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Splitting bills?

Just curious......I was on theknot and read a post about how those that live together split their bills 50/50, or one week DH/DF buys groceries and the next she buys them and what not.  It was weird b/c every poster did the same thing....Does anyone do this?  FI and I live together and we put all of our $ into one account and the bills get paid out of it and some of it goes into a savings account.  I felt like an odd ball b/c I was the only one where we actually put all the $ in one account.

I was just wondering how everyone else does it b/c I found it so confusing reading these posts....we consider the $ "our" money not mine or his.  I can't imagine saying "ok, I bought food last week so you get it this week"...we aren 't roommates. 

What does everyone else do 

Re: Splitting bills?

  • We have one account - it's just easier for us that way. I do have my separate checking acct for my side business, so I can use that to buy things for myself.

    I know plenty of couples that keep things separate though. Or they do 1 joint and 2 individual checking accts.

  • We keep seperate accounts.  We have one joint,  the 'wedding' account,  but mainly use our own accounts.  We split the bills and alternate when at the store.  I love it,  my husband is a spender and I'm a saver,  so it make us both feel secure with our money.  We will probably join our money more when we have kids,  but seperate works better now.

     

  • We have a joint account. We divide the bills in half and just put enough in the joint account to cover the bills. We save together too and then the rest is our fun money. I think it creates the least amount of problems over money. If he runs through his fun money before I do thats on him but it nevers happens and I would never withold money from him if he needed lunch or gas or car repairs, etc.
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  • We have a joint account and I am still getting used to that.  I have a side account that he doesn't really know about for mad money and it makes me feel a little independent from him.  It's hard combining lives once your married...It's a work in progress.
  • Right now we have our own checking accts, savings accts, investment acccts and IRAs outside of employer's.  We opened up a joint checking for WR stuff.

    After we get married we plan on using the joint checking as our main bill paying checking acct and we'll keep our own checking for funstuff and splurge spending and for buying surprises for each other so we don't find out.  We'll transfer set amounts in to the joint acct upon each payday, but the amt will vary according to our income (I make more than him so I"ll contribute more).  We'll also be merging our investment accts and regular savings accts and probably put them all in a trust.

  • We have seperate accounts. I give DH money ever month for rent, and I have my own checking accout that i pay my bills (credit card, car payment, insurance) and dh has his for the same.  He pays our phone bill, and I usualy buy grocerys because im the one who goes shopping.  We never really discussed the whole financial thing, this is just how it naturaly worked out.  We do have a joint savings, that we dont touch.  Right now I like this set up because I dont want DH to know how much debt i have (its really not alot, but hes a crazy accountant, and I dont want to have that conversation).  When we have a home and children, we will change to a joint account.  I think its just right now, we dont have that many shared expenses
  • We split everything down the middle.  We have our own accounts and two joint accounts.  I tell H how much he owns for our joint bills and he transfers the $$ to our joint account and then I transfer it to my checking to pay the bills.  We also alternate each week at the grocery store.  Our big joint purchases also come out of that joint account (remodeling stuff, TV, furniture).

    We're both savers and it just seems to work out best that way.  Our second joint account is where we have our 'house fund' and we each put $$ in there each pay check.  We also each have our own 'saftey' account that we put $$ into each paycheck and don't touch. 

  • We're like most of the pp.  We have one joint checking, a joint savings and then our own accounts.  This is how my parents always did it and his mom and dad are divorced, so he saw this as totally logical.

    We each put in X amount from each paycheck into our checking to pay the bills. If we have a build-up of cash in there, we'll transfer it to our joint savings, but we've been bad about that.  The savings is mostly wedding money and bonuses right now, but we want to start a better joint savings plan this year.

    imageBaby Birthday Ticker Ticker
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • We have a joint checking and joint savings account and we each have our own savings account that we put like $25/per pay period in. I use that money for holiday gifts for DH (mostly Christmas & birthday) so that he can't see what I buy him -- he stalks our accounts several tiems a day, nothing gets by him, lol.

    All of our bills and expenses come out of the joint checking. We don't really touch the savings, we're trying to save for a family vacation.

    I don't think there is a right or wrong way to do it, this just works out best for us. Especially because I am TERRIBLE with money.. I have never balanced a check book in my life!

  • We have one account and because I'm more organized & detail oriented than DH, I take care of ALL the bills and savings.  It's so much easier. 
  • We have separate checking accounts.  Mainly becasue DH is still "learning about money"  and constantly messes up his account (we used to have TERRIBLE fights about money, he just couldnt comprehend that you pay the bills FIRST then you take what is left over and go play, he did it the other way around. He had no bills prior to moving in with me and just couldnt get it through his skull that he does now! We would also get in fights cause he would tell me that he isnt "used to" paying bills etc.. and I had to give him time, I explained that that excuse is not going to work with the gas company, it wont work with me either! ).

      I also know if we had a shared account I would try to police his spending too much.  We have separate accounts and when he gets paid he gives me X amount of money and I pay all of the bills.  This system works well for us. We also hand money back and forth when the other one needs it, so we do (finally, it took years to get there) consider it "our" money. 

     

  • Joint accounts for everything. I pay the bills, and keep DH abreast of where we are, what we have left over, etc. It took some getting used to, but it seems to work just fine.
  • We've tried many different ways b/c of DH's lack of the ability to NOT overdraw out acct.  What I've finally resorted to is this, and it works for us.

     

    We have a joint savings & joint checking that neither of us tap mac from unless we are together and both agree to it, or it's an emergency and we let the other one know about it same day.

    The joint acct is for monthly bills.  His paycheck gets directly deposited into the accounts.  

    My paycheck is cashed and it is used for groceries, gas for our cars and if there is any left over maybe a bottle of wine or something fun for us to do together or just a couple of days of lunch we buy while at work instead of packing lunch.

    This works b/c I make sure DH has money for his daily needs in cash which keeps him out of our joint acct and not bouncing the bills!

    MC #1 12/06 MC #2 10/07 MC#3 10/08 *Forever Missed* Diagnosed with MTHFR 10/09 but was told it is not the reason for my "unexplained IF"
    Diagnosed with High FSH, low folical count, and absent anti mullerian count 08/11
  • Jaime, sounds like our DH's are alot alike
  • We have a joint account for our joint bills and then we each have our own bank accounts.  My contribution pays the mortgage and he pays the rest.  Money is by far the number one thing we argue about.  He is more of a spender and I am a saver and I hate revolving debt and he's more lax about that.  I even have a hard time with a joint account some times.  He'd love to have one big account, but I'm not getting myself into that!
  • image6ft2bride:
    Jaime, sounds like our DH's are alot alike

    I was thinking that too!  

    MC #1 12/06 MC #2 10/07 MC#3 10/08 *Forever Missed* Diagnosed with MTHFR 10/09 but was told it is not the reason for my "unexplained IF"
    Diagnosed with High FSH, low folical count, and absent anti mullerian count 08/11
  • Before we were married and we lived together we had seperate checking and savings accounts...we would split the utilities down the middle and share my morgage by paying it everyother month

    Now that we are married we have a joint checking and savings...DH pays all the bills b/c he likes to pay them online...i put them him his lunchbox every day...i don't like the "my money" "your money" mind set...probably b/c my parents and his parents aren't like that

  • We have joint savings and checking that we use.  The money that I make doing things online during the day goes into a different account, but DH has access to that and can freely use it if he wishes. I just have it going in there since that's really our "fun" money and I don't want to use too much and start digging into the bill money.  I grew up with my parents having joint accounts, so that's what I am used to. 
  • We have a joint checking account and we each have our own savings account.  Since we have not switched all the bills over to the joint account he stills pays the ones tied to his account.  I pay all the bills out of the joint account, which he puts money into and my paycheck is directly diposited into.  He is really bad with money so our savings account is just in my name that way if he needs money I will give it to him instead of him taking it out and overdrawing the account.  That sounds bad but he never has any money in his account.
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  • I guess it all depends on how you each are with money and what your use too....FI and I are the same with $ in that we never over spend and like to have a big savings....right now we have a joint checking and 3 joint savings (1 for wedding, 1 for vacation, 1 for emergency)  With him being self employeed we take X amount of dollars of cash each week and once it's gone it's gone and that's used for "fun money".

    I'm the bill payer and it all gets done online which I find so much easier!!!!!  If either of us wants something extra we discuss it....overall we are the same fianacially, I just worry more about $ where he never gets worked up about it and I always get scared and prepared for the worse

  • we have have joint accounts only.  it's too hard to worry about spitting money and then transferring it, etc.  it's easy for us and it's our money anyway.  he doesn't take out much money and he usually checks with me before he does if it's over like $40 (not a rule or anything it's just what he does).  i'm not worried about who contributes more, etc.
  • We have one account.  I make a very small fraction of the household income, but we refer all income as 'ours' not your money or my money. 
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