DH is careless with money

[Anonymous]

It seems that you are upset about this problem because you want to SAH. If I were you I would think twice about this. It sounds to me that you could end up SOL if you are not earning any money and your husband decides to go on a "spending bender". Also, your input as far as spending will be diminished when you are not contributing to the bank accounts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my DH is a spender. If his card will go through, he thinks there is enough money. He admits he has money issues though, so I am in charge of a budget. We have a budget - but set into the budget is mad money for each of us. I have the debit card for our joint checking account - he does not. Every paycheck, $XX amount of dollars is directly deposited into a mad money checking account. We each have our own mad money account. It makes life a lot easier. There is no questioning what we get to spend our mad money on. It's there to blow. I tend to save mine for larger purchases I want, while he blows his on Starbucks, cd's, movies, etc.

OP here again... thanks for this idea. We have separate accts and one joint acct - for exactly these reasons. Unfortunately, as an example, I routinely see lunch expenses, for example coming out of our joint acct. Yes, we have to eat lunch, but I either a) bring it from home or b) take it out of my personal acct. I hate saying, "Hey - what's up with charging that Chipotle to the joint acct?" b/c yes, it seems like nitpicking - but really, this is all about the cumulative effect of mindless spending...

I think different budgets for different people are key. My DH LOVEs to eat lunch out, but I could care less. So, I have a pedicure budget, and DH has a lunch budget triple mine.

But, I get it sounds like it might not be totally even with you two- you might not have a pedicure equivalent to his lunch budget. I would figure out the things he spends money on anyways and budget for those. Cost cutting routine expenses can come in Phase II, once you get a handle on what they are.

I love mint.com for figuring out what everyone spends. I also do the $$ in our family, and it works great.