Moola
There is an elephant in the living room, and its name is money. No surprise, (considering this is the number one topice of disagreement in couples) S. and I have our differences about how we manage and spend money. The good thing is, we're not afraid to talk about it, and sometimes we come to good comprimises. In anticipation of the upcoming nuptuals, and the possibile merging of finances, I'm curious how other people have navigated shared expenses. Do you make a budget together, do you have separate accounts? Do you keep a tally of where your money goes?
posted by Ms. Runner @ Saturday, March 18, 2006
3 Comments:
When I merged finances, way back when, we each had personal accounts and we had a joint account. The joint account was for shared expenses: rent, food, utilities, etc., with a little left over for miscellaneous items, and we deposited into it monthly what we thought we would need based on a budget and our track record. We split that evenly (although I've heard that if your incomes are widely different you can split proportionately), and paid all house expenses from that account. Everything else, was separate, and we didn't have to talk or justify how we spent the money in our separate accounts.
My wife and I have a similar system, except all the money by default goes into the joint account, and from there we each withdraw an allowance every month, pay the bills, fund investments, etc. We have a budget, although that is flexible with the agreement of both of us.
My wife kept her own checking account. We also have a joint account. We each also maintain separate passbook savings accounts, not that there's much there. We've gotten better over time dealing with household expenses. Generally, the only time questions arise is when there's big expenses. However, money can be an issue at time and we still have work to do in our ability to address the issue. And this is after 5 years of marriage.
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