Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

I'm curious... and somewhat asking for guidance...
*How do you & DH split up the monthly bills, savings, etc?
*Do you combine your checks into the same account? or do you still have your own bank accounts?
*Do you have "allowances", if you combine all your money together?
*If one earns more than the other how do you proceed? Should the higher earner put more $ aside for the bills... as in putting a % of ur check?

Message edited 8/11/2005 9:30:49 AM.

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

We have a joint savings and checking account.
But we both still have our own separate accounts that we both deposit money for our own spending...

Our bills and such are taken out of our checking accounts

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

We have everything combined. The only thing we have seperate is brokerage accounts. Everything is paid together & I pay the bills.

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

We both keep our sepearte accounts and have a joint account we deposit a certain amount a month to cover our joint bills/savings. Works out perfect!

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

*How do you & DH split up the monthly bills, savings, etc?
DH's check pays all the bills and spending money. My check goes all into savings/


*Do you combine your checks into the same account? or do you still have your own bank accounts?
His check goes into our checking account. Mine goes into our savings accounts.


*Do you have "allowances", if you combine all your money together?
We each have an allowance each week. Sometimes we spend less, sometimes more, but it's always around the limit we set.


*If one earns more than the other how do you proceed? Should the higher earner put more $ aside for the bills... as in putting a % of ur check?
We don't have that issue because of the way we handle our money.

Message edited 8/11/2005 9:35:42 AM.

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

We have joint checking and savings. We also each have one checking account with a small amount of $ in it - I use mine for online selling and they are both sort of "in case of emergency $"

We both get paid every other week. Once a month, I get a certain allowance that I put in my checking account. All the rest of my paycheck $ goes in our joint savings account. All of DH paycheck goes in our joint checking account. All the household bills and expenses are paid out of the joint checking account. This seems to work best for us.

DH doesn't get an allowance, because he really doesn't spend much on himself. I imposed the allowance on myself to stick to a budget and not overspend.

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

Everything is combined into one checking and one savings account... then, there is small savings account I pay my school tuition out of- that is UNTOUCHABLE! Basically- we aren't spenders... we have a rule- $100 or less, you can go ahead and buy- anything more ask the other and see if it is necessary....

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

We each have our own individual savings & checking accounts plus a joint checking. Our paychecks go into our personal accounts and then we each put a certain amount into the joint. The person who makes more puts in a little more. The joint bills (i.e. house bills) come out of the joint account and we each pay our personal bills from our individual accounts.

There's no need for allowances since our paychecks go into our personal accounts.

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

We have 2 joint checking and savings accts. I didn't want to leave my bank, and same for him. So, we just added each other on the accts. He controls one, and I control the other.

He pays rent/mortgage out of his, and I pay all the other bills out of mine.

We just found this easier for us...

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

We each get direct deposit to separate checking accounts but our names are on eachother's account. He usually transfers almost all of his pay to mine and I pay the bills.

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

We have our seperate accounts...my paycheck goes in mine..his paycheck goes in his..

We have a joint account with our wedding money and saved money..

we split the bills. I pay the little bills and he pays the big..

And, every now and than I ask for a little donation from him..

Message edited 8/11/2005 10:05:20 AM.

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

For several reasons, we have lots of different things going on.

DH is not good at remembering to check the mail, pay those bills, etc.

So, he is responsible for 2 of the "big ticket" bills.

I pay all of the rest of the bills.

DH earns a little bit more than me, but he has a car payment and student loan. (I have neither- so I contribute a high amount to a 401K plan that my company matches, and I have an FSA account that we both get to use. DH's company does not do a match for their 401k, so DH does not contribute anything to it. Also, I pay the auto insurance for both of us (we're in NJ- so it's astronomically high). Also, I set aside 30% of my income into savings for our future house)

We have our separate checking accounts. He pays his assigned bills with his checks, I pay my assigned bills with my checks. If one of us is broke, we hand a bill to the other person.

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

my paycheck pays the bills

her paycheck goes into saving

both of us put money each cycle into 401K's and other such accounts

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

Ever since we moved in together we had a joint checking and savings account. Before we got married we would both put into the checking account money each month for bills - he had a real job, I was in school, so I would put as much as I could each month, though it was usually less than what he was putting in. He was the one who kept pressing to just joing all our finances together, but I felt so bad because I have so much less than him. His philosphy is what's his is mine and vice versa...

Once we got married, I closed my own checking and savings account and he added me to all of his accounts. Now we have one joint checking and one joint savings. We have our paychecks deposited automatically into the checking account. He pays the house bills and his credit card bills from that account, and I pay my student loans and one credit card from that account, and that's how it goes! He makes considerably more than I do, but we don't allocate at all. We just join everything together and pay it from there. No allowances - neither of us are big spenders so we buy what we need or want and we can both see what's coming in and out of the account. He's never questioned me on any of my expenses, and I've only questioned him a few times ($1000 at Home Depot for tools???!!! ). It works out really well for us - we've never had an argument about money or expenses, and when we have to make a big purchase, we discuss it together first.

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

*Do you combine your checks into the same account? or do you still have your own bank accounts?

The checks go to one checking account that belongs to both of us. All of our earnings are pooled.

*How do you & DH split up the monthly bills, savings, etc?

some of the bills are in my name, some are in his name. the lease is in both of our names. all bills are paid from our checking account.

*Do you have "allowances", if you combine all your money together?

we get an allowance each week that is supposed to cover lunch at work and extras, like lipstick or movie tickets. whatever is left after bills goes to savings.

*If one earns more than the other how do you proceed?

fh earns more than i do, we manage the $ as stated above.

Should the higher earner put more $ aside for the bills... as in putting a % of ur check?

i don't know if the higher earner 'should' be paying a higher percentage of the bills...that would not work for us.

Re: Finance/bills/$$$$ with you & DH

We have a checking/savings account that was mine before we got married....I never added DH to it, but everything gets paid from there. DH has his own checking account.

My paycheck gets direct deposited into my checking account....DH's paycheck gets direct deposited into my checking account and his allowance money goes into his checking account. I pay all the bills/cars/household anything from the checking account.

I did give DH a credit card from my account....but he only uses it when I know about it. DH is not good with money, so I deal with it all. Works for us.