I hope this is not breaking the rules. Not complaining about my SO not being frugal, I've accepted it as a fact.
However! I refuse to give up financial responsibility over myself.
Im frugal, not cheap (my grandparents, war generation, taught me so. They used to hang teabags to dry and reuse etc).
Since my SO is the opposite, and I failed getting them to work on a budget with me, I've taken the following actions, and if anyone here went through a similar process, I'd appreciate any tips or advice.
I've calculated our fixed costs (rent, insurance etc) and running costs (variable things like bills, groceries etc). These are necessities. On top of that, some seasonal expenses, fun money etc., and came up with a comfortable number.
I now opened a second bank account (first one is joint account), into which my salary is paid. I have a standing order to transfer 80% of my income to account 1, and this covers about 70% of that comfortable number. My SO works (part time) but is making much less than me (full time+). Their income goes directly into account 1, and gets us to about 110%.
I intend to save and invest my other 20% as I've always been, we both contribute to our individual, mandatory, government pension scheme, and I also have a private pension fund (it helps me slide down a tax bracket, and I am concerned about the government program being insufficient).
Any tips on keeping financials 'joint but separate'?
April 05, 2023 at 08:28PM
