My husband and I share our money, have been together over 10 years and have literally never argued about money. For us, keeping our money separate would 100% lead to more arguments I imagine. We only ever "discuss" major purchases (he bought a high spec laptop a few months ago for example, I bought a gaming system last year - those sorts of things).Exactly, being a relationship doesn't mean we suddenly morph into one person
Interesting... To me that has more potential for arguments. If you have shared money for the shared things plus separate money for your own stuff then there shouldn't be an issue-as long as the shared stuff is paid for in whatever way the couple agrees to share it and then both are free to spend their money however they wish. When it's joint, all decisions must be taken together. For example, my boyfriend just bought a £250 pair of headphones while I would never spend that much on headphones and if it was coming from shared money I wouldn't think that's OK. But as all bills are paid then who am I to question how he spends money he earned? I went through a period of getting eyelash extensions done-at least 100 quid a month. How could I expect my boyfriend to contribute to that? And then I'm assuming you don't buy each other any birthday or Xmas presents as that would just not really make much sense to me
I purchase gifts for him on my own credit card - we both use credit cards for personal spending to build rewards (cashback, points, air miles) and then clear the balances every month.