In an attempt to be more frugal and financially responsible in these “tough economic times,” I’ve been toying with the idea of trying to live life on one income. This would simply mean that we pay all of our bills and take all of our spending money from one person’s paycheck each month and the money from the other paycheck goes into a savings account as if it never existed. Now that we’ve paid off both of our cars and have no credit card debt or school loans, I think it’s possible for us to survive on just one income, though it would be tough.
The only issue we’re having with this scenario is, whose paycheck do we spend and whose do we save? I’m salaried and my husband is largely commissions-based. My paycheck is the same each month whereas his fluctuates, sometimes by hundreds maybe thousands of dollars. It would be easier to determine and follow a monthly budget if the income was consistent, so that would mean we try to live on my salary alone.
Now here’s where I admit that we don’t share a checking or savings account. GASP! Yes, it’s true. I get mixed feedback anytime I tell someone this. It usually starts with the questions. “Really? Why?” and “How do you split the bills?” Once I explain that we just both like having control over our own finances and that it keeps us from ever fighting about money, I usually get a response along the lines of, “Oh how unconventional of you!” Yeah, and we’re swingers too.
Having separate checking and savings accounts really has kept us from ever fighting about money. I don’t get pissed off when he drops $20 on lunch rather than opting for the $5 foot-long deal and he doesn’t flip out every time I walk into a Target and walk out $100 poorer, wondering where it all went. That alone is probably enough to credit our separate accounts as one of our secrets to a healthy marriage. Plus it makes birthdays, special anniversaries, Christmas gifts and little surprises easier to hide. (to those of you with joint checking accounts, how do you ever hide surprise gifts?) I’m truly a big advocate for maintaining separate checking accounts, but the thought of my account just barely keeping a positive balance month to month while his account keeps adding dollar signs, well it just makes me ill.
So is this where we cave and join our accounts? Do we open a third account that’s joint and just keep separate savings accounts? Or do I suck it up and just hope that my husband doesn’t meet a pre-baby Halle Berry and run away with her and all our money leaving me broke with all the bills?
After talking it over, I think we’ve decided to keep things the way they are – separate – but whatever money he puts toward our mortgage and/or the cable bill, I’ll match it by depositing the same amount of money into my savings. Everything else gets paid for out of my account already, so nothing will really change. We’re just pledging to be more conscientious about our finances and hope to save up enough money for a nice emergency fund, build some equity in our home, and set aside some money for a down payment on a new car. We don’t NEED a new car, seeing as how we just paid off both of our cars, but in a couple of years we will. Better to plan ahead now. And of course, we need to have enough money to indulge our travel addiction.
What are your best budgeting/money saving tips?
This is a tough topic, because if all the money is in YOUR savings, does he feel like it’s still half his? Is it half his?
We just took the plunge and combined everything, not really out of any principle, but out of simplicity. I would LOVE to live off of one income, but it’s just not possible for us right now. If it was, I’d probably have some babies by now, lol!
Anyway, I think the real point is to save, and to save for your shared goals/life, and as long as you are doing that one way or another together, that’s what matters. Not whose money or exactly how much, ya know?
For the record, I think the separate accounts thing is genius.
I don’t understand why it’s “unconventional” to have separate accounts. We have separate accounts, too, and it makes things much easier. While I don’t have “advice” for you – I think it sounds like you’re on the right track!
i was always a big advocate for separate accounts, but since meeting J, and living with him for almost a year and a half now, we’ve been sharing everything. we use any money that comes in for both of us and if one of us wants something, then we just switch next time. we never make a big deal about money and we’ve only had 1 or 2 big discussions about spending, both when we were tight. it’s been really nice having everything out in the open and available to both of us, though i know it differs with everyone.
and i agree with everyone else, you sound like you know what you’re doing, and that it’s working for you.
Hmm…all good comments! Sometimes it’s just nice to hear about how others manage finances. It’s such a taboo topic, people don’t talk about it much, but it’s these things that I like to know how other people handle it.
For my husband and I, we have one joint account that our paychecks go into. But we also both have separate accounts whichhave weekly deposits from the joint account. That way we can pay all of the bills out of one account, but also have our own “fun” money to play around with. Mine=vacation, his=tools. It works for us.
As for saving money… coupons. You will be amazed at how little time it takes to save big money on the things you already buy!
Brooksa and I seperate everything. I pay mortgage, student loans and groceries. He pays truck payment (soon to be my car payment), cell phone, and all general utilities. We have a shared savings account but only did that when we moved to PA. I have always been the higher income partner and when I was in sales, I would at some points contribute thousands of dollars at a shot to my savings account for a down payment on our house and our wedding. In less than 2 years, we saved a combined 18,000 for our house and over 10 for our wedding. It was just pure determination. Now we are working on having my student loans paid off before his start in two or so years.
Coming to PA, we basically cut our income in half yet doubled our housing expense. I feel like you can do it if you want to. Sure, it was an adjustment to stop going out to eat twice a week but now we don’t even really notice it. It was also an adjustment to stop going to Target and various other lovely places and dropping $50 a week or twice a week. But now? I don’t really even think about it.
I like having the seperate checking and shared savings. We pay our bills out of our checking since we both have different styles, he uses a points credit card for everything and pays it off each month and I use a debit card for everthing. Then once all bills are paid, we put most everything else into savings. That way if either of us needs any money, we can take it from that mutual pot. But at the same time we still have freedom to spend our money how we want.
Side note: My boss should be contacting you. Wierd.
Well does it count that i pseudo live with Irish?
We obviously don’t share accounts at all but we take turns paying for things that involve togetherness: dinners, groceries, movies, beer, etc etc.
I always pay for Jack stuff because he is technically my dog still =)
We have decided that when I move in (some day, light years away it seems) I’ll pay for all the utilities and groceries with my account and he’ll pay for his mortgage with his account. And the rest will be the same as it is now.
I’m not sure that i want to have joint accounts when we get to the “officially together,” point because the system we have works just fine. I suppose there are some things we could and should consolidate at that point (insurance companies and etc) but I guess we can deal with it later. Neither one of us questions the other’s spending habits now, so as long as we have separate $$ places then it should be just fine. At least I hope so =)
Good luck with whatever you decide!
We have separate accounts as well. When we got married, we looked at all of the bills and split them up according to income. Works GREAT for us.
Just stumbled upon your blog, and I think it’s great! I’ve done joint everything with my ex husband, and it had it’s ups and downs. With my last boyfriend we did “his, mine, and ours” and it worked pretty well for us. We each contributed equally to a joint account for household expenses, and we kept our separate accounts for car payments, lunches out, shopping, etc…
We share everything. No separate Bank accts or credit cards. It works well for us, we just keep everything as ours and don’t distinguish. For surprise gifts we use credit cards. Which we use for everything anyway and just pay off each month. Even though we have cards on each others credit cards we each have one where the other doesn’t have online acct access. So it makes it easy to do surprises!
Good luck – money issues can be really tough.
I would prefer to have a joint account. All money things should be managed together, make sure you have a good and responsible spouse.
Long time lurker here….The spouse and I have been together for 11 years and married for 6. We have always have seperate accounts. Here is what we do. We each have the household bills we are responsible for. In addition, every other paycheck goes to a co signed savings account. In essence we are BOTH living on half our salaries. Hope that helps! Sorry for the late post!