I get all of his paycheck into my checking acct except a fixed amount that goes into his so he can get cash out if he needs to, though he doesn’t often. We put most everything on a credit card, so I can monitor it and ask what a certain charge was for, etc.

I do all the financial stuff since he hates all that. I’m the planner and he’s the free spirit, so it works out well for me to do it all. I let him know what’s happening and he’s always fine with it all.

He’s a ‘no worries’ laid back Aussie, so it works well for us.

The beauty of marriage is tinkering with a system that works for you!

My wife and I usually spend around 15 minutes every other day going over expenses that we’ve spent. We updates our daily tracking spreadsheet. I make sure the amount in our cash envelopes matches the spreadsheet.

We then can discuss any categories that are out of control or even better… categories we are doing well in!

We only seem to have problems when we let ourselves slip to 4-5 days without tracking. It takes so much longer to remember everything and we usually will bump into at least one charge we forgot.

For us, a more regular commitment helps us stay on track!

Great post!

But now that I am older and smarter, this is how we manage it. Whether we’ll keep the same arrangement if we’re married, I’m not sure. It all depends on the circumstances. I will say, however, that I prefer our individual accounts and shared accounts. We both have our separate pool of money we can spend on what we want.

We put a proportion of our money into the shared account, and pay for what we share together. There’s not a lot of discussion about it – we buy groceries, rent, dinners out and other entertainment from it. Splitting the check on everything lead to a lot of fights. We find having our must have expenses shared, and our incidentals separate keeps the peace pretty well.