Who handles the budgeting and billpaying in your household?

[KelR1]

I'm just curious. You? Significant other? Or is it a shared responsibility?

[hermione]

I do. I own a house with my sister, but I do all the financial stuff - bills, banking, insurance, grocery shopping, online shopping, etc., etc., etc. She just asks me how much money we have in the bank once in a while.

She does the dishes more than I do, though.

[Kathryn]

We share responsibility. We each take responsibility for making sure our individual credit card bills get paid, and making final decisions and handling transactions for retirement accounts. My husband takes responsibility for getting the mortgage and utility bills paid, I tend to take responsibility for medical expenses and kid-related stuff, I handle all my business finances, and I am the one who probably pays more attention to the "big picture" of what our overall spending patterns are. So far we've taken turns doing tax prep. I like it that we both have a good general idea about our household finances, though. We are constantly talking over finances (savings goals, major purchases, income, medical expenses, etc.), but these are discussions, not arguments. Our ability to see eye-to-eye on finances and the fact that we're both pretty responsible and level-headed when it comes to money is definitely one of the strongest aspects of our marriage.

[Lynnae]

I pretty much do it all. My husband and I discuss the budget and agree on changes, and he's up to date with where we are, but I balance the checkbook, keep track of the budget, and pay all the bills.

Over the years we've found that I'm more talented with numbers. Plus the fact that I'm a stay at home mom lets me do the finances while my husband is at work, so we can have more time together when he's home.

[Milehimama]

I do, pretty much.

At one point, my husband was hanging with some very fundamentalist Baptists who convinced him that he was not doing his manly duty unless he took care of the money too (it wasn't a "women can't" but more of a "don't make your woman do that for you too" attitude.)

Two weeks and three bounced checks later I've been in charge forevermore LOL!

[kav122]

Originally Posted by hermione

I do. I own a house with my sister, but I do all the financial stuff - bills, banking, insurance, grocery shopping, online shopping, etc., etc., etc. She just asks me how much money we have in the bank once in a while.

She does the dishes more than I do, though.

My situation is EXACTLY the same, except replace "sister" with "husband"~

We do agree on the budget, but that has been in place so long that we don't need to "do" the budget that often.

[GOTO Fashion]

I'd say I handle about 2/3 of the bills (utilities, mortgage, childcare, etc.) and he handles the other 1/3 (credit card payments). We don't really discuss our budget, except for really big ticket items and expenses, since we both pretty much know what our assets and liabilities are at any given time. We have zero tolerance for miscellaneous fees or charges that are imposed on our accounts, so whoever spots one of those first takes care of it.

[frozemud]

We share the budgeting, but we don't have a budget written down anywhere, we just know how much we usually have to pay for utilities, rent, car payment, etc. Any variable expenses, such as groceries, entertainment and clothing, we have to pay from whatever is left over in our paychecks. Sometimes he pays, sometimes I pay.

We have separate checking accounts and credit cards, but he has not used checks for about 4 years because he discovered the wonderful world of online banking and bill-pay. The only thing we pay with a hand written check is the rent, which I write out from my checking account and he transfers money directly to my account.
We each pay our own bills for things such as clothing, gifts, and gas.

It sounds really confusing that we have such separate finances yet some things are paid together, some things we alternate payment, but it works for us.
I have a general idea about how much he has in his accounts and he asks occasionally about mine. Never ever never do we ever fight about money. Not once in 17 years.

Oh, and I do the taxes. Just because I like to do them.

[khorrell]

I do the daily money stuff but try to keep him involved in large decision making. I'm like Lynnae - I'm home during the day so I can attend to things, plus he travels a lot and I would end up doing it anyway.

I'm always fascinated in how many different ways work for people.

[ajeh]

I'm a one-person household (college student) so I have no choice but to handle all the budgeting and billpaying here. In my parents' home, my mother handles it.