So since we aren't making a ton of money right now and we each make a similar income, FI and I have decided to combine our bank accounts into one joint account so that it is easier to pay bills without the hassel of "I pay this half, you pay this". However, recently we've been having problems keeping track of our balance, in terms of communicating the small daily expenses (buying lunch, coffee on the way to work- that sort of thing), especially since it's not like we write checks anymore and carry around a checkbook to balance. We do check our balance online regularly but it's not always up to date depending on how long it takes things to post. So I know what I'll have spent, and he knows what he has spent (though he is less financially responsible than I am, so often he doesn't have a completely accurate idea of his spending) but then when I go to pay bills I'm not sure exactly how much is left. As a solution, I've gone through our budget and after expenses for bills, grocheries, transportation, etc., I've come up with a sort of spending limit, or weekly allowance I guess for each of us that will still leave some left over to put into savings or for other expenses that might come up. We can each use our allowance how ever we want and don't have to worry about trying to keep track of eachother's spending in that sense. Then I figured we could just have an agreement to discuss any purchases outside of that allowance before making them. We've already agreed that we no longer consider it his money or my money, but OUR money. I also was wondering if we should just take our weekly limit out in cash so that its easy to keep track of, or just have two separate accounts of our own to keep it in that we will each be responsible for.
Does this sound reasonable to you ladies who have been sharing finances for awhile? The idea of an allowance initially struck me as not very grown up, but logically it makes sense to me. How do you all manage combined finances?