Gift budget shared decision making

[Olessya]

Hi there,

I’m interested to know how those in relationships/marriages where they have merged finances manage gift budgets for friends and family. Are you willing to pay for gifts for people who aren’t really your friends/don’t have any personal relationships with and more your partners friends? How do you decide/ agree on a shared budget for this person if you are? What if your on one income between you?

Is it a reasonable request to expect my partner to pay for gifts for their friends out of their own spending pot?

Curious on the peoples thoughts on this topic…

Thanks all.

I don’t share finances with my partner. But if you make the decision to share finances then why on earth would you have a separate pot for friends’ gifts. That just seems weird. Either share finances or don’t in my opinion.

We have merged finances to the extent we don't have separate pots. If he deems it worthy to buy a gift for someone, I suppose I in theory go along with it because it comes out of our shared accounts. I figure I have a bigger family so we're probably paying more for their presents though the year and stuff probably evens out.

We don't usually buy more than something token like a book as a present and we have enough money we're not too worried about that amount so it's not worth discussing for us. If you're single income and noticing the amount being spent in your weekly budget and thinking it's unbalanced against what you spend on gifts, I'd say it's reasonable he pay for it himself.