Friday, June 18, 2010

Bills and the significant other

Do you and your SO combine bills, equally divide bills, or have a joint checking account that you use as a "household account"?

Boobee and I do have a joint checking account however, we only used it to pay the mortgage.

That is all going to change August 1. All our bills are are going to be paid from the household account.

Right now its nothing like that. I put my part of the mortgage in the joint account and then pay the gas bill, water bill, car payment and car insurance out of my account. Boobee puts his part of the mortgage in the joint account and then pays the electric, cable/internet and cell phone bill out of his checking account.... when he remembers.

We sat down and calculated what are monthly expenses were and including our parts of the mortgage it comes to $1760 a month.

We have decided that we are going to split that amount in two for a total of $880 a month. Every two weeks we are going to put $440 in the "household" account and that should cover all our expenses for the month.

We are also going to add $2000 into the household savings account which will be a short term emergency fund for any and all household issues. We both agreed that this would be a great way to manage all our monthly expenses and make sure all the bills are paid on time ( and for me that means as soon as the bill comes in)

I can't wait until August.

If anyone can tell me how to post my budget spreadsheet onto blogger I would greatly appreciate it.


YBP

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't currently have a SO, but when I did, the thing that drove me crazy was that we could not agree and execute a plan. The key is communication and it sounds like you have here. I'm sure it will all work out.

Jolie said...

We do it much as you currently do it: I pay some out of mine, he pays some out of his.

Chitown said...

Sounds like a good plan. I like round numbers so I would just do $500 each per month and let the excess add to your cushion.