How often do you and your partner discuss money? How often do you check bank balances, balance your checkbook, pay bills, or adjust your budget? Do you and your partner share the financial responsibilities pretty evenly or is it one person's job?
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We kinda ebb and flow on this and currently we are working on being much better about this.
I primarily do finances and I have been trying to check the account at least every other day. All our bills are on autopay and I have a monthly budget that shows when the money is coming out. We have been keeping an open dialogue and talk about it frequently throughout the week. Mainly it's me giving him updates on what the balance is, what's coming out this week, how we're doing on the budget, etc.
We (DH, I & LO!) each get x$ of fun money each month and are responsible for making sure we don't go over. But since I keep an eye on the account I've been keeping an eye on all our spendings.
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Auto pay. Everything.
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We just talked last night! Moving into a house has brought up so many unexpected expenses. We're planning to get back to tracking our budget monthly and having a state of our union talk every 6 months to adjust goals, etc.
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We check all our accounts daily, or I should say I do. We track our budget every Sunday morning when we are writing our meal plan for the week. For us the two things seem to go really well hand in hand. At the end of every month, we do an analysis of what we did right, what could be better etc.
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DH keeps track of everything. He just tells me when to go online and pay the bills. He handles it all, cause he makes all the money. I get a loose budget for groceries and some "fun money" for me and DS to do whatever with.
I'm terrible at managing finances, even though I'm great at being frugal, so it works perfectly for us.
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Daily. Seriously.
I'm so anal about finances it isn't funny. I ran the accounting department for a business before running my own, so I run a tight ship around here
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@Mrs. Jump Rope: DH also checks the accounts daily. It gives him peace of mind!
We discuss on an as needed basis, I suppose. He pays the e-bills and I handle the mail out checks. DH isn't a shopper, but if I want to buy something like boots or clothes- I run it by him just so he is aware. He doesn't ever argue it, although my boot collection does have him questioning me more... haha BUT I LOVE THEM! *_*
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I get paid weekly and my husband twice a month. We get an email when the money is deposited.
We also have email alerts set up for any spending on our debit and credit cards over $50. Keeps us honest.
I pay two bills manually (by electronic check), everything else is autopay. Daycare is actually a paper check once a week (which I write out 2 months in advance and pop into DS's backpack on Mondays).
Budget Actual vs. Plan is monthly, at the end of the month. We're on a no spending challenge for the month of August, let's see how that goes!
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It's in flux as I transition to SAHM, but DH is in charge. He's the finance guy so I pretty much just let him handle it. I'm frugal though!
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We are currently re-working our budget due to some unplanned medicial expenses of DD. It's been taking a toll on our savings but we are working through it.
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Ugh... I check account balances daily out of necessity. So much is pulling out of each of our checking accounts that I must make sure we have enough to cover it. DH and I still have separate accounts. We only got ONE joint account for some random thing about 8 months after we were married. But when DH started a law enforcement academy, I took over monitoring all money. We may join accounts soon, but I'm too busy/ lazy to figure that out. I worked out a budget, but we don't follow it. Maybe next month....
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Paying bills is kind of a pain because of their system here. First of all, there are no joint accounts since bank accounts are pretty much connected to the tax agency. There's also a doodad that comes with each account that you need to use for every transaction. It looks like a calculator and spits out numbers you need to enter for online transactions for security purposes.
So since all the bills are automatically billed to DH's account, I'd have to login to his account, using his doodad and then manually pay for each bill through multiple drop down menus since everything is centralized (meaning there's multiple options from the cable ppl to homeowners insurance) all the while entering more numbers in the doodad to confirm it.
Just explaining that wore me out. I leave the work to him
I have taken (extensive) notes and at least know how to do it though. But I know I need to be more involved.
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I handle all our money. We have all joint accounts - our main checking and a couple savings (one linked, one an online account). I pay all the bills, transfer money to savings, etc.
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@regberadaisy: we have had too much ebb and flow in our household
I am craving some structure!
@blackbird: we are heading more and more in that direction. A few of our bills don't have that option unfortunately. -
@scg00387: state of the union! I like that!
I was thinking maybe weekly or bi weekly "family meetings"
@plantains: I can definitely see it going hand in hand with meal planning, we need to work on that too! Love the monthly analysis too, that helps me set goals for the month ahead
@dandelion: being frugal is a great skill! Maybe I can get some tips from you! -
DH and I get paid on opposite Fridays. His paycheck goes into our checking. Mine goes into our savings. I check our accounts every other day or so just to keep an eye on things. I use the Mint app on my phone to do it, so it isn't too big of a hassle. DH has no clue how much we have at any given time. I handle all of the bills. I complain about it sometimes because he is so out of the loop, but even if he kept up with everything, I'd still check regularly.
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@Crumbs: this was us when living abroad too. On top of that the website was in German, Italian and French and I didn't trust myself to execute a transaction correctly.
Our doodad was a calculator with a card. Such a pain when we needed to do something from the office and the doodad was at home!
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Ok, this sounds like a really dumb question, but how does "autopay" work?? So many of our bills are varying amounts every month, e.g. $60 one month, $45 the next month, etc. How do they know how much to withdraw every month?!
Currently we still receive paper bills for all our utilities and then I pay everything online. Occasionally I forget and let bills sit too long, so autopay would probably be a good thing for me.
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We do the Dave Ramsey system, and we have a budget spreadsheet we complete prior to the beginning of each month. We pay cash for everything, and the cash for each category is in a corresponding envelope. When the cash is gone, no more money can be added. We go to breakfast every month for a 'budget breakfast' to decide where to allocate our $. We do this because I hate talking about money and bacon makes it better
It works extremely well for us. DH pays all our bills. We don't make just a ton of money but will be debt free minus our house within a year.
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How often do you and your partner discuss money? Before big purchases.
How often do you check bank balances, balance your checkbook, pay bills, or adjust your budget? At least every week, we don't balance our checkbook a per se but rather go through statements to determine accuracy, pay bills online when received, and we don't really have a budget.
Do you and your partner share the financial responsibilities pretty evenly or is it one person's job? We each have separate times we pay for. I pay the mortgage, insurance, etc. DH pays cable, electric, most food related expenses, etc. we each pay our own credit card bills in full every month.
We live well below our means so money discussions don't really come up much.
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@Meridian: it just draws the correct amount from your checking. You could also try and go "on budget" with utilities so it is the same each month regardless of what you actually use.
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@Meridian: some of my autopays will calculate the correct amounts for me. Like cable will take the "amount due" and student loans and a credit card will do the minimum due, or I can set my own amount, or they can do "minimum + $xx"
@grizz: I love your budget breakfast! That's so cute! your comment about bacon made me LOL. We have tried to follow Dave Ramsey a little in the past but DH wasn't fully on board then (I'm the nerd, he's the free spirit). I had a few cash envelope "sinking funds" and loved that method, but it drove DH crazy. We are working to find what works for both of us now.
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@looch: good luck with your no spending challenge in August! That's a great idea! I'd join you if you started a thread .... August is major buckle down time for me and DH.
@mrs. jump rope: I really like to check daily too. DH says I'm "obsessed" I stopped at the tail end of my pregnancy and all of my maternity leave. now that I'm back at work I'm ready to get into it again. the other day I texted DH "did you have taco bell for lunch?" and he texted back "I'm going to miss you not checking our accounts!" haha
@crumbs: a doodad??? oh my. that is a little complicated, I'm sorry
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I already wrote about ours, but we do a bi-weekly check-in to make sure we're on track. It only takes like 30 minutes on Saturday morning and it's so nice to have the peace of mind that we're looking over everything quickly.
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@Meridian: We just set it up with the utility company and they just withdraw it from our bank account. Others like cell phone or wireline bills get drawn from the credit card.
We discuss money anywhere from weekly to monthly, depending on whether we have a vacation or purchase to discuss. DH checks our chequing account, and i itemize our credit card and debit purchases into a budget spreadsheet i created on Excel. I update it on a weekly basis. I suggested YNAB to DH and he balked at the price and said that mine was good enough! I'll send it to him monthly so we can see where we overspent.
I think it's important for both parties to know how money is managed in the household.
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He is the sole provider at the moment, and I handle all the budgeting, bill paying, etc. he has access to our accounts but he never checks them, he just asks me the balance if he wants to know.
We all get a small amount of personal money each week and he withdraws his in cash. -
Daily. We just moved to one of the most expensive places in America,and are saving for our first home. DH is an internal auditor,and I'm a shopper. So, he has the elaborate spreadsheets and pays all the bills, but I check account daily to stay in the loop. We get paid on opposite weeks, so to me there's always a large amount in checking, but I realize we have bills! I had to buy all new suits for work bc it's my first job out of law school but shopping has curtailed now that I have clothes!
I have taken (extensive) notes and at least know how to do it though. But I know I need to be more involved.
I was thinking maybe weekly or bi weekly "family meetings"Reply
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