Who pays what in 2 income household?

[BCHGRL]

We had an interesting system before we were married. We had separate checking accounts and I paid for all of our common bills, and he gave me a check for 1/3 of the mortgage ( I make twice his salary). He only paid for his truck, insurance and cell, I paid for everything else. He saved the rest, but the savings was considered "ours." My strength was paying the bills on time, and his strength was saving.

When we got married, we turned my checking into our joint account. My check goes in into joint and so does 80-90% of his check. His part-time paycheck also goes into the joint. We pay all the bills from the joint checking. He keeps about 10-20% of his paycheck in his old checking account. This is his fun money. My fun money comes out of the joint since I manage it and pay all of the bills. We've maintained the joint savings we had before we were married. We've only been married 5 months, but it has worked so far!

[Elgin526]

DH and I combined our finances right after the honeymoon. It all goes into one pot, and everything is paid out of that pot. I controll the budget and all bill paying. I do show him the budget and update him on how we are doing. He doesn't care, but he can't say I didnt' try!

Every once in a while, he does say "I made X this month, why don't we have any money? What are you spending it all on?" I then whip out the budget and start to tell him. He then runs out of the room screaming "Never mind, I don't wanna know! Forget I asked!" He just forgets how much money it costs to run a household, I think.

[glock35ipsc]

We each have our own checking accounts. I am on salary and deposit exactly the same amount each month, once a month.

Her pay is kinda wierd....salary in a way because it has a floor, but depending on hours and assignments (she work for the police dept) her pay can be much higher. She gets paid every two weeks.

We each contribute to our retirements accounts; her's is a 401(k), a 457 and a Roth, and mine is a SIMPLE IRA, a Roth and four DRIP stocks.

I pay the fixed payment stuff - mortgage, life insurance, 529's, DRIPs, daycare. I also pay for propane until the end of this month, than that goes WAAAAAY down. We are having the new fireplace installed on Monday, so the propane money will probably get turned back into our investments. We own land in South Dakota, so we will get our firewood from our land. I built a wood splitter from stuff I had in the shop, used stuff, so that saved about $1000.

My wife takes care of all the utilities, groceries and other mics. We paid her car off this year, so she is making double payments on my truck, and that will be gone mid-year 2007. We also recently started getting a majority of our groceries through a home food delivery service. All natural and organic, it is much healthier and FAR better tasing, and so far our food spending has been CUT IN HALF!!!

We have seperate accounts, but in no way think of them as "seperate" accounts. She has money left, and does what she wants with it. Doesn't mean she blows it all though, but it's hers to do whatever. Same for me.

[Jewelsmom]

Don't misunderstand me. All household income is "ours."

We just divide the bill-paying responsibilities between us, so we both are grounded in what is due, how much, when, etc. He likes one bank, I prefer the conveniences of another. We both have checks/ATM cards for each others' accounts too, but never use the others' account.

I am an agressive saver (401K), even putting money monthly into my two working teen daughters' Roth-IRAs. What I have left over is used on misc. stuff (vacation budget) and additional saving opportunities.

My husband, always worries there will never be enough money for a rainy day, so keeps $30K in a checking account. Finally I convinced him to move $10K to ING for higher interest than 1%.

I know he likes the security of not having to worry about handling all our bills alone.
We had a disaster a few years ago (forest fire) and he was happy to see I had bought the right insurance (with riders) to cover our full $47K loss, minus our $1K deductable. Now he listens a little closer when I make money suggestions, e.g., paying off the smaller 2nd mortgage with the adjustable rate because the payments will increase with the prime rate increase.

[Jewelsmom]

FYI, for those who "share accounts," a word of caution.

My friend recently received an inheritance. The amount was well documented in the insurance settlement.

He co-mingled the $ it with the family finances in a joint saving account, and yrs later when they divorced, half of the inheritance went to the divorcing spouse! Judge said they should never have mingled the money in joint accounts.

A hard lesson learned.

[rduell]

We also share both checking and savings accounts but I have the budget set up so that I pay the mortgage, car payments, and cc payments out of my check. Utilities, insurances, groceries, medical expenses, etc. come are budgeted out of his paycheck.

I have a budget book that has the amounts of each account separated by category so that I know I have the money for each bill that comes in.

[tinapbeana]

technically i guess i pay everything since i write the checks... actually, DH gave me household $ control long before we were married: bulk of his paycheck goes into my account every 2 wks, what's left is his allowance until next paycheck. all household bills, groceries, etc come out of my checking account. oh, wait, our health insurance comes out of his check.

w/ my new job i can actually cover all our household expenses myself, which allows me to use the money from DH's check for savings/debt reduction. i don't think he likes that thought very much, to tell the truth, because he can't say the same thing...