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adunk9 t1_j9v6y1p wrote

We had different banks when we moved in together, and got 3 accounts when we finally settled on a bank. Hers, mine, and the joint account. Paychecks go into the joint account, and allowance goes into personal accounts. This is mostly because there is a huge income discrepancy between me and my S/O. My paychecks are almost double what she brings home in a month, and I do not want her to feel like she isn't contributing as much. If we split things the way you described, I would have thousands more dollars a year in discretionary spending than she would. The weekly allowance is the same for both of us, and once we reduce our debt more, the allowance will increase for both of us. Allowance money can be spent no questions asked, joint money is for everything from bills, to date nights, to random purchases we both agree on. Having separate bank accounts with an allowance still gives us the freedom of having money for our own wants without hurting the budget, but we still have the big pot of money for every day expenses.

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Pozeidan t1_j9vi1eu wrote

We also have a huge discrepancy here, even bigger than yours. I probably net 3 times as much as she does. We budgeted accordingly. I put more than 5 times what she puts in the joint account, but we still have 50% ownership of the house on paper.

I still have more left for discretionary spending, but it's not that much. She still has way more discretionary money than she would have if we weren't a couple since her contribution to the joint account is fairly small.

We live a fairly frugal lifestyle so we're both comfortable with that.

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adunk9 t1_j9wgum5 wrote

Going to make sure she has ownership of the house/cars once we're married officially in a few months. Been living like we're married since we moved in together 3 years ago. Most of our monthly budget is being eaten up by trying to get out from the debt we both accrued from before we got together. But that's an "US" problem and we deal with it together.

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estherstein t1_j9vifr2 wrote

I'm a student so we're single income and we just kind of agree to be responsible with money so far. If it comes to a serious disagreement we'll have to come up with a more official allowance system.

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