I do a 100 mile commute each day as I can't get work locally. I live where I do so my wife can be close to her parents. I am not from the area which is very insular. I am friendly with two guys married to the wife's friends who similarly aren't local and can't get work nearby.
Now, after dinner on Saturday night we blokes were sitting around talking about the cost of our commute. Mine is currently running at £700 per month. I pay these costs myself.
What astonished me was that the other two refuse to bear the cost of their from their own funds.The cost is shared with their wife. Their logic is that this cost is forced upon them by their wive's insistence on living in that part of the country where work is almost impossible to come by.
I can't see myself getting away with that! Is their logic right or wrong?
How do you have your own funds if you are married?
Their logic is spot on. If you make sacrifices to live in a certain place for the benefit of the other then where is the payoff?
I presume that you also leave earlier than her, get home later than her? This also counts as a contribution to the household.
I'd suggest having a joint account where both salaries are paid in and from which bills, car expenses, food etc are paid - then you can both pull some money back to personal accounts for discretionary spending?
I'm confused how money is 'yours' or hers', perhaps we're odd but we consider it to all be ours and we have grown up discussions on how it spent. I signed up to marriage being sharing things, including money.
When my GF and I moved in together she decided that fuel would come out of our living expenses joint account. My round commute is 75ish miles, hers is 26, i wouldn't have a problem if it were the other way round...
but then I do ride to work with her, turn round ride home, shower then drive to work in the other direction!
On a side note i'm looking into options to seriously decrease my commute mileage as fuels seriously expensive...
Where's the danger? Are you worried she might knife you if you talk about money?
All our money goes into one big pot and essentials, which would include commuting to work costs, would be paid out of that. We get "pocket money" each month but that's purely for stuff we spend on ourselves i.e. bike stuff for me, pedicures and such crap for her.
If you commute 100 miles a day how the hell are spending £700 a month?
My commute is 60 miles a day and costs £50 a week even at 100 it's be around £65, what are you driving? Or is this aa public transport thing?
100 miles a day and £700 a month!!!!! You must be earning some serious money.
or driving a bentley continental at 100mph!
I think they're basically right - IMO if you're married then you're a team and your money is split fairly. That said, if they were keeping their money completely separately and the blokes earned a lot more than their wives then making them pay for the petrol would seem fair.
We just pay both salaries into the joint acc and transfer a fixed amount into each of our individual accounts each month which makes sense as my wife doesn't work full time so earns less.
Things like travel for work come out of the joint account. things like bikes or clothes (our respective vices) come out of the individual accounts).
That said, previously when we both worked and mini-clubber wasn't around, we both paid into the joint account in proportion to our salaries so the one earning more paid more.
Sounds like you might actually want to get married, you know, to someone you talk to and share things with?
If you work one place and live another it isn't "your" problem singular, it is "your" problem as in the two of you, especially if you live somewhere that was her choice.
Only problem now is that you think talking about it is a problem. It will be awkward when you bring it up because you are expecting it to be. Good luck though, I am sure you don't split the gas bill on personal heating preference, fuel to get to work is just another household expense (just don't admit what you spend on bikes, even if she seems to come clean about the shoes! 😉 )
OK. We don't have a joint account as the wife refuses to have one. I transfer the guts of a grand a month to the wife's account to cover mortgage, food etc. I also pay the phone, Sky and internet.
The £700 is made up as follows:
Diesel £300 per month (I also drive at weekends to see my own family who live 50 miles away)
Car Loan £250
Insurance £80
Road tax £12
Monthly average cost of tyres and servicing £60
I drive a 3 series. Average tyre cost is £100. Usually go through 2-4 tyres a year.
Average service cost £250 and I usually need two a year as the car has 140k on it and I need it to last!
Joint account for stuff like travelling expenses. I accept that each might want their own account for keeping treat money in (this is what we do and it works well) but all the normal living costs come out of the main account where my wages go. My wifes wages go into another account which is used for annual items like holidays and curtains THAT COST A THOUSAND POUNDS!!!!
what does she contribute then, if you cover everything??
curtains THAT COST A THOUSAND POUNDS!!!!
You could buy a bike for that!!! 😯
Carlphillips. She covers childminding, her own car costs (she works 5 mins walk from our front door so these aren't high), rates, electricity, heating oil, clothing for the kids, shortfall on groceries, buildings, content and life assurance.
Its always difficult to give advice on stuff like this and to be honest i never do, but, it doesn't sound like you've got a 'fair' deal out of this. I pay for all the house stuff which like you is in and around a grand a month, but the mrs then pays for the fuel in the car and food, whatever is left over we spend on whatever we chose (although i do run most things past her as she's very sensible/rational and i'm not lol).
Now obviously this isn't equal but we're both happy with it and importantly we both have enough to spend, doesn't sound like thats the case in your marriage.........
Your wife has it right how dare would you expect her to pay for YOUR commute.
What about when you going to visit your family at the weekend... assuming she goes with you, you could invoice her a silly amount for being a passenger in YOUR car to recover YOUR costs. Could even charge her for speaking??
Alternatively what I do on my 100 mile a day commute is just use the joint account to pay for fuel. I then might use the credit card if I need new tyres etc and we then just moan about the price of fuel and what we wont be able to afford to buy in the rest of the month... are we a weird married couple or some thing??
In our house all the money goes into a joint account, all living expenses come out and the months budget for food, fuel etc is left there. The remainder is spent as appropriate after a chat with the other half. I earn way way more than her but that is the deal with being married.
Never understood this totally separate bank account thing, unless incomes are very disproportionate or one partner has a history of credit card debts or gambling.
Myself and OH aren't even married yet and there is no such thing as "her" money or "my" money - all wages go into one joint acc from which all bills are paid, the remainder is split off into another account from which everything else is bought, including food/fuel/clothing. We check significant purchases with each other before buying them - if money's tight that can mean stuff over £25! If we both have stuff we want to buy but can only afford one person's, then the other compromises and waits til we have a bit more money. Always thought this was a fairly adult way of doing it tbh. She earns about 70-75% of what I do and have never begrudged her getting something she wants at the expense of something I want.
We don't have a joint account as the wife refuses to have one.
that sounds weird.
i'm not married though...
We have a joint account that both our wages get paid into and all out outgoings come out of the same account.
We then just have a savings account that we both put money into every month.
We don't have any individual pocket money that we transfer to seperate accounts, we both just use the money from the joint account to pay for treats.
My missus spends around £200 a month of fuel which come's out of the joint account were as I cycle due to working nearer to home.
I don't see the point or need to have seperate accounts or allowances as we see it all as being 'our' money.
Unless one of you has a spending problem, I can't see any logic in trying to split costs. All our wages go into one account, all bills and all spending come out of the same account. I think a bit gets syphoned off into her old current account so I don't see how much she spend on the horse 🙂
She needs a car for a 300 mile weekly commute, I'm two minutes walk from my company van but the car and fuel comes out of the main account.
Tiboy - MemberI'm confused how money is 'yours' or hers', perhaps we're odd but we consider it to all be ours and we have grown up discussions on how it spent. I signed up to marriage being sharing things, including money.
+1
Ever since we moved in together - 2 years before getting hitched - we had a joint bank account, as we considered the money 'ours' not 'each others'. When we met, I was working and she was still a student - so only one income between us.... didn't bother me in the slightest. It was down to trust that she wouldn't clean the account out...
We still have personal bank accounts, into which a small equal amount goes in each month. We save up to buy the other a surprise - last month I got some brand spanking new 5.10s (for no real reason, other than I wanted some - but could never quite justify buying some!).
I don't understand married couples who have separate finances - and probably never will understand.
Same as many on here, it all used to go in one pot even pre-marriage and kids.
Its just me working now though so I pay for everything, for others who maybe the only earner how much do you give to your partner to do whatever with?
As others have said really. Talk to each other!
We have a single pot to cover all bills etc then we spend more and argue at the end of the month... simples.
Serious point though you are allocating your car loan to the commute. I assume if you didnt commute you would still need a car? inflates the cost of your commute quite a lot.
Diesel £300 per month (I also drive at weekends to see my own family who live 50 miles away)
Car Loan £250
Insurance £80
Road tax £12
Monthly average cost of tyres and servicing £60
You have a car loan on a 140,000 mile car?
Surely you could trim down your costs somewhere? That car is going to lunch something big at somepoint.
You are paying almost a grand in insurance a year? Yes I know your mileage however do you have to be 'that' honest? Have you phoned up your insurer? My insurer dropped £100 off of their best renewal (beating everyone) when I gave them the 'oh come on' phone call.
Going back to the car, can't you self-service it? At 140k I doubt it'll be premium-resale? Why not learn a self oil and filter change?
"We don't have a joint account as the wife refuses to have one"
Every couple makes their own deal, but this arrangement for a married couple seems unusual to me. My long-term partner and I have a similar arrangement to you. A desire to retain "autonomy" is one reason why we prefer not to be married.
A delicate matter to try and re-negotiate though.
We pay the same amount into a joint account which covers everything is need for living, utilities, mortgage etc with the remainder of our own earnings left to ourselves.
MRs turin earns way more than I do, and this is probably a joint weirdness thing but I want to be reliant on myself and what I earn but thats just me. We both have properties, we lived in hers for few years and are now living at the flat I had before we met as its a bit bigger/nicer and rent the other one out. I bought my car from my savings and pay for the costs associated with it but have equal access to it, though I need it for working while she doesnt.
From speaking to friends this appears to be far from convention but it works for us.
Does your wife walk everywhere or never use "your" car at all?
Seriously ROFLing at how pwned you are.
How do you have your own funds if you are married?
That's exactly what I was going to say.
If you make sacrifices to live in a certain place for the benefit of the other then where is the payoff?
Jesus. How about her happiness? Or is that not important?
😯 , to be honest.
Yeh, we have a joint account where all the money goes in and all the direct debits and bills go out from, if there's any left before pay day that's a bonus. We did once set ourselves a spending money limits but the wonders of paypal and credit cards soon got me around that 😉 I can't see how people can have 2 separate accounts when they live together and are contributing to the home etc, I think it would just cause agro in our house, especially with my addiction to buying shiney bits of metal for my bikes!
Hmmm, everyone seems to think joint accounts are the way forward.
Personally I dont, I prefer my independance.
I earn more than she does and we work it like this.
We each pay 50% of the household costs, rent / bills etc. I pay minimum 50% shopping costs, more if needed (we arent rigid with this, very approxamate in fact. For instance if she mentions shes spent a lot on shopping and asks me for X amount, I transfer it without question).
We each pay our own commuting / car etc costs. We have cars each, shes had hers since before we met (years). I bought mine from my own money about a year ago.
My cost of living is considerably higher as I commute by car, she uses discounted public transport, my car has a bigish petrol engine, hers a small deisel, I like beer, she does not
We are each free to spend out own money however we want, whenever we want without question, provided we can afford it. We have our own seperate credit cards etc.
If theres an unplanned cost, such as something required for the house, 50/50 again. Unless one of us dosnt have the cash, then the other pays more. This is not remembered for future times or brought up again as its just one of those unplanned expenses life deals out.
If we decide we want something together (Holiday, carpet, whatever) we both agree to save for it. If, for instance this costs 5000, I may very well end up paying 4000 of that. This is fine with me.
Its the modern world, independance within a relationship is allowed.
You can have a joint account AND independence as many above have demonstrated.
We get our independence by having separate pocket money accounts, and also by being sensible.
People can have joint account AND separate accounts AND independence AND happy relationships as has been demonstrated
Yeah but with joint accounts you can't sly the Travel Lodge on the statement or the £45 withdrawn past your partner 😉
mrsdeadly and I are self-employed.
Year to year, one of us makes more than the other by a few grand here or there. We have one joint account. Both being self-employed means we have the freedom to do stuff for one another like dropping into work occasionally, picking up, meeting for shneaky coffees at lunch - the kind of stuff that makes it wonderful to be in a couple. And because of that we try not to think about money too much once the bills are paid.
We also have a stash for indulgences. Sometimes she indulges, sometimes I do.
Neither of us an account to which the other has no access. Neither of us has a credit card (oops, mrs deadly does but it doesn't get used).
I think we have a similar approach to mol - common sense and openness is the way forward. If you can't trust your missus with your money then as mol said, 😯 FFS
that's what the individual account is for, Hora 😉
I signed up to marriage being sharing things, including money
Totally agree. Even before we got married my wife financed my venture into setting up a business and for several months I earned nothing so she paid pretty much all expenses. Now we are married and have children she only works part time and term time so I bring home the majority of the money. All but £100 of that goes into a joint account to pay the bills.
I don't get the idea of 'independent money' We have a joint account for bills etc, but that is for convenience of paying bills. I have a rough idea of how much money comes into the house and how much goes out on 'fixed costs' I know we are not he kind of household who can afford a new BMW and also that we are not the kind of household who can afford a £3000 bike. Even if I'd managed to accumulate that much in my account, it would be irresponsible to spend the money on that. I can't imagine how you would balance the 'my money /your money' bit. If she is broke do you sit there on your wad smiling contentedly?
Another interesting thread and I'm rather surprised that the majority are still 'traditional'. I had assumed that both parties would be terribly independant and kept their own separate monies.
But what would you use your separate money for?
But what would you use your separate money for?
You need to ask????????
TBH I've never discussed a joint account and we've never split bills equally just a lose 'I'll cover this' etc (neither of us have actually worked out who comes out 'tops').
Thats 20yrs, a mortgage and a kid.
Clearly there's no right and wrong way to manage finances.
People are different, and as long as you can work something out where you are both happy with the arrangement then what's the big deal.
If it doesn't work you need to change it until it does.
simples.
But what would you use your separate money for?
You need to ask????????
ok, what would you use separate money for that you couldn't use household money for, and yes, I do need to ask
Btw, not being critical, OP. At least not trying to be! Apologies.
Everyone needs some ownership of some element of their income from their job. It salves the pain aspect of having to work and shows the 'reward'.
Let your partner have a seperate 'me' account. How do you buy your bike bits ffs!
I have a bike/upgrade habit Charlie. But, in any case, now I don't have anyone to moan at me. 🙄
If she is broke do you sit there on your wad smiling contentedly?
+1
People are different,
That's the whole bloody problem! If everyone was a b it more like me then the world would be a much better place. C'mon! Get with the programme! You know the University of Coventry are offering degrees in 'CharlieMungusness', so if you fail to upskill, it's just your own fault
If she is broke do you sit there on your wad smiling contentedly?
+1
If you do, you might find that the wad you are sitting on gets more and more voluminous by the day.
As always there are loads of different opinions and viewpoints.
FWIW and its only my thoughts but even though I am the lower earner by at least 1:2 I wouldnt feel comfortable taking money from a joint account to buy things solely for myself and I dont see why I should use money that isnt mine to pay for things just for me.
If one of us happens to have less cash one week/month/period then the other one generally pays for whatever we are doing and definitely neither would see the other one struggle or feel as though they cannot do something.
We arent married, lived together for 8 years been together for 10 years, no kids. If we had kids and one of us was not working full time to do the house wife/husband thing then I could see the reason for joint money.
Some people have associated (mis)trust with some separate bank accounts, I dont see any relationship between the two.
This works for us and what others have said obviously works for them, neither are right or wrong.
I wouldnt feel comfortable taking money from a joint account to buy things solely for myself
No, that's why we have pocket money, or for bigger stuff we just discuss it. If my wife wants say, a floor loom, she can buy it - if circumstances allow.
If you do
I don't mean that I do. I was agreeing with your sentiment 🙂
I can happily say I wouldn't trust err indoors with my money. Basically, 'cos she is cr*p with money and has no concept of budgeting whatsover. She'd concur
she did look after the bills etc once but account soon went overdrawn / bills bouncing etc
so we work on a damage limitation strategy by restricting what she can mis-manage!
her salary goes into her account, pays food fuel for her car clothing for kids etc whatever she wants to spend it on. She never checks this that I can see so this account regularly goes overdrawn etc.! (which does royally p*ss me off given that she is a consultant pharmacist with about 3 maths A levels)
my money goes into my account (I earn more plus she works part time). Transfer some of this into a separate account for bills / mortgage / insurance; rest whatever I want to spend it on
so - we are mutually happy in our distrust I suppose.
Sitting down to discuss finances doesn't work 'cos it bores her sh*tless and she'll start talking about something else
if your wife happens to earn enough and all the bills are covered why cant she buy a floor loom every month if she wants?
whatever a floor loom is 😀
My gf earns what she earns, it happens to be more than me, neither of us live extravagant lifestyles,
I dont actually know what she earns its her wages and she works stupid hours (by choice) for them, Ive never asked her but I do know its way more than mine. She has lots of shiny things that she likes, mac notebook a number of mp3 players loads of running clobber (enough to kit out the uk Olympic squad)
whereas I have a 5 year old laptop leftover from uni and less shiny and much less sparkly bits of clobber.
I dont see why/believe I should have access to her wages.
She probably spends more on my birthday/xmas than I do, but not by loads
I was just saying theres an alternative to the Joint account route that works for me.
Personally I dont see the need for 'houshold money' once the bills are paid.
Incidentally, I dont recall anyone suggesting joint accounts dont work for a lot of people, or that anyone sits on wads of cash whilst the other is broke (quite the opposite in fact).
If the bills were covered, she could buy a floor loom every month. However if we weren't that rich she'd appreciate that it was irresponsible and not do it. Same reason I don't buy a new bike every month.
Mrs Grips doesn't work, but that doesn't make any difference.
I have been with my wife to be for nearly 12 years now.
We have separate monies. I earn more so we do balance things out - I pay all the bills and food, she only pays her half in rent. I put £1k away each month towards *our* house deposit and she same a few £100 I guess. She get about £550 left over I get £800ish. I tend to buy a lot more crap than her, so the spilt works well.
If she runs out I pay and vice versa.
Works perfectly well. I could not imagine how a shared beer pot would work!!!
As for the original posters situation, I think what you are doing is correct - I think penalising for a joint decision not cool at all, just controlling. If I wasn't workign out I am sure there are other options.
Make your own decisions don't let other influence.
her own car costs (she works 5 mins walk from our front door
Why do you need to run two cars?
I don't get it, if your married you have a family income which is shared just cause one partner earns more than the other they shouldn't have more spends once all the bills are shorted out. When we first got married my wife earned 15K more than me but all the cash was shared. Now the situation is reversed and I earn slightly more than her and all the money goes into the same pot, I'm still allowed nice bike bits but don't take the pee. To be fair once all the tax, pension payments and 18K a year childcare is paid there ain't much left to argue about.
Another example is we both get performance related bonuses and this year the wifes is bigger than mine but we will just stick all that money towards the mortgage even though she'll put in a grand or so more than me and in previous years i've done the same. It feel wrong to us if she was to keep that grand and spend it on handbags and shoes and leave me with nothing or vice versa.
It seems to go against the idea of being equal partners in a relationship if you keep your own money, I've seen friends who do it and always felt they were holding back from committing fully into the relationship.
The odds are my wife will get the next promotion and I can go back to being a kept man.
Nick
I'm married. We have our own personal accounts which our salaries get paid into; we then pay (proportional to salary) an amount into a joint account which covers all joint expenditure (mortgage, food, bills, anything we do together). Anything that is left in personal accounts pays for our own expenses (commuting, bikes, shoes, beers, etc.).
We have joint savings accounts which we both pay into. Any spending from our own accounts is down to us (although almost everything gets talked about, because we talk to each other 🙂 ). Bigger stuff gets discussed more, and anything that comes out of savings gets discussed.
Never really thought about it much. It just seems sensible that we share money to cover stuff that needs to be spent, and then we have our own money to buy toys.
Dave
I also find this a bit wierd, though I know several of our friends have separate accounts (and spend (waste) a lot of time discussing who pays for what).
All our money goes into one account and either of us takes what we need out of it.
I occasionally hurumph as my wife unpacks another box of Boden cardies, but as that seems to be her only real failing I guess I can't complain too much.
If either of us needs something big we would discuss it, but I think we both just know what is acceptable to the other and don't push it.
I guess things might be different if we were skint, but we're not and I think by nature we're both fairly frugal anyway so we don't really discuss money much.
Edit: Silly post
Cougar, we need two cars as there is a 6 mile round trip to the childminders in the evenings and occasionally the wife has to go on courses.
No offence taken Molgrips. Just wanted to canvass opinion on the matter to see how "pwned" I am. 😉
That was actually the wrong question.
I didn't really want to ask "why do you need two cars," I wanted to ask "do you need two cars?"
Running a car is a pretty big expense. If you're trying to reduce outgoings, it'd be the first thing I'd be looking at; can we manage with one car and the occasional public transport? The answer may well be "no" of course, but three miles in a taxi should be, what, 25 quid a week? Does the car cost less than 100 quid a month?
You need to have an explicit deal which both of you are happy with. You need to sait down and work this out.
Mrs TJ and I do the 3 bankk accounts - we each transfer half the living costs into a joint account then all living costs are paid from this. Whats left in your own account is yours to spend as you wish - but we do consult on big spends. We have similar income levels
Tehre are many diffirent ways of dividing up household income. Tehre is no one right answer.
Both folk need something to call their own and both must be content with the deal. Otherwise you will fight and argue over money. Mrs TJ and I never argue over money.
Fascinating. We are 21 years married, with each other sharing joint accounts a few years before that. Two shared accounts, Two shared CCs. We can take whatever money we want out - we trust each other. Given that in any split up or divorce your partner will find out very quickly what you had in your accounts, why hide? We can spend independently and trust each other/support each other. What kind of "independence" is being maintained by those who don't share accounts - apart from better ability to cheat? 😉
And we never argue about money TJ...
no personal cash? Neither of us could live like that. If it works for you......................
your car hire is more than:
a) my mortgage (i'm lucky)
b) half the value of my car (it's a 2001 306 diesel so not desirable)
c) I spend a year in servicing and repairs.
You really need a cheaper car for starters. With that mileage it will be worth sod all when you come to get rid or do you never plan to own it?
I'm not saying buy a shed but get something cheaper to run you can buy outright or do you need the car for 'image'?
The finance on the car will be paid off very shortly but as it's probably now worth damn all I intend to drive it until it falls apart. However, as it would have virtually no trade in value I intend to keep putting the £250 a month away somewhere to contribute to the cost of the next car.
Hora, I bought the car 5 years ago with 11k on it. Hence the need for finance.
Mrs FH and I look after our own money I pay the mortgage, fuel bills and all bills relating to the house also the running of my car, Mrs FH pays for the food most of the kids clothes & TV license, when it comes to holidays we both pay into a fund that Mrs FH manages, I also transfer a monthly amount to Mrs FH's account to help with her expenditure. It seems to work for us as I am very relaxed about her spending as she is very careful with money more so than I am. May set up a joint account though so Mrs FH can be in more control of our finances.
I give my wife 6 pound per week to buy milk and bread, and a swift slap every tuesday and friday.
I expect my slippers to be ready and warmed on my arrival home, and for her to feed me and my concubine at the weekend.
I think she's got it pretty easy....
DrP
I expect my slippers to be ready and warmed on my arrival home, and for her to feed me and my concubine at the weekend.
That sounds like it could get prickly
We do the same as tj pretty much. A joint account for all the house stuff, I pay a bit more in as I earn more and I tend to cover things like car tax and servicing. I think it's healthy to have your own account too, it's hardly treating her if I buy her something or take her somewhere using her money! Plus I like beer and bikes so really it's only right I pay for those things myself.