Another question about sharing money -- WWYD?

[msjd123]

DH and I both work full-time at the same jobs and we get paid almost the exact same salary. (I make slightly more because I have 2 years' experience on him, but we're on the same pay schedule.) I'm thinking of taking on some overtime work, though, that would pay me roughly $150 extra per week, so approx. $600/month before taxes. We already handle all of our finances jointly except for a small amount of cash we each get every month that's our own "mad money" to do with as we please. (I usually spend mine on clothes and books; DH spends his on music and golf.)

I know there's no right or wrong when it comes to stuff like this -- whatever works, right? -- but I'm curious as to how other people would see this.

Would you view it as your own money because you're the one doing the extra work, so it's your money to do with as you please?

Would you split it 50/50 because you're a team and it's all 50/50?

Or would you take a certain percentage for yourself and then throw the rest into the joint account?

Keep in mind, I'm not asking for what the "right" answer is. I'm just genuinely curious what you would do if you were in my poistion: being offered the opportunity to do extra work for extra money. Just in case it matters, it's not easy work. I'm a teacher, and the extra work involves tutoring the biggest behavior problem kids in the school for 3 hours/week.

[cristeen]

It would depend on the financial situation otherwise. If we were struggling, it wouldn't even be a question. If we were just scraping by, it would go into savings, and if we were flush every month, I might buy myself something with some of it.

[tinuviel_k]

All the money either of us makes in our house goes into our joint account. I'm sure if I wanted to buy something special that Aaron wouldn't mind, or vice versa. But we always think of it as "our" money.

The only money we get that we consider only our own is birthday cash.

[minimunklemama]

Originally Posted by tinuviel_k

All the money either of us makes in our house goes into our joint account. I'm sure if I wanted to buy something special that Aaron wouldn't mind, or vice versa. But we always think of it as "our" money.

The only money we get that we consider only our own is birthday cash.

exactly us too,down to the birthday $$$

[jennlindsey]

Honestly, DH's overtime is what allows us to stay afloat, so it's not even an issue. The occasional times that DH has done a small side job other than his fulltime employment (computer work for a friend/former client), we usually put that money towards bills, but sometimes he will take a small amount out for himself (poor guy, his birthday cash seems to get eaten up by emergency expenses, so it's more like paying him back). We discuss this though beforehand, as we do with any purchase.

[WendyC]

I would put in into something we both could share as a treat - like vacation savings, date night savings, manscaping and spa day savings... etc.. etc... but I have our accounts set up with a million different catagories that I fund every paycheck - so seeing the vacation $$ go up or the christmas $$ go up would make me really happy. We also share a clothes fund - which it would probably go into there too.

[jennlindsey]

ETA: we have a general "house rule" that if one of us gets any "windfall" money (birthday, Christmas, bonus, etc), the first $100 of that is totally that person's to do with as they please, no questions asked. Above and beyond that, we discuss what to do with the rest -- some of that could go towards more "fun money" for that individual (especially if they've been saving for a long time for a particular purchase), some most likely would go to household expenses, but it needs to be talked out and planned. We mainly have this rule because we are on such a tight budget; otherwise, it'd be a non-issue.

[milletpuff]

If we have a balanced budget, meaning money in is accounted for and expenditures are planned, then with any "windfall" money, 10% gets kept out to spend and the rest goes into longer-term savings. Usually the 10% goes to whoever earned it, and the rest is shared.

[VisionaryMom]

In the past, it's tended to go into the household account. As we've made more, the person who made it may get an extra something but always a specific item, not just a "here's an extra $50 for you."

[phathui5]

Do you have any debt to pay off? Is there 3-6 months of expenses in savings in case you need it?

If those are taken care of, I'd split it with your dh and call it spending money for the both of you.

[ASusan]

I just voted "keep some for self, then rest goes into joint account."

And soon as I submitted it, I realized that I was wrong. I DID have a similar situation this summer. I took on a 'summer science student' and earned about $800 after taxes. I deposited it into our joint account. I was going to use it toward my (mostly personal) Visa card, but I didn't. It just got absorbed into our joint expenses, which are dominated by house-building things. I pay the Visa out of my individual account (even though it is at least half baby stuff).

[tree-hugger]

Originally Posted by tinuviel_k

All the money either of us makes in our house goes into our joint account. I'm sure if I wanted to buy something special that Aaron wouldn't mind, or vice versa. But we always think of it as "our" money.

This is us too! I don't understand the argument for saying that it is your pay so you get to buy stuff for yourself with it. If you are working extra, then your dp is probably taking up some of the slack at home (more dishes, cleaning, cooking, etc)--at least that's how it would be in our house--so you should both benefit from the extra cash.

[cappuccinosmom]

I couldn't vote. My answer would be--it all goes in the joint account, and if there's something special I wanted to do with some of the money, we'd talk about it and decide together. Probably talk about it *before* I put in the extra hours so it was clear that some of the money would be "fun" money.

[slsurface]

Originally Posted by tinuviel_k

All the money either of us makes in our house goes into our joint account. I'm sure if I wanted to buy something special that Aaron wouldn't mind, or vice versa. But we always think of it as "our" money.

The only money we get that we consider only our own is birthday cash.

Yep, same here.

[Caneel]

I voted as treat as household income. If one really wants to split hairs, overtime work takes you away from the household so it should benefit the household in return.

I have many friends whose DP (males) work side jobs for cash and these guys make some serious $$$$. They view it as theirs and theirs alone. Some of the women don't care, the others care very much. I guess it comes down to one's relationship with money.

[~Nikki~]

I voted to decide on your own. In my situation, it'd just go into our joint bank account, and would likely go towards paying down one of our student loans. I might pull out a bit to "treat" myself with a new outfit or spa treatment, as it's extra bonus money that I worked hard for. Or I might put it into a separate account to spend on Christmas/Birthday gifts for DH and the kids.

In our house, it'd be my decision what I wanted to do with it. But I'd probably just feed it into our joint account and treat it like regular income. That's what I did with my 2 months of overtime pay earlier in the year. I had all these grand ideas of ways to treat myself.....but we ended up picking up a few household items we needed, and put the rest towards our debt.

[laohaire]

In our house, all money belongs to the family, and we discuss literally all purchases. Neither DH nor I have any mad money. That works fine for us. We're lucky because we really see eye-to-eye on finances.

What we REALLY want to buy is independence. So if we get extra money, the first thing we think of is, ooh, we could pay down the car a bit more this month. Not a thought to books, CDs or clothes. We buy absolutely none of those (clothes we depend entirely on my mother and MIL for Christmas gifts ).

[Scribe]

Mine, mine, mine.

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by Caneel

I voted as treat as household income. If one really wants to split hairs, overtime work takes you away from the household so it should benefit the household in return.

That is how I would view it.

[Purple*Lotus]

I would treat it as household money and my husband and I would decide together how to spend it/save it. I would not keep it all for myself because I would feel that that would be disrespectful, because he has worked overtime many, many times over the years and has never done that to me.