When my husband and I married 6 years ago there was no question or even discussion about putting our finances into one account. I guess I should have questioned this then as my husband is terrible with money. We both work and between the two of us we make approximately 90k. We have a 2 bedroom townhome and two used cars. It's not like we have top of the line everything. Anyway - it's like we're always living paycheck to paycheck when we really should have at least $500 left to put in the bank every month. It has recently been brought to my attention (as I should have noticed a long time ago, but I'll spare the reasons I don't have time to investigate) that my husband spends anywhere from $10-$15 per DAY at 7-11 on 'food and drinks'. Interesting as I ask every week when I grocery shop what he'd like from the store, etc. and he always says 'nothing.' Well, I've figured out where that extra $500 per month is going. So, I've pretty much decided that this week I am going to open my own checking account and we'll each divy up the bills and since I get paid more where I work I will pay the mortgage. My husband blew up and said, "well, I may as well just get my own apartment too!"
Anyway, I'm wondering how separate accounts have worked for everyone else who does this.
Thanks for your help.
We have had separate accounts since day one. We have separate checking and savings. (We are both ON each others accounts and they are at the same bank). I pay all the bills and "take" (transfer) 1/2 from my husband's account. We put everything on our cash back credit card and pay it off every month. I'm able to put about $400 in cash-back rewards into our sons' savings account.
I have my own credit card that I use for my things - clothes, dinner with friends, whatever and he has his own. We pay them off every month. At any time, he can log on to my credit card, bank account etc and vice versa. It's not about hiding anything...so I hope it doesn't come off that way.
I can tell you that many will have their opinions about this - but it really works for us. We RARELY fight about money. He can spend whatever he wants as long as we have the money in our 401K, savings and the boys are taken care of.
We recently had a "discussion" about lunches out and both agreed that we were wasting WAY too much money on that. Now, we are limited to one nice lunch a week (CPK, Friday's, etc). And the rest of the week it's leftovers or a trip to Jewel for a soup/salad or a Subway - whatever as long as it's around $5. I've been making extra at dinner to bring to work.
Just my opinion. Good luck with your situation.
I am not sure going with separate accounts will help the situation. Would he be receptive to you each getting the same "allowance" each week that he can use for 7-11 or whatever. Figure out what a reasonable amount is for both your weekly personal expenses and then pay it out in cash each week. Keep the one account, but monitor it. Neither person should spend over their weekly allowance amount.