Sharing money

[Kwacky]

Reading Cornish's and Perky's posts about how their wives react to bike stuff I'm wondering what everyone does money wise with their other half?

I refuse to have a joint account.

My wife doesn't earn much and only works a few hours a week. I give her a set amount each month. I pay all of the usual household bills apart from food.

Until recently I had a savings account which I never used but my wife used to ransack. I've closed that now and set up a couple of ISAs which I'll use for my stuff. The monthly payments to Mrs Kwacky have been increased so she can use it for holidays.

I don't think I could have a joint account without checking on it every 5 minutes.

[Monty]

My wife looks after all the money. It's better that way, I'd just spunk it on women, fast bikes and alcohol.

Hang on a minute!

[Perkles]

I dont have a joint account and pay most of the bills ,I have some small savings with premium bonds and basically buy what i want when i want.My mrs knows if she moans i will only ignore her so she doesnt bother

[Rob]

Until the birth of our son and buying our first house, we just had our own accounts. Katy has always earnt the same if not more than me so it used to work out fine. She used to just transfer 50% of all our joint outgoings to me and I would pay the direct debits.

However, now she just does a part time local job, her salary has dropped considerably. She has only gone back to work as she has her own horses and I refused to pay for her hobby. So she had to find a job that covered the nursery fees and her horsey costs. (i have just realised i am still paying for the nursery fees - something that needs rectifying!)

We now have a joint account and both have our own accounts. Her money stays in her account, the joint account (funded solely by me) is used for all the home/family associated outgoings and i have my account for what ever I want to spend the money on.

She does have a credit card for fuel/food/stuff for the boy which i pick up the bill for.

Reading the above I now realise why whilst earning a failry decent wage I am constantly wondering why I dont have bundles of cash to spend on myself!!

[D6Nutz]

Similar to Rob really.

We used to have separate finances with a joint account until she stopped working to look after the kids. Since then I transferred all credit cards / loans / store cards over to my name and pay for everything. I still put a fixed amount into the joint account to cover the food and family needs.

[Cavetroll87]

We have a joint account and our own seperate accounts so we get paid to our individual accounts then just transfer a lump sum out to the joint account which covers all bills and stuff leaving us with our own accounts for spending money, works for us,

[Blade]

We have a joint account and share everything how ever we also have our own accounts which we leave some pocket money in also. That way if you buy your other half a present it is actually of you and not the joint account which would mean you had effectively paid for half your own present.

I m lucky my wife never complains when I spend money on bikes as she knows how much I love my hobby. Plus its better to spend it on bikes than booze and other women

[Bratty]

We don't have a joint account and neither of us have never discussed having one, I pay the mortgage but the wife pays all the other bills gas,electric council tax etc and the food and it more or less cones to the same amount, although she earns more than me lol

[D6]

Kate had a load of savings and earned more than me when we met. So I convinced her to buy me an sv650s, and then slowly bled the rest dry. We now have a joint account and I earn more. Luckily for me she doesnt like shopping and has no hobbies other than homing every stray dog she finds.

[C00kiemonster]

We have always had a joint account but had our salaries paid into our own accounts and then setup standing orders to transfer an agreed amount every month to the joint. All the bills and joint fun are paid out of the joint acct and we have a joint saving account etc that we also both put the same into. The rest was for us to do with what we like.

Tbh my wife trusts me to spend on what we need and vice versa, never had a problem.

We can both access our accounts on the internets anyway so we can see what's going on.

[Itchy]

We had a joint savings account when the missus was working, and our own seperate current accounts.

Then the kids came along...

We now have the joint savings accout which barely gets touched, still have our own seperate current accounts but these are now only getting pocket money in every month, whilst the rest of it goes in a joint current account.

So yeah, I pay for everything. Which kind of sucks, but the when you see how well the kids are doing at school compared to their peers you can tell that she wasn't just sitting on the sofa watching Jeremy Kyle during their formative years, she was putting effort into raising the children in their formative years.
Still, as I'm the breadwinner she can't really complain if I'm spending money out of my own account. As long as there's enough to get her birthday/christmas pressies I'm sure she's fine with it. If not, well, she can go and get a job!


I'm still skint though!

[Blade]

We have always had a joint account but had our salaries paid into our own accounts and then setup standing orders to transfer an agreed amount every month to the joint. All the bills and joint fun are paid out of the joint acct and we have a joint saving account etc that we also both put the same into. The rest was for us to do with what we like.

Tbh my wife trusts me to spend on what we need and vice versa, never had a problem.

We can both access our accounts on the internets anyway so we can see what's going on.

Pretty much the same here and works well.

[Rossgo]

Not married, not renting with GF. My money is my own!! I save a certain amount per month for the future and don't piss away money on clubs, beer or anything stupid!

However when me and the missus do rent/buy together we have agreed to have a joint account for bills only and what ever is left is ours. In all honesty I could prob put all my money into a joint account and I would prob still see my half there as she is the same as me.

We both have a weakness for holidays but if she came out and said I've booked a holiday to Maldives I don't think I'd complain and ask where the money came from haha!!

[duke63]

I think i pay for everything.

So when i buy bike stuff she can't complain and to be fair she never does.

[kiwikrasher]

We have one joint account for everything which is offset against the mortgage, and effectively that balance reduces the principle we pay interest on, so we spend all month on the visa and pay at the end of the month before any interest is accrued which maximises the interest savings on our mortgage as the offset account balance stays higher for longer....

Then it gets complicated... we have an Excel spreadsheet that divides the account into different sections. All earnings get combined and allocated to pre-budgeted columns, Yearly Bills, Monthly bills, mortgage, investment property, savings and then we have a play money column each where we get an even allotment. It’s worked like this since the kids were born and has survived through us initially earning similar money, to her not earning at all, and now her working part time and me earning 7 x what she does. I used to burn through my money quick as hell, but since I've been working offshore and being away 40% of the time I'm getting quite a little nest egg.

It works really well and is quite simple even though it sounds a bit mad. Whenever a bill comes in, the money is already there in the appropriate column, and it’s no stress. Anything unexpected just comes out of the savings.

The only downside to this arrangement is major purchases have to be agreed on by both of us... means I really have to suck up for bike purchasing. Once I get the Daytona running I've been given the green light to trade up, and in return she’s getting to go a cruise for the next two years running.

[Stew]

We've got a joint account, the wifes paid monthly and the mortgage and big monthly bills get paid out of that, I get paid weekly and my wages pay for the weekly shop and normal daily outgoings, it works quite well tbh, she's the brains of the duo anyway

[Tricky]

whats mine is mine and whats yours is mine, works for me.