How do YOU budget?

[Rowellen]

I am curious, what the other side of that coin is. How people in functioning couples, do the money/bills together. So that it's fair. Unsure if this means shared accounts, or separate. I suppose it's complicated if you do things like buy a big asset (house) together. I've just never known what people in functioning r'ships do about this (i was brought up never to ask about money, so now i'm ignorant).

DH & I have everything joint now with an account for personal spending each. We pay ourselves an allowance each month & everything else goes on mortgage/bills. I do all the budgeting & bill paying because DH has no clue. We are lucky that both of us have a similar view on finances so we have never ever disagreed or argued about money.

[Astrid]

All our money goes into a joint account that DH can't touch (he admits he can't be trusted). I then divide up the money to bills, mortgage, petrol, groceries and pocket money. DH loves to interfere though, refuses to look at the budget spreadsheet, but then complains when I say there is no money.

When we started off together, we had things seperate. DH would pay the rent, petrol, clothing and entertainment expenses. I would pay bills and groceries. It worked it out once and it pretty much worked out to be even, except after awhile whenever DH paid the rent, he would then ask me for money to get through the week, so I changed things.