All our accounts are totally joint and wife and I carry basically the same credit cards. No reason to be separate IMO. Only need one check book that way and I can pay all the bills for all the cards in one place.
What if one one of you wants to make an expensive purchase? The wife and I avoid a lot of arguments when we can’t tell each other how to spend our own money. If I want to build a new PC? No problem! She wants to spend $500 on skincare products? Go for it.
Some couples see the money they earn as part of the whole, there is no my money and their money. It can make sense for some for sure, in my relationship its easier to just have our money, and it doesnt really matter where it comes from.
We also expect large purchases to be discussed first, outside of like presents and surprises of course.
Expensive is pretty subjective. Anything less than about $200 no discussion required. Above that, we usually have a courtesy conversation. We’ve never had a hard no spending if one of us really wants or needs something, but a required justification or notice prevents impulse buys.
Joint also doesn’t mean you can’t have an account (or a bucket or a tally) where you save for something you want, it just means it’s not a secret.
All our accounts are totally joint and wife and I carry basically the same credit cards. No reason to be separate IMO. Only need one check book that way and I can pay all the bills for all the cards in one place.
What if one one of you wants to make an expensive purchase? The wife and I avoid a lot of arguments when we can’t tell each other how to spend our own money. If I want to build a new PC? No problem! She wants to spend $500 on skincare products? Go for it.
Some couples see the money they earn as part of the whole, there is no my money and their money. It can make sense for some for sure, in my relationship its easier to just have our money, and it doesnt really matter where it comes from.
We also expect large purchases to be discussed first, outside of like presents and surprises of course.
Expensive is pretty subjective. Anything less than about $200 no discussion required. Above that, we usually have a courtesy conversation. We’ve never had a hard no spending if one of us really wants or needs something, but a required justification or notice prevents impulse buys.
Joint also doesn’t mean you can’t have an account (or a bucket or a tally) where you save for something you want, it just means it’s not a secret.
Well if you have kids and/or need to budget as a household you kind of need to work together a bit to maintain that budget.
We just discuss these things and come to some sort of agreement.