I’m naturally a pretty frugal person, so I’ve never really had to budget to stay within my means. However, I’ve been wanting to get a better handle on my money so that I can be more productive with what’s left over at the end of the month. I’ve been experimenting with Google Sheets and have mostly developed a game plan, but one aspect is tripping me up. I’ve lived with my boyfriend for several years now, and while we share all household and common expenses—such as groceries, utilities, furniture, and care for our cat—we’ve never combined our finances in any formal way. Our current solution is to use Splitwise, a cost-splitting app that allows us to track who owes what without constantly trading money back and forth. Instead of reimbursing each other for expenses, we simply keep a running balance. If one of us ends up contributing more at any given time, the other will cover more purchases until we are closer to even. Over the course of our relationship, we have both contributed equally, except for a small amount of $141 that I currently owe him.
I feel satisfied with this system, but I find it challenging to incorporate it into a budget. For instance, my monthly grocery budget is around $200, but since my boyfriend usually handles grocery shopping during his lunch breaks, I don’t actually spend most of that amount. Conversely, I tend to make larger purchases, such as plane tickets, which complicates things further. While I might spend $1000 on tickets, the $500 allocated for his ticket could be conceptually seen as covering my grocery expenses.
I appreciate the idea of a rollover budget, but categorizing my expenses is proving to be a challenge. Normal expenses like groceries and utilities do not come directly out of my account, and I also do not reimburse my boyfriend for those costs. It feels perplexing to reconcile this within a structured budget. I am reaching out to see if anyone else has a similar setup or if there are ideas on how to conceptualize this within a rollover budget.
I would suggest writing out your expenses as if you were spending the money every time. If you were paying $1200 in rent while your partner was responsible for $600 in groceries, $200 for utilities, and $400 for insurance, your budget should reflect your portion as $600 for rent, $300 for groceries, and so on. This way, you can get a clear snapshot of your financial lifestyle. It’s important to understand your spending in categories such as food, housing, and discretionary expenses. This allows you to align your spending with your goals and values. If you value vacations, there should be a designated line item for a travel fund. If retirement is a priority, you should allocate funds for investing. Seeing where your money goes will help you evaluate whether your spending aligns with your financial goals.
I am realizing that I might not be able to maintain separate finances while also keeping track of a categorized personal budget. This challenge has not been pressing until now because my boyfriend and I are generally aligned in our spending habits, and we keep our expenses low. I typically eat out only a couple of times a month, so I have not felt compelled to closely monitor my spending. However, I am now more motivated to determine how much I can safely allocate toward more significant expenses, such as a travel fund and investments.
I would recommend starting with a spreadsheet to see if that works for you. If it doesn’t, consider using a tool like Fina Money, which allows multiple profiles within one account. This way, you can maintain separate finances while also managing shared expenses in a consolidated view. This allows for better tracking of specific expenses, and you can set budgets on the main categories that matter to you. I recommend this approach over something like YNAB because it offers more flexibility for unique situations.
The concept of putting everything into Splitwise is intriguing. I maintain a digital file cabinet for my expenses, tagging them as necessary, which allows me to keep track of receipts. I export this information monthly to a spreadsheet for budgeting purposes. This approach helps me manage our shared expenses more effectively.
From my understanding, rollover budgets allow unspent funds from one category to carry over to the next period. For instance, if your grocery budget is $200 and you only spend $180, your next month’s grocery budget would be $220. My wife and I use a similar approach for our variable expenses. We have set a budget for these expenses and adjust it based on our spending trends. If you are currently tracking a running balance without using specific budget categories, it may be simpler to maintain that approach. Trying to inject categories could complicate your system unnecessarily.
Thank you for the insights. I was hoping to manage separate budgets without complicating our existing system too much. Perhaps a middle ground would be to create a slush fund for combined expenses, acknowledging that I won’t delve deeply into categorization. This way, I can still track personal expenses and savings, while treating household expenses as a single pool.
My partner and I have a combined checking and savings account. We each maintain our own separate accounts but transfer funds into the shared checking account for common expenses. We split our bills evenly, ensuring that all household expenses are covered through this joint account. For irregular expenses or groceries, we use Venmo to settle up.
I keep a running tally with my partner for household expenses, which include our mortgage and utilities. We proportionally split expenses based on our respective incomes, transferring the necessary amounts to cover our shared costs. This approach has worked well for us, and I regularly reevaluate our shared expenses to ensure everything is accounted for. I maintain two checking accounts: one designated for shared expenses and the other for personal use.