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Elite Veteran
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| linds - 2016-01-08 9:09 AM
How do y'all decide how to split the bills? Is it equal amounts or proportional to income? I make a lot more than my fiance and feel bad making him pay as much as me.
My husband makes double what I make, and we split the bills according to that. He pays a greater percentage of the bills, house, truck and car payment, electric. I pay car insurance, phones, tv, internet, and we "share" groceries.
Even though we have separate accounts as well as our joint account, we know it's all OUR money and not his and hers. I've paid extra on bills when I've had it, and he's given me money when I didn't have enough, or given my money to buy something I wanted that I didn't have time, or didn't want to save for months to have it. | |
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 Expert
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Location: The best kept secret in TX | linds - 2016-01-08 8:09 AM How do y'all decide how to split the bills? Is it equal amounts or proportional to income? I make a lot more than my fiance and feel bad making him pay as much as me.
OP Stated on page two that she is lucky enough to be a stay at home mommy.  | |
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Expert
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Location: WI | IRunOnFaith - 2016-01-08 10:37 AM linds - 2016-01-08 8:09 AM How do y'all decide how to split the bills? Is it equal amounts or proportional to income? I make a lot more than my fiance and feel bad making him pay as much as me. OP Stated on page two that she is lucky enough to be a stay at home mommy.
Not so much to the OP, but the people who split things 50/50 or anyone I guess that splits some and keeps some. | |
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Location: The best kept secret in TX | linds - 2016-01-08 10:40 AM IRunOnFaith - 2016-01-08 10:37 AM linds - 2016-01-08 8:09 AM How do y'all decide how to split the bills? Is it equal amounts or proportional to income? I make a lot more than my fiance and feel bad making him pay as much as me. OP Stated on page two that she is lucky enough to be a stay at home mommy.
OH OK!! Sorry I misunderstood.
We split groceries, electric, and smaller bills 50/50. We also split CC payments down the middle unless we agreed prior to help each other out on a vet bill, bike part, or hospital bill we previously agreed to put on the card. In which case I would pay as much as I could and he would cover the rest for me. Or He would pay as much as he could and I would cover the rest. It just depnds on what we agreed upon prior to the CC Charge.
I pay about $150 of the rent and my SO pays the rest simply because I don't make as much as he does.
We pay gas, lunch, truck parts, make up, etc out of our own checks after all bills have been paid. I pay for feed out of my own pocket and he pays for his bikes, truck, and other "toys" out of his pocket. We have yet to have a fight over money. The system works really really well for us. It gives us both more money to "play" with each rather than him and I combining all of our checks together and paying all bills from both checks combined and using what was left to play with. Yes, he ends up with more money each check than I do but I have more than enough to play with and to buy feed from since he pays most all of the rent. And since I'm not asking for any of his money he is more than happy to say "Why don't you take this and go get a new x y or z for the horses, etc" It keeps him happy knowing that he can do that for me and it's truly from him.
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 The One
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Location: South Georgia | linds - 2016-01-08 9:09 AM How do y'all decide how to split the bills? Is it equal amounts or proportional to income? I make a lot more than my fiance and feel bad making him pay as much as me.
We do it based on our income levels. He makes more than me, so he pays more than me. Also, we consider each of our individual debts/responsibilities to determine what amount we can contribute. | |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 512
| BamaCanChaser - 2016-01-07 1:14 PM
My husband and I have a joint account. I believe in the biblical definition of marriage, "the two shall join together and become one" and I believe that applies to finances too.
The key to me not going crazy over the useless crap he spends money on is good budgeting. We use the zero-based budgeting method by Dave Ramsey. The two of you together should develop a budget. Decide together what you want going to savings each paycheck. Then allow room in the budget for his and hers spending money. Anything you want to buy that exceeds your allocated spending money should be a decision you make together.
This is us too | |
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 Expert
Posts: 1367
Location: mi | We kind of do it by income levels. I make about 2/3's of what he makes so put in about 2/3's of what he does into the bill account. I actually pay all of the bills. We each just have a set amount from each check that goes into the bill account and all household bills are paid from that account. There is no his truck or my car or he pays this or I pay that. We just sat down and said we need X amount each month to cover all of our basic bills and figured out what each person had to put in to cover that. If the bills are less that month the money sits and waits for the month when an unexpected car repair comes up or a wedding that we need a gift for a birthday for a family member.......... | |
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| I am lucky enough that we make almost the same but even if we didn't I think we would still do it the same way. Put both checks in 1 account, pay bills out of it and take $X per check to play with. If I made less than him I would probably take less out each check to play with just because I would feel bad but he wouldn't care as long as we were still making extra payments and saving $. | |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | rodeomom3 - 2016-01-08 6:04 AM
Chandler's Mom - 2016-01-07 9:52 PM rodeomom3 - 2016-01-07 1:11 PM Cindy Hamilton - 2016-01-07 11:03 AM After reading all this, I know I'll never be able to get married again...no guy could ever believe how much I spend on my horses, guns & car...LOL I bet you DO work----might not be an outside job, but I have no doubt you work hard!!!
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 Toastest with the Mostest
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Location: That part of Texas | cecollins0811 - 2016-01-08 7:48 AM Maybe I should've gone into a little more detail into this lol. Thank you everyone for the replys and ideas! Alright, well since we had a baby 7 months ago, I stay at home and don't have a paycheck (except for $20 a week for a small job) and I feel like if I wanted to open a separate account just for myself then literally nothing would be in it lol! We both want the Jeep because our car wouldn't fit two car seats in the back, it's just too small. We would be happy with some other vehicle that's not a Jeep (maybe something cheaper) but that's just what we liked the most when we were window shopping last year. I can trust my hubby with money (usually). He was actually the one who calmed ME down on the spending a few years ago and made me have the "pay what was we NEED, thinking about maybe buying what we WANT later" mentality. So 85-90% of the time he is great with money, but with the little extra we just have recently gotten he just sees it more as "playing around" money than "putting it into savings" money. I'll also clarify a little more on me buying makeup and clothes. Like I mentioned earlier, we have a baby and as many mothers out there knows a body will change and be weird for a while. I was getting rid of a lot of "teenish" clothes or ones that simply didn't fit me anymore and donated them to our local thrift store. So I was mainly buying 2 pair of pants, and 4 tops that fit my new mom body better. All these clothes came from Wal-Mart, not a expensive place, and I didn't buy these all at once. And makeup, well you gotta change your summer foundation to your winter one, am I right ladies?? Plus I needed a new mascara. Priorities lol. So for him to say that I spend money on clothes and makeup actually is cheaper than something that he may buy, or at least I think so lol. I while ago I told him that we should run by each other if we wanted to buy anything online (since we live in the middle of no where we buy online a lot) and he seemed ok with the idea but once I brought it up a few times he would just get defensive about it. It's like he's expecting me to say no even though I'll most likely say yes, I just want him to talk to me about it and make a decision as a family or at least a united front.
I would cut him some slack, especially if he is typically good with money and has a record of making financial decisions for the benefit of the family. I'm sure he's been pretty stressed out being the sole provider for your family -- especially with a baby added in the mix -- and buying some of these things may make all the sacrifices, the extra crap he's put up with at work or 20 other things he's done differently to support you guys pay off for him. It's okay to talk with him about extra spending but I would also acknowledge that maybe this extra money is what he needs to do right now and to not give him grief over it. If it becomes a habit, you might talk to him later about it or show on paper how it's getting your further away from your goals and how it's important now -- especially since you are not working -- that you guys save extra money in case he gets hurt and can't work.
For the particular things he is buying, I would also try to look at it as a bonus. If he's into cooking, that means you may get a few extra nights off of doing cooking duty, especially in the summer, that gives you more time to get things done that otherwise wouldn't or just the ability to take a break, watch him cook while you relax with some wine and talk about things. If you're grilling you're probably going to be using certain vegetables this summer that can easily be planted in a small garden cheaply and you can save money that way instead of buying them at the store. Could you possibly save some money by putting in one of those and also showing him that you support his cooking hobby that way? | |
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