Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

Going along with the banking thread I have some questions. Frankie and I still have our own accounts and then a joint checking and savings. I would rather merge them- IMO too many accounts. Frankie's fear is how do we know who is doing what with the money? Meaning that he will have to answer to me every time he takes out $20 and I him and he is nervous in case we forget - he is so anal about it. Can someone please explain to me how you guys keep your joint accounts straight. Do you both get an allowance for the week?

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

All of his paycheck, and most of mine, go into the savings account via direct deposit. A portion of mine goes into the checking account for groceries which I purchase with the debit card as needed.

Weekly, we each pull a set amount from the account for spending money - it helps keep us wtihin our budget. Also, we pull the spending money from the savings account, not checking, so we don't have to worry about bounced checks.

I generally write the checks to pay the mortgage and other bills, and do online transfers between savings and checking to cover them.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

Our paychecks get direct deposited into our joint savings. Patrick then transfers whatever $ is needed to pay our bills for the month into our checking account. If I need to write a check, either I transfer the money myself, or I tell him and he does it (I'm lazy, so I usually just have him do it. )

Pat gets paid in cash from his second job, so we split that as our weekly 'allowance'.

Any large purchases are discussed before they are made.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

We do the same as Karen does

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

Hubby is my atm.
He balances the checking and savings and investments, pays the bills, and makes sure we both always have cash on us.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

Both of our checks are direct deposited into our accounts. We have an automatic transfer into savings set up thru the bank.

With all of the access to our accounts online Scott can easily keep up with what is where. I also put my debit card reciepts in the mail pile so he can see what was spent. But it has yet to be a problem for either of us.

Large purchases are always discussed, of course. But stuff like grocery shopping is my responsibilty most of the time. I just go, use my debit card and he accounts for it.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

We each have our own separate account as well as one joint account. Our paychecks(when we are both working) are direct depostied into our own accounts. Then a set amount is transferred into the joint account to cover the all the bills. Whatever we have left is ours to spend. That way neither of us has to answer for our spending cash. We do discuss any large purchases and we try to use primarily our debit cards and not credit cards for anything small.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

you all sound so organized - we just take what we need!

we definitely do not have a set spending amount each week/month and we don't check in with each other about how much we withdraw from the ATM.

Our paychecks get deposited into our checking acct. The balance in our checking acct is always such that it would cover any incidental spending and withdrawals (we use our credit cards for most purchases to get miles). I keep a pretty close eye on the balances and know how much is going out to all the monthly bills (car, rent, utilities, student loans, credit cards). I move over the 'extra' money into our house fund.

Of course, we both know of any large purchases and I adjust the balances accordingly (for example, when I bought my car, I moved over funds to cover the check).

Its all online banking, so I check the history to make sure all the transactions are correct, but I don't regularly balance the acct.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

We do not keep track.

We both feel the money is 'ours' in that no major purchases get made without consultation. Things like lunch, tolls, little things are not something either one of us kept track of before so we didnt start after we pooled our money. We do not have allowances or anything like that.

We still have seperate checking but that is more for convience (each having an ATM card, etc..) We both take out money from each others accts if we want to.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

We don't take out allowances or anything either. We discuss big purchases first. We take out a little bit here and then as we need it.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

Thank you all for your answers I am going to have to talk to Dh again!!

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

We have portions of our paychecks deposited into personal accounts that we use for discretionary spending but if we go to the joint accounts which are primarliy for bill paying and savings, it's no big deal.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

Bumping for Chloegirl

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

I pay the bills and balance the checkbook, so DH tells me any withdrawls he makes and I record them. I manage and review our accounts on-line.

He gets rental income every month that we use as our spending money until it runs out.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

Before we were married I set Jim up on a budget. His money goes into his account and he has certain bills he must pay from that money. These bills now include some of mine. The idea being that his entire check is gone to paying someone and we try to get him to a zero balance. If not, he writes me a check for our joint account.

My account gets my check. I have set bills as well. I also allocate out spending money from each of my checks. The spending allocation is the ONLY money allowed to be spent without discussion. So I get $30 in cash a week for lunch, Jim gets $30 for Gas a week and other stuff and the rest is all off debit card up to the specified amount.

Since we’re ALWAYS together it’s not an issue of him spending money without me or vice versa. If we make a big purchase one or the other calls and says “I’m gonna” Since it was originally my account and I’ve always been anal about this stuff I keep an ongoing tally of the balance at all times.

Currently all excess is sent over to the wedding expenses. After the wedding it’ll be held for apt/home downpayment.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

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Posted by Wendy

We each have our own separate account as well as one joint account. Our paychecks(when we are both working) are direct depostied into our own accounts. Then a set amount is transferred into the joint account to cover the all the bills. Whatever we have left is ours to spend. That way neither of us has to answer for our spending cash. We do discuss any large purchases and we try to use primarily our debit cards and not credit cards for anything small.

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We do this.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

I don't think having your own accounts plus the joint account is too much.

I prefer that - for the same reason you mention. I don't have to worry that Clive forgets to tell me he took out money of the checking account. We will just use it to pay bills (which I'll do) so the only money going out is what I'm taking out paying bills.

Re: Spin off on the Banking question-- Please help me understand

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Posted by Sonicstef

We do not keep track.

We both feel the money is 'ours' in that no major purchases get made without consultation. Things like lunch, tolls, little things are not something either one of us kept track of before so we didnt start after we pooled our money. We do not have allowances or anything like that.

We still have seperate checking but that is more for convience (each having an ATM card, etc..) We both take out money from each others accts if we want to.

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Same here.