Post # 1
Member
648 posts
Busy bee
Just curious to find out who handles the finances in your relationships. Darling Husband & I are currently working on swapping out…. For the past year, he’s handled the finances. When he first moved in & we worked on joining our money & accounts, he used to question everything I did in paying the bills. I am a person who likes to work in round numbers, so when I pay bills I have a tendency to round to the nearest ‘5’ or ‘0’ (ie. if the bill is $53.42, I’d just pay $55 to make it easier to subtract from my checkbook balance).
Anyway, we’ve been working on paying stuff down. However, I feel like we’ve not made nearly the dent we should be making. And, for the past 3 – 4 months I keep asking where all of the $$ is going. So….I started looking at the finances. Only to find that he’s not very good at making sure stuff gets paid on time & also not very good at balancing a checkbook! We’ve probably paid out at least $500 or more in overdraft fees!! UGH!!!!!!! I about died & we’ve ended up in several arguments over this.
So, I’m now taking back the control of our budget & finances. But, I want him to work at it with me. For the past two weeks, I’ve put a halt to all unnecessary eating out, also to all unnecessary spending for now. I want to get our money back under control so we’re not wasting & throwing money away. We really need a new car in the next 6 months or so, and also we need to move to a new house in the next year or two. Darling Husband is in full agreement, as he says it’s completely stressing him out.
So….who handles the finances in your house? Are you both in agreement over the budget?
Post # 3
Member
2450 posts
Buzzing bee
We split the bills, but generally I am in charge of where any extra money goes. Right now, I’m taking most of it and shoving it into savings. Then… once a month, I give him an update on where we are with saving for the wedding.
Post # 4
Member
14419 posts
Honey Beekeeper
We dont really have a budget or worry about over spending. But just because I’m a control freak, I track all of our spending just to see where our money goes. We have access to view all our accounts so we both know what we have any given day.
Post # 5
Member
2389 posts
Buzzing bee
Although the money comes from the same account, we split the bills. Darling Husband handles certain bills (his car, his student loans, utilities, car/renters insurance, rent) while I handle the rest (my student loans, cable/internet).
We started this system before we got married and just kept it up. As I said, the money all comes from the same place but we’re just both used to taking care of those certain bills. I have complete trust that he’ll pay “his” bills on time. We’re both responsible about that.
I’ve kind of taken it upon myself to decide how much we should save per month and how much money we should pay above our minimums for his car and our student loans. But we make the ultimate decisions together.
Post # 6
Member
3344 posts
Sugar bee
We both pay bills, but I keep a closer eye on our checking account. I’m usually the one to catch overdrafts so we don’t get charged.
Post # 7
Member
1524 posts
Bumble bee
Oh my gosh I’d be so upset if he got a bunch of overdraft fees!!!
We do our finances seperate. Eventually we’ll probably have a mutual account we can put money into and have a little money to ourselves, to simplify bill paying. If it was up to one of us, it would probably be me. I already remember to pay bills like satellite that are in his name…I just ask if he has the money in his account for it and then go pay it online so it’s not overdue.
He’s notorious for waiting until they call him complaining his bill is late to pay it.
Post # 8
Member
2584 posts
Sugar bee
Right now we pay our own bills, but once we get married and combine everything I’ll probably be the one paying bills. I trust him, I know he’s good about his bills, but I (like @pinkshoes:) like to know where all the money goes.
Post # 9
Member
1697 posts
Bumble bee
we start combining our finances this month eee! I am a control freak. I am a SAVER!!! he isn’t a spender but he isnt really a saver. we go through bills together and will try to have 3 accts. a joint savings a joint checking and two personal checking acct. the personal accts will have 150 in it each month, we cant spend more than that on gum, coffee, lunches etc. if we dont spend our allowance we agreed to put it into our joint savings til the wedding but after that we will just let it roll over to the next month. i told him I want to put his ENTIRE paycheck into savings plus 3K of mine once he gets a job. save save save baby!! we live cheap and are great at it!
Post # 10
Member
7587 posts
Bumble Beekeeper
I handle all of our finances Darling Husband has no idea how much money we have or where it is. He just knows that his debit card works and his credit is good lol
Post # 11
Hostess
18644 posts
Honey Beekeeper
I keep track of everything!
Post # 12
Member
893 posts
Busy bee
@soon2bS: We handle our own finances, but I do both our tax returns. Also, we ask each other for each other’s opinions whenever we buy a big ticket item like a laptop, etc.
Post # 13
Member
2891 posts
Sugar bee
Fiance takes care of all the bills. I run any big purchase by him but he isn’t at all controlling or overly worried about what I spend. He handles the headache. Pays down our debt (ie student loans etc) and keeps us on track for our wedding. I am glad not to do it. My idea of money management is to make more than you pay out and stuff all money into checking without keeping track. Last time I closed out my account I had $6,000 I didn’t know was there LOL.
Post # 14
Member
592 posts
Busy bee
He makes the money – I spend it 🙂 Kidding (sort of)
I handle paying most of the bills and just keeping track of our finances. I would trust him to do it, but I know he doesn’t want to and he’d rather I keep doing it. I just keep him up to date about things. It works for us, except I hate paying bills, but oh well, it’s just part of being an adult – right?
Post # 15
Member
85 posts
Worker bee
We have joint accounts, and we don’t keep track of who’s paycheck goes toward what (we both pool our money and just pay from the joint account). I handle all of the bills and tracking spending (mint.com – so easy!). Darling Husband works offshore on an oil rig, so it would be too difficult for him to deal with the bills, and I’m definitely the more organized one when it comes to dealing with the money. We don’t follow a certain budget, but we’re just generally trying to save money by cutting unnecessary spending.
Post # 16
Member
1577 posts
Bumble bee
We use a technique I learned from a financial friend:
We each have our own accounts, and share a joint account. With each paycheque, each of us transfers 75% of our earnings into the joint account. The joint account is used to pay household bills: utilities, mortgage, insurance, groceries (mostly by direct debit). Any accumulation is savings.
Then, we each have 25% of our income to spend or save, on our personal expenses (cell phone, clothes, credit card).
The equality of a joint account; but the independence of being able to buy things for ourselves (or surprise and “treat” each other).
