DH is paid monthly. We have 3 joint accounts: one for direct debits, one for spends and one for savings. The mortgage, utilities, insurances etc are paid by direct debit. We use bill smoothing on all utilities so that some is paid off each month. A certain amount is paid into that account each month and it cannot be removed.

the spends account is for groceries, meals, household etc. we both have our own accounts for personal spends. DH also has an accrual account for things like car rego.

i'm a spender and find that the month often lasts longer than the money, so I've also started to accrue for certain spends within the month. This includes putting money away for chiro, physio, etc.