That's the question that I left yesterday's blog post with.
I called Tangerine - and it turns out, things haven't changed...Ugh!
The Tangerine representative suggested that instead of having two chequing accounts; that we basically open a new joint savings account (you can have as many as you like); and transition our salaries and all of our auto-payments to that and then use the pre-existing joint account as the new day-to-day.
What do you think, is it worth all of that effort?
How do you manage having more than one person spending from a single chequing account?
We have all our money go into 1 checking account. I manage the accounts as my husband really has no interest in it. Then on pay day, I transfer the money to pay bills or add to savings. We don't use our debit card for anything really. Each pay day my husband and I each get $100 in cash spending money. (It used to be more before we had kids and day care bills.) That spending money is for whatever we want to spend it on. I want a new pair of shoes? Fine, its my money. Husband wants yet another cd or movie? Fine its his money. That spending money also pays for if we go out to eat, see a movie, go have drinks at a bar...etc. All other spending like gas for the cars, grocery shopping, etc. goes on our Disney Rewards Visa which we pay off every month. If my husband has to pick up prescriptions or run to the store for something he usually gives me a heads up like "Hey, I stopped to pick up ...."
ReplyDeleteI keep track of our checking account in an Excel Spread Sheet and each month we have $250 of miscellaneous money. This money is there for all those times when my husband or I need to run to the store to pick something up for the house or buy a birthday gift for someone or pay for school fees for our girls. When that money starts to run low, I'll just let my husband know "Try not to spend too much until payday, we're running low."
It works for us without having to fight about who spent what when they shouldn't have.
That is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard! How can they have a joint chequing account with only 1 debit card? Makes zero sense. Have you guys thought about switching to PC Financial or some other free account?
ReplyDeleteI'm also going through the process of seeing how much I've spent this year and I've definitely been spending more than my budget allotments. I'll be changing mine up as well. I've been spending too much on my credit card recently as well putting me behind on my next paycheque. I'd also like to break that cycle.
Definitely you guys should allot the money more in line with your actual spending and see how it goes, you can always put any overages into savings :)
We have a joint account where our paychecks go. Then on pay day, I pay our bills, transfer money to savings, etc. Then $100 is transferred to his account and $100 is transferred to mine (we each have separate accounts). We don't like cash for our allowances because we both prefer online shopping.
ReplyDeleteGas, groceries, and eating out is budgeted from our joint checking and either I withdraw cash for it (if I have time), or we use our debit cards for our joint account. And I always budget to have extra left over (usually $150) for incidentals like an unexpected gift, an extra dinner out with friends, or more groceries or gas than anticipated. If we are low in our joint account, I let my husband know so he won't use the joint debit card.