Managing $$$$$ when 2 people live together?

Most married people have a joint account and pay all the bills from that. You two sound like you are trying to live like roomates and not a married couple.

You should have a joint account, checking and savings and have it set up where a certain amount is automatically placed in your savings each month. And you two then agree on what purchases can be made without consenting the other person. Usually things like gas, oil changes, lunch don't need the talk. Major purchases should be a joint decision. You two have to learn to live as one. When you marry it is no longer his money and your money, it is marital money. You took vows to become one. Don't start off on the wrong foot trying to live like you are still single.

PS- No one needs a few hundred bucks each pay day for allowance. You two are starting out. You need to take your lunches to work and limit the buying lunch to once a week. And you need to grocery shop together and purchase what each of you needs in the Health and Beauty Aisle during that trip. And anything else like haircuts or clothing needs to be something you talk about before doing. No one needs a 150 dollar haircut. Or 300 dollar shoes. Those are luxuries. Until you own your own home and it is fully paid off, you two have other worries. And you have to consult your banker and start a joint fund for retirement. You may think you two have more money to spend then you actually do. Especially if you want to ever have anything in life.

And talk about household duties. Make a list of what things need to be done and split it while you both work. Then when and if you become a full-time home-maker and mother and are not working, revisit the list and take more on for yourself.

And learn the art of compromise. If he is willing to do the lawn work and be responsible for the upkeep on the cars, you do the grocery shopping and the laundry. Or vice versa. If you are better at the yard work, put him in charge of the laundry. But most importantly sit down and talk about these things now. Before they become the little pebble in your shoe that rubs your foot raw.

With my wife and I - we began our live-in-relationship before we had gotten married. This helped us in the financial department I think, because we kept a little back at first in terms of how we each sat. In the end, it all worked out well and today we're both very open about what we have or how we're doing financially, but as far as paying for things goes here's what we started with:

We setup a joint account, one both of us could easily access and transfer to or from online, (this required one of us to move/switch banks - but it worked out much better this way). We sat down and added the costs of our phone, internet, cable, mortgage, utlities, groceries, etc all together. We came up with a figure and split it between the two of us. Each time we get paid, (we both work full time), we made sure to transfer our share of the expenses over to the joint account, we also made sure we each transferred a little extra.

Then we kept our car, car insurance, gas, and everyday expenses to ourselves. She paid for her car, I for mine, etc. If she wanted to buy a cd or a movie - she did, likewise for myself - and neither of us argued so long as the bills got paid.

Things have changed a bit now that we're married. As I mentioned above we're a lot more open about 'other things' the money gets spent on, but the general process is still the same. We're flexible and understanding mind you - some weeks she puts in more, others I do - but in the end we both put in about the same and neither of us feel like we have to work harder than the other that way.

My advice would be to do much the same - start a joint account where all of your living expenses will be drawn from, and split the cost of keeping it filled enough to cover everything. It's a lot simpler than 'I pay the $45 phone bill, you pay the $50 cable bill' if you ask me.

Firstly I think you guys should have thought this one out before getting hitched as it is known that finances are a treacherous area in any relationship. But that is water under the bridge now.

What we do is something in the middle: we each keep our paycheck. We deposit each an amount (to rate of earnings) into the mutual account With it we have a list what is paid from it (food, internet, phone etc). We also deposit tax returns in there are we file jointly, thus cannot say which part is his, which part is mine. This tax money is saved in what we call our art fund. The mutual account has never run out yet.

Large things we either buy 100% in our names or 50/50 in joint names.

This way we both have our own spending money and not fighting over bills that are higher/lower etc

This conversations should have happened before you even got married. Once your married and living together, it's all one money. One bank account. One checking, one savings. You both budget and pay your bills. The important thing is that you should always discuss buying anything over $100, say. You both discuss what you need, and always try to put some money away in a savings account. Communicate, that's what marriage is about.

It's 50/50... All the checks go in the bank, pay bills, and then do what ever .... Marriage is a 50/50 chance, make it work.

Yes. Some types of hamsters can live together for E.g my 2 pudding and my roborovski hamster do live together (without fighting).

It all goes in the bank account and we take out money as needed... for the bills or lunch that day at work... whatever. There is no definition between his money and my money... it's all our money.

yeah i think ur husband is right.. isn't it more complicating to open up a new bank account?? then you guys have 3 accounts to manage, yours, his and your joint account.. so troublesome.. just decide on what each of u will pay for... that's what my hubby and i do.. sometimes if i overspend on shopping, he'll pay for everything.. and when he overspends occasionally, i understand too.

add up all the bills, split it down the middle and have separate checking accounts.