Does anyone have 2 seperate accounts...one for bills, one for spending?

Right now we have one account but DH drives me crazy with his debit card. I pay the bills so I always know what is coming and going, but he doesnt.

I am wondering if I should keep the one account for all of our monthly bills (which his paycheck cover) and open another account for my paycheck) which is generally our spending/savings money. Or do you think it would get too confusing?

Re: Does anyone have 2 seperate accounts...one for bills, one for spending?

we have 2
his check goes to all bills and savings
my check goes to leisure spending
its great this way.

Re: Does anyone have 2 seperate accounts...one for bills, one for spending?

That is kinda what dh and I do. All checks go into the main account. Since he is the one paying the bills he has the main debit card (he knows what he is spending). I have a secondary account with an 'allowance' which I use for grocery shopping, gas and such. dh puts money in the account as needed so he can keep control of how much we have to pay bills. I try not to spend much money and give him advanced warning when I go grocery shopping but this way is easier on him to know what is going in and out.

Re: Does anyone have 2 seperate accounts...one for bills, one for spending?

Its how I got out of debt.

I have 2 checking accounts. One is my "spending" money. One is SPECIFICALLY for bills.

This way, I ALWAYS have money for the rent, car payment, power, phone etc.

We both get paid every 2 weeks. I know that I have a budget that makes me put $3000 (between the 2 of us) in the bill pay account every paycheck cycle.

The account is ONLY to pay bills. No money is EVER touched from that account.

This way if I dont pay (forget) the cable for 2 months the money is ALWAYS there. I have no spent it by "accident".

I have never been late with a bill in the past 5 years.

It also forces you to make a budget and come clean with all the money you spend and make.

Re: Does anyone have 2 seperate accounts...one for bills, one for spending?

Chris is the SAME WAY!!

I actually have started using ALL cash except for bills. As soon as our direct deposits go in, everything gets paid and the rest of the money comes out

But we only have one account

Re: Does anyone have 2 seperate accounts...one for bills, one for spending?

yes, we each have our own checking (for our independant spending) and then we have a joint checking / savings. All bills come out of the joint checking and money goes into the joint savings from each paycheck.

obviously we also put a percentage from each check into the joint checking to pay bills and then the rest goes to our individual checking accts

Re: Does anyone have 2 seperate accounts...one for bills, one for spending?

We have two. I try to pay most our bills from one account and just zero it out every month. That way you always know exactly what has to be transferred in and anything extra can just go to savings. It's been working for us since our accounts are linked.

Re: Does anyone have 2 seperate accounts...one for bills, one for spending?

Here is what we have, and it seems to work for us:

Joint Checking/Savings-this is where most of our money goes and where most of the bills get paid from.

DHs checking account-this is his slush fund, though he never really uses it.

My checking account-this is my slush fund and I use every dime of it.

The slush fund account is where we put a bit of money to shop, kid activities, etc. I don't want DH hassling me if I want to buy clothes or something for the home or kids, etc (he doesn't, but I don't want to worry about it).

Although, we generally use a reward earning credit card for everything when we are together and then just pay it off each month.