We don’t have separate accounts, because other than this crafting, we don’t really spend much money on things (plus we just bought a house a year ago, so we really don’t have much money to split into “toy money accounts”)
It’s amazing how owning a house can do that.
We have a joint account where our checks deposit, and common bills get paid from, and an allowance gets transferred to our individual accounts. We also have a shared CC that gets paid off every month, and we use that for gas, restaurants, and groceries, then we split that CC bill from our individual accounts. The only things we have to get permission from each other for are things on the joint CC that are more than about $50 (except groceries).
The individual accounts aren’t just for toys, they are things like clothes and experiences.
That all worked really well until we had kids. Kids stuff just comes out of the joint account, and it makes everything else out of whack.
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We use our separate accounts for some of the kids stuff too… If I want to treat them to something, then I pay for it and vice versa. When the kids were littler, they both had to go to daycare. To make sure there was money for daycare, I setup a separate account just for that with direct deposits from my paycheck. As the kids left daycare, we kept the same amount of deposits going into it. 99% of what the kids need come out of that account still… all their sports, lunch money, clothes, etc, etc.
All in all, we have 4 checking accounts and 2 savings accounts between my wife and I. My wife is a teacher and only gets paid once a month. One of the savings accounts is just a place holder for half of her paycheck to make sure we can pay bills in the second half of the month.
And now we’ve completely derailed another thread… sorry.
I’ve been getting paid once per month for over 13 years now and TBH, I kinda like the fact that I only pay bills once per month. Payday I sit down and make all my payments and don’t worry about bills until next month.
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I tried that at one point. The problem I had is some of our bills aren’t even posted until later in the month. Now I use the spare savings account to move money around so that I pay bills on Every Monday for what is due that week.
I found being completely useless when it comes to periodic financial responsibility has done wonders for my stress levels regarding bills. I used to pay bills based on dunning notices (which was silly, since at the time I was single making really good money). Now my wife pays the bills, and my credit is excellent. Of course, her stress level is not healthy…
With my neural pathways, I would either revert back to paying based on dunning/shut-off notices, or pay everything the instant the bill arrives, regardless of the due date and our current balance(s). My wife is much better at spreading things out a bit to match paydays, etc.
What would be nice would be to get my MPCNC up and running, and actually make a side business out of it. Nothing major, but something to help out. If the wife can bartend on weekends, I can craftshow/garage sale on occasion… I just have to swallow my politics and make what will sell. (Or keep the things I’d like to make for family, friends, and commission work)
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