BigBoyGuac wrote:
Haz Live in Girlfriend wrote:This is why I/we maintain three accounts. One for our shared expenses and one for my expenses, and one for hers. If she wants to spend $160 on a haircut and I want to use that on a night at the pub, so be it. It comes from our own account and not the shared account.
Unless you have a prenup this is total nonsense, but I understand that it might make you feel better. In legal reality, there are no account differences, it's all your money as a married couple... Half of your account is hers, and half of hers is yours. So she is still spending your money and vice versa.
Well, we're not married just yet, but soon. We both work and are paid pretty well as far as hobbyjoggers are concerned - no where near the Letsrun standard, I'm afraid.
Anyway, sure. If we want to live our entire marriage thinking that "if we break up half is mine and half is yours," then we can go through that time always being irked by expenditures we don't think are necessary.
However, separate accounts for non-shared expenses that are filled with money from our individual paychecks makes it so that things like this haircut are a non-issue. I don't even have to know it's happening. Best of all, there is no resentment because we are both adults who know that if we want/need to save for something we do it on our own terms.