Since the boy arrived the percentage of mad $ being put aside has been greatly reduced.

In my relationship, I am the only one with a child. I maintain enough cash on hand for 6 mos salary. In the compliance field, unless you really suck, you have great job maneuverability.

We both make approx the same salary.

This is how we do it too (although our hobbies are different from RR Becca's. )

This is an amusing thread. Every year the networks announce usually gloomy predictions for holiday sales and I wonder who is not doing their part?? Being single makes my financial life easy, but savings come off the top, same percentage as always, money for bills, vacations, and gifts is set aside by budget and whatever is leftover I gleefully SPEND on whatever the heck I want!! Clothes, jewelry, things for the house, outings. I support the economy!

My Bank was bought-out two years ago. It happens. Say you are out of work for 7 months and your child wants new shoes. Are you then forced to ask your partner for a loan? Just curious. My wife didn't suck at her job, but her's and 299 other well-paying government jobs were moved to DC. I don't expect her to have to beg me for money if she wants to go to a concert with her friends. I'm just curious as to how this works for people with separate accounts.

We're not that strict with ours, GoBucs. It's more of a convenience thing. If he wants a new golf club or gun or whatever, he doesn't have to figure out whether or not we have a couple hundred extra $ he can blow because he already knows how much is in his mad money account.

We married right out of college, and didn't have 2 nickles between us, so it just seemed natural for everything to be joint. We think alike, fortunately, when it comes to saving and spending, and we've never made a significant purchase without talking it over first. We've argued about a lot of things over the years, but not money. We didn't really plan it to be this way. It just happened.

i think this is a discussion for married people

Ahh if only running shoes were money......

Wait! They use to be money!

I would never be out of work, I would maybe not make what I am currently making, but I would also take whatever I could get unitl my real job comes along. Nothing is too below me if I don't have a job.

Agreed.

They're in a basket in my spare bedroom. They are my retirement plan. By the time I'm ready to retire and sell them on eBay, they will be worth millions!!

I'm afraid this may only be true if you bury them and live long enough for time and pressure to turn them into some sort of really odd precious gems.

Would we be hoarding so much of it if they where not printing so much extra for us to hoard?

My hubs and I have seperate accounts and always have. If for some reason one of us were out of work and running short on money, the other would just transfer some money over. There would be no begging and it would not be considered a loan.

My hubby and I have ALWAYS had separate accounts. We are joint on everything, but there are my accounts and his. I've been out of work twice in our marriage. Both times he handed me his checkbook and we both eliminated the extras until I was employed again. He never questioned how I spent "his" money. Just trusted me to get the kids shoes and haircuts and whatever until I had some cash flow again.

We budget together, discuss big purchases and handle the "rainy days" together, too. He has a running joke about his "guitar fund" having become a number of items for the kids. When the kids need something off-budget, it's a topic of discussion and one of us throws money at the other. Our salaries are not equivalent, but it always works out. Twenty years...no hard feelings yet.

you say that now...but let that no good slug be out of work, sitting around the house unshaved and in his PJs all day because he can't find meaningful work, contemplating life changes...yeah, you won't be too keen to transfer anything but a good swift kick in the behind! Not only will there be begging, there will also be yelling, screaming, kicking, throwing items, etc! All while Offspring's "Get a Job" plays in the background...

When something comes up that she can't afford, it ends up on the joint credit card. If it's a need, I pay it off. If it's a want that she wasn't patient enough to save for, then she pays for it. I don't track her card spending, so I'm sure I end up chipping in a lot towards the "wants" along with the needs, but oh well. At the end of the day, if it was something that made her happy, it's worth whatever it cost.

Since we have a great income disparity, it makes it kind of tough to do the mine/hers thing, but since I cover nearly all bills and she only pays her car insurance, cell phone, and student loans as monthly bills and I get the rest, it balances out mostly. She has her savings which typically pays for vacations, and I save for all other things and pay for house projects, vet bills, and all the other fun things. She does most of the cooking and housework (which she'd do full time if she could), and while it's not perfect, it does work for us, and has for the 2 years we've been married and the previous 2 that we lived together.

How did this thread go from hoarding money to how couple and families manage finances?

That's the nature of threads: they tend to unravel at times.

Are you new to the Cooler?

judging by the amount of blank checks I still have it would appear I am hoarding money

We put all the regular bills together and then each of us contribute the same percentage of our salaries to cover them. Both the accounts are joint but I handle one and he handles the other. We tried a single joint account but I want everything entered right away and he's the kind who sits down and enters receipts when the mood strikes him. Money is one of the top three things that can end a marriage so I'm glad we found a way to work around this aspect of it. Honestly tho, it's all ours and we both honor that.

oh, you fall for this line of reasoning? How about your happiness? How about she learns that instant gratfication isn't a reality? what if buying a new car every 6 months is what makes her happy? or the latest and greatest fashions from Paris and Milan? you better set some limits on her PDQ or you're in for a lifetime of misery!!!!!

Thankfully my wife is rather thrifty and reasonable. She'd never spend that much, and doesn't care much about what's fashionable, or many brand names. For her, a shopping trip generally involves a second-hand or consignment store, where she's perfectly happy to hunt the good deals. She comes home with a pile of things for $50, all happy, until I say "Even if it's 90% off, it's still money you didn't need to spend, so it's not SAVING!". She then gets mad. Not sure why neither one of us have decided to change the start of that conversation to alter the ending.

She also drives a '97 Camry with 290,000 miles on it. She's very reasonable, and generally responsible at least. When she splurges and gets a $120 pair of shoes, it's not that bad. And she can't wear heels, so she'll never get into too much trouble with any shoe.