Tilly

Rather than 2 seperate threads

1 - I want you girls/guys opinions on something.. got me thinking when I read Wobbles saying about 1 partner in a couple having a higher wage and paying a bigger percentage of the bills.
Do you think joint accounts are a good idea? how do you work out the money in your house? how do you decide who pays what? do you both give 50%? you get the idea...

2 - I've noticed people talking about tax credits/child benefit on here a lot recently and I feel a bit confused about it all. My boyfriend gets a fairly low amount as he's working full time and on an ok wage. I seem to get a good fair bit for child tax credits - is this because I was signing on for a while when I was pregnant and received income support? do I get repayed in some way? it's just fallen a bit (because shes turned 1 I believe) but it's still more than I thought id get - I know of entitledto.co.uk but just wondering if anyone could answer this quickly for me.
Only worried as my mum got overpaid and now she apparently owes thousands.

coccyx

1. We have a joint account. My hubby is the only wage earner at the moment. Before we had children and I worked full time , we still had a joint account. We believe that we are a partnership, he may bring home the money but we have equal say over what we do with it.

Arcanegirl

Not sure on the tax credits stuff, were wanting to apply for WTC but havnet got around to it yet.

With bank accounts we keep ours seperate and we pay for certain things out of our wages.
Rob get the bigger pay so he pays the rent, council tax etc. I pay food and utilities.
Weve thought about getting a joint account but were pretty used to doing it this way.

jenny873

we do everything seperate, well actually we have seperate accounts, we have all of out direct debits which is mainly bills out of his account and i take care of everything else, and we both use each others money for day to day things. i pay for my car out of my account though and my loan i had before we got together x

Wobbles

We do everything seperate but have considered joint account for bill.

My OH pays most of the bills at the moment. I pay the silly things really
Insurances
Food
House hold buys
Caitlins stuff
Loan
Clothes

PINKDIAMOND

I dont mean to sound a bit harsh or anything but i beleive that it is a mans job to look after his family financially and the running of the home i.e he should pay for all of the bills, rent, c.tax ect and anything else to do with money. The woman is there to look after the kids and to keep her man happy.
I know i sound a bit old fasioned but thats how i beleive things should be done. ( man brings in all the money, Woman look after the kids and her man)
Before i was pregnant it was different everything was 50-50. Now that i am pregnant i have gave up work to consentrate on haveing my baby so i can sit back and relax as my last job was a highly stressfull job and i will continue to do this after the baby is born. A child needs a full time mother.
My o/h looks after me financially and im so lucky that he is willing to do this.

Wobbles

I know a lot of women think as you do but its not always realistic - I mean ok so the blokes income is a good enough one to keep you all living comfortable etc but imagine another income on top? So much you can do with a couple of hundred + a month either home, yourselves, holidays, savings & even baby!

Tilly

At the moment, because im at home and with baby full time, my boyfriend is paying all the rent, payments to his mum (we live with his parents) and then we share each others money for food shopping, Bethanie's stuff, going out etc although we will be getting a joint account when I get my debit card which will make things easier.

PINKDIAMOND - im not saying you are wrong, but I wouldn't feel fair doing that.. id like us both to work eventually and for it to be 50/50. We are a partnership, it should be equal - financially (not including shoes, handbags, make up, meals out and romantic breaks). I know you will be working hard keeping home and I think it's a lovely idea, but as Wobbles said.. that extra bit of money makes all the difference.

Arcanegirl

Agree with Wobbles, realistically its not viable for us to do that plus i think its fairer to be more equal. I dont fancy myself being a housewife and i know id get bored at home. Id much rather have a job and have my input into the income.

Wobbles

Notice the shoes and handbags came before the romantic stuff? !