Married Couples : Finances Split or Combined?

Married 10 years, everything goes into and comes out of a joint account(s). The only exception is pension, but that's purely from a practical point of view.

[Edit] Wow... married 10 years... Where the **** did that time go :eek:
 
We have 3 accounts (all joint)

  1. Day-to-day (where both our wages go)
  2. Bills (standing order from day-to-day)
  3. Savings (another standing order)

Money goes in on 30th, bills and savings go out on the 1st each month. Whatever is left in the day-to-day is shared equally for food, fuel and treats etc.

The standing orders are calculated based on a excel spreadsheet of known outgoings which I review annually. This helps keep track of monthly bills and has come in handy a few times (like spotting when the BT bill is rising)
 
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We have our salaries paid into our own accounts. We both then transfer an amount each month into joint accounts for bills and mortgage etc. I pay more into the joint as my salary is higher. I also buy a lot of the family stuff and all car stuff out of my account again because my salary is considerably higher than hers.
 
Well I earn a lot more than my wife.

My take home pay is over three times her main salary. (but she works 25 hrs a week - teaching assistant.)

She has just taken on a part time weekend role as a chef at a restaurant in our local town centre. A posh Italian bistro place, we don't need the cash, but she does it because she enjoys doing this; hell I think she would do it for free.

All the bills are in my name, and come from my single bank account. She does pay in £500 a month towards all household bills. But our disposable funds are in seperate single accounts.
However if she wants/needs something she just asks and I will pay the funds into a joint account for her if it is something sizable as her disposable income cannot cover it. I never question what she wants or when, but on the flip side, she doesn't take the pee. And I get no grief for anything I spend my money on either.

Both of us are happy with our finances and way of life. But everybody is different, what works for us may not work for others.
 
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Not married but we have separate accounts and a joint account that we both transfer same amount into each month. Even though I earn little over 5k more than her our take home is pretty much the same as I pay a bit more into pension and also pay for critical illness, life cover etc through salary sacrifice scheme to cover mortgage if needed.
 
my wife and I have separate finances and a joint account, all bills come from joint and our own money is to do with as you please. Never had a problem with it in over 5 years and neither of us would ever want to tell the other what to do with their money.

the thought of having to justify the purchase of something I want to anyone irritates me
 
Peerzy said:
We both receive our own pay into our own accounts. We then have a SO setup to move an equal amount into a joint account which covers all joint spending for the month (mortgage, bills, utilities, food shops, meals out, joint purchases etc....).
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This set up with the wife
 
We've recently gone from spilt to joint after getting married and now we're starting to save for our own place.

It makes it easier for budgeting and faffing around with transferring money here, there and everywhere!
 
We have our own accounts. And a joint bill account. We transfer a set amount each, that's equal, into it. My wife earns a lot more than me though and she likes to have her money. Which is not a problem even though I wanted a joint all in account.
However I'm the one who over sees all accounts and makes sure everything is in the black. But if either of us hit a financial bump I always move money around to help each other. Even if it eats into my savings, which isn't much. That's why I'm building a budget pc from mostly old parts people don't want.
 
One single joint account, then we both have online savers with the same bank if we want to start squirreling cash away around birthdays and Christmas, its sucks when i can see she has spent £60 at game the week before my birthday ha
 
We have a bit of a random setup but it suits us, the wife and I both get paid into our own accounts, the mortgage, anything to do with our cars, phones, internet etc come out of my account. Utilities and all kinds of insurance policies come out of the wifes. We have a joint account which we both pay an amount into which is predominantly savings but is also money for when we decide to go out on a day or night out. I also have my own savings account as does the wife, mine is basically a slush fund for the cars and she likes to buy bags, shoes and clothes while depleting my car slush fund by bouncing off of posts, walls and kerbs. :)
 
If Married with kids (like me) I believe you should be working for the family unit as a whole. Thus everything is joint. I do, however, have a tech fund that I have setup to buy and sell tech to help fund my expensive hobbies, without feeling guilty when I want to buy a £500 phone ;P
 
BradShort said:
If Married with kids (like me) I believe you should be working for the family unit as a whole. Thus everything is joint. I do, however, have a tech fund that I have setup to buy and sell tech to help fund my expensive hobbies, without feeling guilty when I want to buy a £500 phone ;P
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I would agree with this, I think that if the wife fell pregnant our setup and lifestyle would probably have to change.
 
BradShort said:
If Married with kids (like me) I believe you should be working for the family unit as a whole. Thus everything is joint. I do, however, have a tech fund that I have setup to buy and sell tech to help fund my expensive hobbies, without feeling guilty when I want to buy a £500 phone ;P
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This pretty much. My wife took a cut in working hours in order to provide childcare for our kids. Whilst I work, she looks after the kids. A joint account seemed the only reasonable way to manage that, but then neither of us ever worries about buying something if we know we can afford it.
 
Two accounts (one each), as my wife has no income - I put "housekeeping" into my wife's account for groceries and whatnot and general spending on clothes/outings, all the bills and everything else comes out of my account.

Married for 18 years now and it's not caused any problems at all. When she was working, her income was hers to do with as she pleased, I still contributed the housekeeping (due to the fact that I was earning substantially more than she was).
 
Separate accounts. We split the bills such that our disposable incomes are about the same.
If we had joint accounts we'd have to justify our spending to each other all the time, and that is just wrong.
 
My partner and I have a joint account but keep our sole accounts. We get paid separately then put x amount into the joint account to cover all the bills, fuel, shopping, holidays and stuff for our son. Basically all family costs plus there is always some left over. We then keep the rest to ourselves to spend however we wish. I do take her out sometimes but of course, pay myself and vice versa.

She earns more than me so puts in 50% more than I do and still ends up with double than me left over. Can't moan really. :D
 
We have a joint bank account where all household bills and payments get paid from.

I have set up a budget for all known outgoings (such as mortgage, utilities, food, insurance and so on), and incidentals (such as socialising, petrol, dining out, stuff relating to family stuff).

We both contributed to that pot equally when we were both working full time.

The reason we do that is that it is easier to control a set budget, and prevents overspending. If I bought an expensive gadget for example, I don't want it to cause any issues regardless of whether we can afford it or not. Besides, I feel (as does she) that personal expenses are just that, personal. I have an expensive sporty car, I can't expect her to pay for that, nor can I expect her to pay for my hobbies, and vice versa, if she wants to have a girly night out, it's for her to spend her money on what she wants.

On maternity leave, then clearly I upped my contribution and she lowered hers, it's only fair, and makes sense. And any stuff relating to family stuff is a joint expense, but stuff that is for her own is hers.

I'd behave the same way even if we both earned ridiculous salaries, because it gives us independence to spend money on what we want, and also it means we know that all the household bills are covered every month without having to think about it.

If we both contribute the budgeted amount into the joint account, it's a "fire and forget" thing - set up a standing order, and we know all our bills and so on are covered. Now, if we socialise a little more one month than the next, clearly we need to keep an eye on the money, but it's been budgeted with some contingency anyway, so if you're up one month and down the other - it all works out.

It's got nothing to do with lack of trust, or responsibility. It just makes life easier for us to know that one account is covering all our needs as a family, and our own personal accounts cover our own hobbies and lives,.
 
We've been married 12 years. We started out with three current accounts - a joint one and one personal one each. Everything goes into the joint account and all bills are settled out of there. We get an equal allowance from there into our personal accounts. We've tacked on other ISAs and savings accounts and so on over time but they're all in joint names. I have a credit card in my name but it's only really used for joint stuff. I'm far better with money than her so I tend to keep everything in order, move money around as necessary, etc. We've always shared everything and taken the same allowance even though since having kids two years into the marriage she's earned way less than me. This year she's not even earning as she's back at uni doing a masters.

Whatever works for each couple is fine. I just don't think it would be fair to say my wife should get less spending money now on account of holding off on her career for the better part of ten years to look after our children.

I don't budget to the nth degree. I used to do it all in spreadsheets when money was tighter, but these days I keep it all in my head and I could have a reasonable stab at guessing where all our money goes each month. I check internet banking most days and make sure I'm on top of things and know what's what. Neither of us is silly with the joint account but equally I'm not going to begrudge her spending a bit out of that account on going for coffee or getting a takeaway one evening if she can't be arsed cooking. We're comfortable enough that we don't have to sweat it on that level any more, thankfully.
 
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