look will all you women just sort out your bloody money

[Cappuccino]

endless threads about money

endless threads about people's dh's 'giving' them money for teh children/ spending the family money on twattage

will you just please all get it sorted DO IT MY WAY

all money that comes into house is joint money

you both have same amount of money to spend on fun - put in a separate account one for you one for him

you can buy books/ make-up/ Bacardi Breezers he can go to karate/ football matches/ buy magazines about bikes

when your fun budget is done you do not spend holiday fund/ children's clothes money/ food money/ take out loans in secret

JUST GET IT SORTED AND ALL THE WORLD WILL LIVE IN HARMONY FOREVER MORE

We've always worked on separate accounts - but both WOTH. My job has a higher than normal risk of being sued and I tend to be at the sharp end of that, so we are keen to ringfence 'our' money into DH's name as much as possible.

I like having complete control over my own finances and wouldn't like it any other way. In fact, if I were a SAHM I rather suspect I would prefer DH to transfer money into my own separate account so that it was mine to do with as I pleased.

oh allright Capp,
I'll let you off, you can have a rosette aswell then.

no the rosettes are MINE to hand out

you upstart

We have had a joint account for about a year. We didn't have one before as we only had debts (we still only have debts but we found a bank that would take us on!) but I didn't want to be on maternity leave and the one paying for everything and saying "can you give me you half for XXX"

Originally we both put a proportion of what we earned in (I earn more than him, but then I spent more money on my education) but now we are both pretty much equal we put equal amounts in and what is left we can do what we want with without feeling bad. Our debts are also our own.

I think our way works best, everything shared is paid for equally and we both have our own money for spending on frivolities (in reality this is v little and mostly goes on credit cards). But everyone works differently, as long as you are both happy with the way you do things, and trust each other, I think people should do things their own way.

I wanta rosette, I wanta rosette

OK our situation

£x is household bills inc mortagage/shopping/telephone/council tax etc

I earn £y which is approx 3x dh who earns £z.

Therefore I get paid and put £x into the joint account which we both use for 'household' stuff.

I keep £y - £x for myself

Dh has £z for himself

Strangely £z = £y - £x

So we both have £ to spend although when I earn more I jus a load into savings for the big stuff

Same arrangement as MI ie separate accounts out of which we pay the same amount into the joint account.

I started off earning a few multiples of dh. Then I went pt with children, now I earn about par with dh. Dh will very quickly outstrip me in the coming years ... so might have to rethink the arrangements a la Cappucino!

But I do all the household finances, planning, budgeting, tax returns and tell dh how much he has to set aside and invest, which (bless him) he listens because he is so thankful he does not have to do it.

I do feel a need to know where the money is going and that we are on the straight and narrow.

We started off like MI and blueshoes - put equal amounts in to the joint account and had the rest left over as our own. When we had kids however it didn't make sense - my income was swinging from zero to multiples of dh's depending on my state of maternity leave, plus virtually all our spending now is on joint things - household, childcare, kids, car, holidays etc etc. so now we do it Cappucino's way (well my way obviously as I did come up with it all by myself). Though our 'fun' funds are really becoming superfluous (their only purpose as far as I can see is to put some boundaries around my clothes habit and dh's gadget habit!)

But really, I view it all as mine being the spreadsheet half of the partnership. I decide, dh agrees. Fortunately he is indifferent rather than irresponsible!

We do it the Cappuccino way and it works. 3 accounts - joint, his, hers. All money goes into joint account then allowance is paid to his and hers. DH uses much of his for mountaineering holidays. I spend more on clothes/cosmetics. When we have plenty of money we have a higher allowance, when poor (normally) we cut our allowance.

When MrNC and I moved in together, we thought we'd get a joint account - everyone does, right?

Turned out to be stupidly complicated, couldn't be done by phone/internet, needed to go into a bank together (worked on different sides of London), etc, etc.

So just kept our own accounts, given that a bank transfer between us can be done online and happen immediately.

The mortgage has always come from his, and other bills from mine, with a standing order from one to t'other of us adjusted as needed - eg we've recently got a joint credit card to get lots of John Lewis vouchers, which I pay, so I've stopped the extra money I used to give him for the mortgage.

Essentially he earns more but is terrible at paperwork, whereas I'm in control of the money. The number of times I've given him paper and said "Sign here" and he has - I could have ripped him off so badly! But most of them have been setting up savings - we agree on what goes in savings, so anything left in individual accounts is fair game for fun.

I have never contemplated having joint account as the sole bank acc. Too much of a control freak! I like having my own money - i earn less than half my DH; he is helping me fund my PT studies. We have a joint bank acc into which I put in a very small amount towards mortgage and bills & I spend the rest. If I go overdrawn (v rare) I have asked him for extra money. He pretty much pays for the lions share of the mortgage etc. I spend most of his money on yummy food and stuff for the house/ trips away and he spends his fun money on his stuff... Seems to work pretty well. When we have LO's though we may have to move to a joint account which will be very wierd...