly.

We have a big discrepancy in earning, but we’re a family so all income going into one account, and we each have a transfer of the same amount to an individual account for personal spending. It works for us, but may not work for everyone.

We probably aren’t typical as we have separate bank accounts and don’t have any formal arrangement for who pays what.

DH and I have separate bank accounts. We organise payments for a 50/50 split, and re-evaluate every 6 months or so to make sure it's fair. I get the CB for DD(3) and spend it on her. Any big purchases for her, we discuss and split the cost.

Ignore anyone who tells you what you 'should' do and do whatever works best for your family!

When I was on maternity, my wages were up and down, where as my husbands were consistent, some months I simply didn't earn enough to cover my share. So now, he pays all household bills, cars, insurance, mobile phones etc. My share pays for savings, food and the fun things. It works for us.

We keep our financial affairs totally separate, in fact I have no idea how much my husband actually earns. The house is in joint name but I do have a property in my name that I inherited from my grandparents. Investment portfolio is in his name, and I have no idea what that consists of but I'd only have to ask. We split the bills equally altho my husband will pick up the odds and sods as and when.

We don't live in each other's pockets and we respect each other's privacy but I can speak to him about anything and I trust him with my life.

prior to kids we had a joint account for bills which were split 50/50 and anything else was personal. DP earned a bit more than me but we were both good earners.

when we had kids (still not married) we changed and everything went into one account as we were a family. Initially we transferred a small “pocket money” amount to our individual accounts but stopped that fairly quickly. We both have similar spending habits so it never felt unfair.

We’re married now and still everything goes into 1 pot.

it’s whatever works for you though, my friend and her husband still split all the bills 50/50 and whatever extra they earn is their personal money.