A bit O/T: Financial/splitting bills in a partnership

[LankyDoodle]

Hi,
My husband and I have a joint account, but I'm now getting to the point where I think I'd like to go over to separate accounts and paying a proportion of the bills each. This is not because of trust issues but because of what's become apparent over recent years as my husband having a miserly attitude and me feeling I don't have a say. This way we have both joint and separate finances, which for us might work better.

My question is, those of you who use this method: how do you split the bills? Do you work it out to be within proportion of salary? Do you work it out so each of you pays 50%? Do you work it so that one pays some bills and the other pays the other bills?

My husband earns the biggest salary, and my future job is uncertain at the moment, but we'd definitely split it 50/50 I think.

 

[Sazzoire]

my hubby pays all the bills, and what he spends on bills, I put into the 'joint' acct for food... (not inc mortgage)... he had the house before he met me. I get the child benefit and ctc... plus my smp.. but when I am at work, he still gets paid more than me... this works for us. He NEVER asks me what I spend the rest on.

 

[Scooby12345]

We pool our money but a friend of mine had a similar problem, they now have a set amount of money each month that is there own to do as they wish (say £100) and the rest goes into one pot for bills saving etc.

 

[MaybeMomSarah]

I do this with my OH. We calcuated the total amount of our bills, and then did the split based on what percentage of the total household income each of us brings in.

Easy example, I earn 35% of the household income, and she earns 65%. Our bills totalled 1000 per month, so at payday, I transfer 350 to her account, and she takes 650 of her wages for the bills. All our bills go out of her account.

(These aren't our actual figures, but it gets the point across.)

If you'd feel more at ease doing a 50/50, I would just decide which account the bills will go from, and just do a standing order transfer each month.

 

[ellie27]

We have a joint account which the mortgage/bills/food shopping/baby stuff comes out of - we put about £1000 each into the joint account per month. And the rest of our salaries we put into our own separate accounts to do what we want.

My OH earns more than me so when we are out at weekends etc he pays

 

[m_t_rose]

We have a joint account which all of our money goes into and then we each have our own checking account. Each month I transfer spending money into the checking accounts that way if I want something for myself then it comes out of my checking account but if I am buying stuff like groceries or clothes for LO it comes out the the joint account. Maybe something like that would work for you?

 

[lanaross]

I picked the bills that I was going to pay and told him to pay the rest, I was splitting it up a bit uneven and I am paying a little less since his salary is twice as much. Now though that the bubs is in the picture, we actually are very close to join the accounts as at this point it really doesn't matter anymore who pays what as long as it is paid. Oh and we also use mint.com so we know where we stand financially and everybody gets a say.

 

[Embovstar]

we have our own accts and like you, my husband earns the bigger salary...since it's 4 x my salary, we have NEVER split bills 50/50.

He's always paid the majority and I pay bills like CTAX, electric, tv licence and then my own bills. This was his suggestion and it works for us.

Whilst I'm on mat leave, my Husband is topping up my mat pay upto what I actually earnt at work on a full time basis...if that makes sense.

He also gives me money per month towards shopping...but for now, I'm still paying the above bills so feel that I am paying and helping the household.

Nicola xx

 

[xxembobxx]

OH and I don't have a joint account - he gives me a set amount per week and I am in charge of all the bills.
He has a few direct debits and he pays for his car, bike and cigarettes.
It worked quite well while we both have a similar income and since I'm now on ML he gives me more.

We have had problems before though when we didn't have much income. It thenused to bug me that he had money to spend as he wished whereas all mine seems to go on the house and kids
I probably could have money for myself though but choose to spend it on LO lol

 

[twinklestar]

we only have joint accounts , i spend what i want and so does he unless its over £50 for something we 'want' rather than 'need' in that case we talk and see if we can afford it that month, kids stuff , bills and food never get discussed

talking to friends i think im lucky that he never questions how i spend money and i can pretty much do what i want within reason

 

[NG09]

My husband and I have a joint account that we put money into each week, it used to be the holiday fund but now it's the baby fund!! lol We have our own accounts that our salaries are paid into, DH pays all the bills from his account and I have a standing order for £200 per month going to his account. We had our own houses when we met, I sold mine when we got married and his house was put into joint names (I moved in with him 2 years previous to getting married and rented my own house out). He said he didn't want any money from me but I didn't like the idea of that. CB is paid into my own account (DH's choice, not mine) and when we go out DH mostly always pays (again, not my choice, I'm happy to pay sometimes but he has none of it)

 

[MrsT&Ben]

We have 1 joint account which i have control over. My hubby is a nightmare with money and spends without thinking. We did have seperate accounts but we were constantly overdrawn and seriously in debt. Now neither of spend without checking with each other. We're slowly working our way out of debt! Oh the joy.

 

[ouchwithNo.2]

we have our own accts and like you, my husband earns the bigger salary...since it's 4 x my salary, we have NEVER split bills 50/50.

He's always paid the majority and I pay bills like CTAX, electric, tv licence and then my own bills. This was his suggestion and it works for us.

Whilst I'm on mat leave, my Husband is topping up my mat pay upto what I actually earnt at work on a full time basis...if that makes sense.

He also gives me money per month towards shopping...but for now, I'm still paying the above bills so feel that I am paying and helping the household.

Nicola xx

Wow!!! luck you!!
My O/H has always paid more in tax than I take home a month
So, he has always paid the mortgage, the utilities - gas/electric/water etc..
I pay the council tax and the sky as well as the contents / buildings insurance.
I also have to pay for my car insurance and my road tax.
Now I am on SMP it is very tight, I did earn a decent wage, always managed but coping on SMP isn't easy as we all know.
I pay for all the food shops (OH 'FORGETS' his wallet when we go food shopping and he fills the trolley with expensive c**p and £20 razor blades!!)
If I ask him to bail me out, like I did this month as I had a £400 repair bill on my car, MOT and tax which wiped me out he goes... 'ooh, I am a bit skint this month, how much do you want to BORROW...' !!!!!!
I know for a fact at least £500 gets put in a savings pool by him every month - he hasn't told me this though, that annoys me as I had to fork out for school uniform and shoes as well, no help.
It is always my job to get the kids clothes as well
Just isn't fair.
He is a tight arse but soon finds money to buy a new car that does 22mpg!!!

 

[leelee]

Before we had Max we earnt a similar wage so put X amount in the joint account and then had the rest for outselves.

Now, OH pays for most things and I pay our CT and also credit cards/store cards off. My work contract ends in December and I will be looking for a 3 day week job so won't be earning as much. I imagine I will pay for childcare out of my money as well then.

OH is not tight at all and I can buy whatever I want (within reason), but with me being on SMP it has been tight so I try to budget as best I can.

 

[Celesse]

Our pay gets paid into our individual accounts then all transferred into joint account. We then get the same amount spending money each.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

We only have a joint account, but we allocate a (sadly very small) amount per week each that we can spend on whatever we like. I manage our finances and don't allow OH to make any decisions to buy stuff really as I'm afraid that we do have trust issues when it comes to money.

 

[poppykat]

We each have a seperate account and one joint account. I get my Maternity allowance, child benefit and the working tax credit paid into my account, this covers nearly all our bills and they come out of my account. I was living on my own before OH moved in so it was just easier to keep them in my name and from my account.

OH pays for his phone bill and a loan he has to pay off previous debts that come out of his account. The rest gets transfered to the joint account and we then pay for everything for the month from that. Whatever is left at the end of the month we put into a saving account for a rainy day.

I had a problem with this to begin with as I have always been independent and hated the thought of having to spend his money. However I now see it that we both work very hard, just in different roles. I like spending his money now

 

[Jolinar]

We have separate accounts, hubby earns more money and gets paid before me, but all the bills come out of my account as I lived here before we met. So he transfers most of the money to me, I pay the bills the rest gets put into savings accounts and we each have an amount of money to spend as we wish per month no questions asked. I could never be bothered setting up joint accounts, its all our money anyway.

 

[emsiee]

We have a joint account thats used for saving and then we have own accounts each. OH is better at saving than me so he pays the gas and electric bills (6 monthly) which can be quite large! He always saves money each month and keeps this in his account in case we need anything in the future.
I pay the Council tax, rent, water, tv licence etc...while he pays things like our car, food shopping, sky tv, both our mobile phone bills etc..
We are split 50/50 when you weigh up what we pay out...but I do spend more than him..lol

We never question who spends what unless its really expensive.

As my pay is going to drop near Christmas, its him thats gonna be paying the rent and major stuff then.

 

[Mrs Dot]

we have separate accounts which our wages go into then we pay the bills between us. We pay x amount into a joint account to cover the mortgage then we split the bills between us. I earn more so I tend to pay the higher direct debits. It leaves me with more money in my account though and I can try to save a bit each month as dh would spend money in his sleep if he could!