How is the money arrangement in your relationship?

Hello mermaidivy , fighting over money was one of the downfalls of my marriage.I contributed my whole pay and he spent the money on himself.I have since learned that having separate accounts works better and divide evenly who pays for what and how much goes into a savings account.I then divide the savings on up comming bills and every monthh update the interest.Even though my b/f and I aren't living together until his transfer comes through I still keep up on the accounts.I am lucky he trusts me to be involved in the finances

we pool-and-divide, but we still save for 'personal stuff'--like, if i want to buy bags or shoes, and he wants something done for himself. if something will benefit both of us, it goes to the list of things we need to work for together. there will always be times when a couple argues about money, and we (my husband and i) are not an exception. i am just glad we work things out, because after an hour or so (of arguing), we both realize we're quarreling over something as petty as money. ;)

Until just a few months ago we had separate bank accounts that our paychecks went into and a joint account for the mortgage. I would pay all the bills from my account and we bought things with our separate debit or credit cards. I had a spread sheet that I used to keep track of all the bills and expenses and at the end of the month it tallied up how much each of us had paid and then how much we each owed to the joint account for our mortgage and savings. It worked great but it was kind of a pain to keep track of all the receipts and quite often my fiance lost them before they got to me and ripped himself off! Finally we just decided to put everything in one pot and we now just have one joint account for all the bills and expenses and another for our mortgage and long term savings. It's much easier and we have no problems keeping things in line and organized. One thing we have never fought about is money and I'm very grateful for that. We both have the same attitude about finance and we are both quite frugal so we are always on the same page when it comes to purchases and investments.

We never really made an actual agreement. He works and I am currently home with the baby and the kids and he basically gives me money from his check after he cashes it to pay bills or do pretty much whatever with it. He gets a weekly allowance of $100 to go bowling and fishing with or to use for lunch for the following work week but other than that he doesnt usually bother with the money too much.

Well so far we are both cotributing either to pay bills and to buy stuffs for the home and we are coping with the fact. WE usually buy most of the things at home with both our income.

My husband and I are both working. We share equally the expenses at the house - house rental, electricity, water and grocery. For entertainment, We pay alternately. Whoever has the extra cash pays for it. What is good about our relations is we just live within our means. We don't buy things that we don't need. I have the credit card, he don't. We use my credit card in emergencies and in buying appliances on an installment basis at 0% interest. We also have insurances, we save a little per month. We both believe that the little we save a month will grow in time. Again, the most important is that we live within our means.

Hello mermaidivy, Both me and my husband are working. When we get our salary, we will settle all the bills and put aside some money for savings. The rest, we just use for our own personal expenses like petrol, food and entertainment (if any...) I think that is the best way if both of you are working.

My hubby is the primary income earner in our family. The agreement we have is that we use his income for joint expenses and joint savings with about 100 to 200 CHF extra for each of us to spend on miscellaneous items like books, clothes and other personal stuff. Since I started my shop and my part-time job last year, we agreed that the money I earn from there which isn't much would be my savings and used in any way I like - for my hobby shopping, the shop and now baby stuff or just as savings. Any monetary gifts that we receive, be it from his family or mine, is ours and banked into a joint account that we have. We don't believe in holding onto the rigid "what is mine is mine, what's yours is yours" mainly because we feel that the idea opens up a lot of room for conflict. As a couple, we are one unit so anything which involves money is ours to share - good AND bad.

Hi mermaid...We do combine our incomes and then pay bills. However I do know many couples married and just living together who do not combine incomes - they both have separate accounts and pay for things in the house separately. Then there are bills which are split such as the rent or mortgage. They launder their own clothes and purchase their own food. This wouldn't be an arrangement that my husband and I would be happy with so we stick with the traditional arrangement. Of course we still have disagreements but we're pretty much in tune with each other when it comes to finances.

we didn't made any financial arrangements with my husband, he has a bigger salary than mine so he just let me open an account to put some of his earnings on my account and let me the one budgeting the expenses at home.

We use to keep everything separate. My husband paid the rent and utilities, I paid for the cell phone, credit cards, and all of the shopping for the household. Once I graduated college, there was no way I could afford the student loan payment every month. My husband offered to cover that as well. Once in a while we would get into an arguement about who was providing more for the household, and he would usually end up rubbing the student loan payments in my face. Anyway, the solution to everything was to pool our incomes together and everything comes out of the same accout. We now only have one joint checking account, and I think this helps a lot.