NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

Original post by billandme

Jan 19, 2007 11:06 PM

Do you go by percentage?

How do you seperate the bills?

FH and I are trying to figure this out and it's very confusing!!!!!!!

rojerono Posted: Jan 19, 2007 11:21 PM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

Posted by billandme
I guess what i'm trying to figure out is, what if one makes A LOT more than the other.....do you still pay the same amount every month?

I earn A LOT more than FH. But there was a time when he supported me when I decided to stay home with our children. And if I ever have another child, or - God forbid - lose my job... he may have to support me again. So we just kind of take a 'we are ALL in' approach.

billandme Posted: Jan 19, 2007 11:21 PM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

Posted by PegaLega

Posted by billandme

Posted by PegaLega

We put all our money into one account and have 2 seperate accounts for personal money. The bills get paid out of the joint account

this is what I want to do too. It sounds like it works the best way. so how do you know the amount you put in your OWN account for personal money? Do you do a percentage of your pay?

IT depends, you know what kind of money you spend and he knows what kind he spends. What we did was we broke down the bills for the month, divided the bills by 4 and figured out what absolutely postively HAD to go away per week. And then give yourself a budget. He keeps 100 and you keep 100 for yourself. This way, you decide you want to go to a nice dinner you have extra in the account, or go shopping or a nice weekend-you always have extra
HTH and wasnt too confusing

Nope, that was great advice....i'll show my FI. I really like that idea!

billandme Posted: Jan 19, 2007 11:22 PM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

Posted by Toots123

Right now, our bank accounts are seperate but we do split the bills. I just tell him what I need and he 'forks it over'.

AMGBride2008 Posted: Jan 19, 2007 11:23 PM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

right now, since we have separate checking accts.... everything is split right down the middle. We only have rent and a phone bill because everything is included in our rent (heat, elec., cable, internet...). there are some months where he needs to pick up my slack and vice versa but we basically have the mentality that what's his is mine and what's mine is his.

Toots123 Posted: Jan 19, 2007 11:25 PM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

Yeah, he asks little or no questions about stuff like that. Although he often comments, 'Yeah, that was my confirmation money.'

Actually, we make nearly the same amount of money so we never had a discussion about percentages but I have other friends in this situation so I am curious to see what advice you get. Good question.

hayleyandsteve Posted: Jan 19, 2007 11:26 PM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

i feel that the bills should be paid out of a joint account... and we can each keep maybe 5-10% of our paychecks for personal spending money (that the other person can't make any comments on! so if he wants to use his to buy more PS3 games, and i want to spend mine on shoes... the other person has to deal!)

i just feel like that comes with marriage.... my money is his money, and his is mine... despite that fact that one of us makes more than the other person.

Toots123 Posted: Jan 19, 2007 11:38 PM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

You know what: I was sitting here thinking about what was practical and fair in a situation where two people live together but one makes more money than the other. Here is how I see it.

I would split the things you both use and need right down the middle. For example, the groceries, cable, electricity, vacations, etc. That stuff is pretty 50/50 anyway.

On the other hand, if you have a mortgage or more expensive rent that one partner took on because the other partner makes more money than I think its fair to say that the person with the higher salary should kick in more. I don't want to punish someone for making more than the other person, but, for example, if my rent was 800 a month and FH and I bought a house with a 3000 a month mortgage (or rented a great apartment for that price) based primarily on his salary, I think he should kick in a higher percentage.

Just my thoughts........

prinses777 Posted: Jan 19, 2007 11:53 PM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

Posted by billandme

Posted by mhermanns

We have a joint 'house' account where the rent utilities and groceries etc. get paid from and then we have separate accounts for our own spending money. And then we have a joint savings. we both put in the same amount for rent and savings.

I guess what i'm trying to figure out is, what if one makes A LOT more than the other.....do you still pay the same amount every month?

This is too funny... it was on Suzi Ormen last week... I love her!

My FH and I were watching and she said if one person makes a lot more then you should split it up in a percentage... if one spouse makes 20% more then the other... then they should pay 20% more of the bills...

My FH and I don't do that... we just do who ever has more money in their account pays the bills that are due... mostly it usually works out that we are paying the same every month or every other month... we have seperate accounts and joint accounts... ever time we get paid a % goes directly into the joint account and thats what we pay our bills from... sometimes though if we went on little shopping sprees thats when we need to dip into our other accounts...

BlushingBride714 Posted: Jan 19, 2007 11:55 PM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

Posted by billandme

Posted by mhermanns

We have a joint 'house' account where the rent utilities and groceries etc. get paid from and then we have separate accounts for our own spending money. And then we have a joint savings. we both put in the same amount for rent and savings.

I guess what i'm trying to figure out is, what if one makes A LOT more than the other.....do you still pay the same amount every month?

FH and I have been living together for two years now and our system has worked very well for us... We have a joint account where all the bills get paid out of (one person should be the designated bill payer) and then we have personal accounts for spending money. We make different amounts of money also, so to decide what goes where, we figured out how much money we need in our personal accounts to get through the week. I needed $100 a week and he gets $150 (he travels alot). The rest of our pay goes into the joint. It took us a few months to get right but once we nailed everything down, it works great.

eunicsd006 Posted: Jan 20, 2007 12:27 AM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

between fh and I ...Iam the one thats good with paying bills and such......we have one joint account were he gives me his whole check and i make sure the bills get paid.....then i have a private savings acount for emergency....u never kno when it rains it pours but he doesnt know how much is in that account.....as for his spending money he keeps wat ever he makes djaing...but i stil get a cut from that...we dont fight over money i make enough to pay all the bills by myself and so does him..so were lucky in that dept.....

SusanAdam Posted: Jan 20, 2007 12:51 AM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

We will be getting a joint account soon but for now we have our separate checking accounts that we pay our bills from. I make a lot less than FH because I am searching for a job in my field that I got my degree in last year and for now I work at a crappy job. I pay for the phone, cable, internet, gas, electric, and most of the groceries. He pays for the rent and cell phone bill. We each pay our own school loan bills, car loan bills, and insurance.

aprlflwr Posted: Jan 20, 2007 01:20 AM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

I pay satellite TV and storage unit, FH pays electric. Then, FH pays $50 more in the rent to cover the difference.

We also have a shared checking account to assist with unexpected as well as miscellaneous expenses that involve both of us (groceries, gifts for mutual friends, dinner with friends, etc). The money in their comes directly from our paychecks. We don't really deal with percentages. Sharing and combining was hard at first, but once you get in the groove, you get use to it.

ds319 Posted: Jan 20, 2007 07:54 AM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

Posted by jenafee

We have joint accounts now so everything is just paid off that way. What his is mine and whats mine is his.

same here!

Nicole622 Posted: Jan 20, 2007 08:06 AM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

all of our money gets deposited into the same account.. we pay whatever bills need to be paid, take out the same amount for the week for ourselves and put the rest into savings...

cmrcmr0430 Posted: Jan 20, 2007 08:11 AM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

We both split the rent. For food, it's a day by day thing. We don't really divide that down the middle. I pay the car insurance. He pays the phone bill. We both pay our own credit cards. Everything kind of fell into place. We have been living together for 8 years now..I have to be honest though, the first 2 years were hell. I didn't know how to live with him....

Meaghan729 Posted: Jan 20, 2007 08:11 AM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

we both get paid bi-weekly, but on different weeks, so luckily we have paychecks coming in each week - I only make a few thousand more than he does, so its kinda whoever has the $$ when the bill comes in. its never 'i paid last time, etc'. he usually pays cable/phone/internet and car insurance, and I pay the utilities, and we both contribute to our mortgage.

bills stink

PaddysGirl15 Posted: Jan 20, 2007 08:18 AM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

Household expenses- straight down the middle. Even stevens. Although I buy the groceries bc when we go out to eat (on the weekends) or go out for drinks he pays for everything.

At this point we dont think as 'my money' but more like 'our money'

My student load, cc, and car payment, I pay for on my own. Just as he pays his own. After we are married we are going to buy a car, that will be another joint payment for the 2 of us.

HTH!

billandme Posted: Jan 20, 2007 09:52 AM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

thanks so much for all of your advice. it has really helped me out and opened my eyes in many ways!!! It's neat to see different ways that work with different people!

chrissyandvin Posted: Jan 20, 2007 10:13 AM

Re: NWR: If you live togehter, how do you seperate the bills?

FH and I have been living together for over year now.. I give him a litle less then half the rent (which is a good amount) and I buy the groceries.. he pays all of the other utilities and my car insurance, his and whatever else we have. He makes like 3 times more then I do though. I get paid biweekly so I have been puting one of my paychecks a month towards the wedding so it works out