Do you have seperate money from your wife?

Soldato
Joined
26 Dec 2011
Posts
5,830
Location
City of London
Our salaries are put into separate bank accounts, then each month we both transfer money into our joint account for the mortgage payments plus some extra for holidays and weekends away. I pick up the rest of the bills from my separate account.

Like somebody else has said if I suggest going out I pay, if the mrs suggests it she pays, but we don't keep count, at the end of the day if either one of us said "you pay" that would be fine!

We're both left with a similar amount at the end of each month to do whatever we want, if I want to give it to that nice Nigerian man who emails me that's my problem.

This is what we do, we get paid roughly the same and have never had arguments about money. Having separate accounts for our own expenditure makes checking bank statements much easier as you don't have to sit down together and work out what each payment was. There is no 'trust' element to it as we both have access to each other's accounts (not that we'd bother looking unless there was some reason) - it's purely for practical reasons.

I remember a thread about this before though, the insecurity of some people who thought having a joint account was some kind of 'bond' really surprised me. When financial arrangements become an example of trust in a relationship then I find it a bit concerning. In our relationship it's not even a factor.

Edit: Ahhh I see the usual suspects have turned up in this thread as well :D
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
28 Oct 2003
Posts
5,454
Location
Worthington-on-sea
Having individual accounts for salary deposit and a standing order into a joint is much safer, from a financial standpoint. Should one of you die, the joint account will be frozen and you can just cancel the SO, you then retain access to your funds. With just a joint account it becomes a hassle to access your own money in order to pay for everyday costs.
 
Associate
Joined
12 Jan 2004
Posts
1,802
Location
Newcastle
I never look at my account and leave it to my lady who is very good at taking care of that side of things.

If I want something though I do just buy it, or use my PayPal account which has regular income too.

I'm not at all bothered about splitting things down the middle etc.
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
29,490
Location
Back in East London
[FnG]magnolia;22614903 said:
Sorry for the <snip> but this has come up a number of times and just to add what I imagine is a counter-balance to this, my wife earns about $70k (35 grand UK, sorry no pound symbol here) more p.a. than I do and I earn a substantial wage already. Don't worry, this isn't an e-peen thing, I mention it only because I imagine most male posters earn more than their other halves.

My point is that this works out fine. The salaries go into one account and if we want to buy stuff then we do; we don't need a separate account, or our 'own' account money, to make this happen.

That's not a counter-balance at all, I am in fact in full agreement and intended to convey the very same you have made. :)
 
Associate
Joined
8 Aug 2005
Posts
1,101
Location
Reading, UK
I have seperate money, the only joint money we have is in the house account for bills, everything else is our own. For going out, it's usually whoever suggests the place that pays and seeing as we take it in turns to pick somewhere then it's fairly balanced. We don't owe each other anything as we don't lend or borrow, we give. From my experience of keeping tabs on who has paid what in a relationship can cause problems if one pays more than the other on a regular basis.

That's pretty much the same situation my girlfriend and I have.

We also have a joint savings account, and any money above a couple of hundred pounds in our individual accounts go into this account (after bills of course).

Been that way since we moved in about 8 years ago, since she was the only person earning in my final year of uni and that as a result of that I'm earning about 50% more than her our perspective is we're in this together :)
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Jul 2005
Posts
2,588
Location
High Wycombe
Seperate accounts, then a Joint account. All wages go into seperate account and we transfer money each to cover off the joint which pays all major stuff. Credit cards are joint, as are savings with only ISAs being seperate (as they have too)!

The only reason we do it this way is so we can buy eachother the presents etc and it gives an air of independance - although apart from presents we dont purchase anything without discussion/knowledge.
 
Soldato
Joined
26 Feb 2007
Posts
8,518
We both pay most of our salary into the joint account which leaves us with about £500 each to spend on beer or handbags etc. All bills, rent, food, meals together, car etc is paid from the joint account and what's left goes into the joint savings account

We have a winner!
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Feb 2004
Posts
21,202
Location
Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
Seperate accounts here. She has a bigger income than me and tends to pay most of the bills and i transfer money to help cover them as well as paying a few bills myself.

We have toyed with the idea of a joint account but we enjoy our own money and its nice to buy the other something and keeping the value secret rather than having everything in the open.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jun 2006
Posts
4,312
I have seperate money, the only joint money we have is in the house account for bills, everything else is our own. We don't owe each other anything as we don't lend or borrow, we give. From my experience of keeping tabs on who has paid what in a relationship can cause problems if one pays more than the other on a regular basis.

Exactly what me and the missus do. If one of us has run out of money then the other will top up. Never had any problems or arguements over money at all. Been together 12 years.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Dec 2011
Posts
10,401
We get paid into the same account which is where all the bills are paid from. Put whatever we decide into savings that month then put spending into our own seperate accounts.

We don't really keep track of who pays for what tbh, it's the same money anyway I just find it easier to manage the account that pays all of our bills if spending / savings aren't mixed in amongst it.
 

aln

aln

Associate
Joined
7 Sep 2009
Posts
2,076
Location
West Lothian, Scotland.
I'm not married, but living with my girlfriend for around 3 years, guess we've been together for around 4. We have a shared account, which we both pay in an equal amount each month to cover our bills, food, essentially anything which is rightly shared. This is about 1/7th of my wages and half of hers. I don't really see the logic in sharing what I work for beyond that which we roughly consume equally.

When it comes to paying for meals, take aways, day trips, etc we take turns and I don't specifically count how much each one costs. It helps us save, because she grudges paying for it. :p
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
17 Dec 2009
Posts
2,008
Im not married but I would go for seperate, Generally for trust in myself. I love to spend money, be it pies, pop or any other random things. Whilst Im not in debt, I tend to have no savings either and I've tried many times to cap my spending but its just an addiction living on the bottom of my bank balance and I would hate to have to stop spending. Its not about nopt wanting to share, by all means I would buy a lot of things for the other half but I generally would like my own bank account so i know where i stand with my money
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Dec 2011
Posts
10,401




Depends which way you swing it - you could say that you both should spend an equal percentage of your wage on living costs each month. As you are paid better maybe you should pay more?

Only playing devils advocate really, it's not something I've ever given much thought to - I make as near as makes no difference double the mrs salary at the moment but we effectively share a complete wage. If we just split every bill 50/50 she would have practically nothing to spend on herself each month.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom