How do you sort out finances with your partner?

[gina1929]

Do you combine all money into one joint account? Or do you have a joint account and a separate account for personal spending?
The latter seems more fair especially if one earns a lot more

We have a joint current account and a joint savings account. We both spend money as and when we want but would obviously discuss it if we wanted to buy anything too expensive.

We have separate accounts for our wages as I just think people should have their own personal accounts. But we pool all our salary into a joint account on pay day, pay all bills from there and then each take a set (equal) amount for our own personal spends. We’ve been together since we were young, everything we have we’ve built together. We’ve taken turns being the main earner, at the moment it’s me by quite a margin. I would not feel comfortable having more money than my husband.

I think it depends on the set up really.

We’re married with two children, all money is joint money and once kids are involved its just much easier to do it this way. There is no my money and his money, it’s all joint.

If we weren’t married and didn’t have children I don’t think we’d do it this way though.

DH and I have a joint account and everything goes in and out of there. However we both earn very similar amounts and always have (apart from when I was on mat leave and a period of unemployment for him). And we also have similar spending habits. So it works for us. We are also too lazy to do anything else, that means too much effort tracking it all!

Joint account for bills and family spending
personal accounts for personal
personal savings
family savings

So if you go out for dinner who pays?

If you're a full partnership it doesn't matter who earns more.

Depends on what it’s for…if it’s dinner for all of us as a family because we feel like it then it is joint account. If I am treating dh or he is treating me then it’s from personal. If one of us takes one of the dc out for a treat day 1-1 then generally it’s personal. Etc etc…we just make the call as we go on some other scenarios.

Ours is a bit disorganised really. We have separate current accounts that our salaries go into (he earns more than me). We each pay some bills but it's a bit random, not divided in any meaningful way. At the end of the month we both transfer whatever is left into joint savings. It works for us because we're both naturally careful with money and we earn enough to not be counting the pennies.

Joint account is for joint entertaining

All salary in to joint account and all bills, child related expenses come out of here. We have a joint savings account although we each have some in premium bonds in our names but it’s very much seen as joint money. We each transfer the same amount into our own personal account and that is where we buy “fun” stuff, birthday presents for each other or similar.

If we were out to dinner together or as a family or if one of us took the children out that would be from the joint account. If I went out to dinner with my friends that would be from my account.

Joint account that everything goes into and all bills are paid out of.
Savings are generally split equally but is really dependant on who has some allocation available (PB's, ISA's etc). For instance, when my OH had some money to put away he just opened a new ISA in each of our names and split it equally.

we Have 3 kids
my dp earns more than me and has good overtime potential
we have the child benefit paid into one account and use that for stuff for the kids and stash a bit for bigger expenses
eg school trips / shoes etc

wages each go into our own accounts and we both transfer money into the bills account but we put in different amounts and leave each other with the same amount

if DP does a lot of overtime we put that in savings so it doesn’t get frittered away

All money shared although we don’t have a joint account. Most important factor is that we have a budget for everything- food, utilities, gifts, clothing, holidays etc. so which each knows how much is available for each area. Whose account it comes from is then irrelevant.

DP and I earn a similar amount, and have a child each (both at Uni).

We each pay roughly half of the bills, he pays the mortgage and for our loan on the new boiler and I pay for the food shop and household bills. We have a joint credit card that we both spend on and sort each week transferring money to pay of what each of us have spent.

We have plenty of money to do what we want really, and just pay randomly between us for meals out, tickets for theatre, holidays etc. DP tends to save more than me as I spend more day to day. he therefore normally pays for things like house improvements, more towards holidays, etc.

We are both very relaxed about who pays for what and it just gets done naturally with no worry. We don’t really ever bother about money, but I know we are unusual and that approach wouldn’t work for most people.

I’m in a blended family

We put equal amount into a joint account for bills and groceries etc. If we eat out together we pay from this joint account. Everything else is our own, in our own accounts to do with what we want but mostly fuel and savings

He earns £10k per year more than me so he has more spends technically, but he has younger dependent children and I don’t as mine are older. He doesn’t expect me to pay towards his kids like dinner money or new school shoes although I don’t mind paying towards things, it’s just what we agreed.

We discuss all big purchases together, to be honest we usually check in with each other whenever we spend from the joint account without each other present, I just think out of courtesy so we will tell each other ‘I’m going to pop out for food shopping from joint acc’ and it’s Monzo so we get a notification someone has used the account.

We are super compatible generally anyway, but we have never fought or disagreed about money at all. We totally trust each other and he knows I want an equal relationship in that way. When we got married we split the entire cost 50/50 from our own accounts. So romantic 😂

We need to work on our savings again as we depleted them buying a bigger house. DH is more ‘live for the moment’ than me as I am risk averse, but he’s still very sensible and not irresponsible with money which is why we don’t fall out about it I think

We have entirely separate accounts and no joint. Married 10yrs.

What about family holidays?

We save 2k per month into our joint savings, and 500per month into our holiday fund.

My favourite subject. No joint account. We have separate current accounts and always have had.
No we don't argue about money.
No we don't keep a list of who pays for what.
Yes, we're a team.
He earns more, so pays for more.
Yes it works for us.
34 years together, 23 married. 2 dc.

Not married no kids
50% wages into joint acct
joint acct for mortgage, bills, shared costs (dinners out/ groceries) and sinking funds for hols etc.
personal for hobbies, individual spending etc.
leftover personal into personal savings accts.

So say if you do things with the kids who pays?

I'm a SAHM, he gets paid into our joint account, then a portion immediately gets transferred to the bills and savings accounts respectively. We each get the same amount transferred into our personal accounts for "fun money" and all of our day to day spending, so supermarket shops, clothes for the kids, days out, eating out together/as a family goes on a credit card which we clear at the end of every month. The process was exactly the same when I worked, we both got paid into the joint account then split everything out according to the above.

@gina1929 do you have a budget worked out as a family?

We try but we always end up going over because everything is so expensive now