The threads on discussing money and on adult allowances has prompted me to ask how other couples organize their bank accounts.

We have far too many of them, I'm sure, but the system works for us.

In general, we have 3: my husband has his own, where his salary is deposited and his standard expenses (retirement, insurance, etc.) are debited. I have my own account with the same purpose. Then we have a joint account where we each contribute money (at least when I'm working - am currently a SAHM), and our house bills & credit cards get paid from there. It is our savings account as well and neither of us uses a cash card for this account, so all transactions must be consciously carried out from this account.

This system works really well for us. As long as there are sufficient funds in our joint account, we are doing just fine. We don't need to know the details of each other's spending habits, and maintain some independence, which is important to both of us.

I'm interested in how others manage their bank accounts and whether they are happy with their solutions.

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~ mama abroad

"Be the change that you want to see in the world." -Ghandi

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I have 3 accts too. 1 savings for me, 1 savings for my son and my checking acct.
I have $100 taken out every month from my pay checks to be deposited into my savings (youll be surprised how quickly it adds up!) I dont even notice the difference and would probable spend it on junk or something I dont need.

I transfer funds from my savings to my son's every once in a while. Usually when I receive a bonus from work, I directly deposit that for him. (Im such a nice mom)

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Alex & the spider monkey

We have 3 as well.

I have one for me, my check gets DD from work. I HAD to go this route because its the only bank that they will work with since they draw our paychecks from them. We have 1 joint acct that we both have access too, me more than him since I do the finances. I write checks and pay bills from this acct. I do the same with my acct, but its more for personal spending, then household spending.

Then we have a savings acct set up with ING. I have it hooked up to our joint acct and it withdraws money every 2 weeks. I've got a nice little pile of money going on in there, so hopefully, its going to be a benifcial thing for us to have.

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan8.Samantha7,Cameron4

I have been thinking about setting up another account as well, or just automatically transfer money each month to savings and leave only enough money for the bills in checking. This way, we can't use debit for splurges, we'd have to think about it, then go to the bank to withdraw from savings. We currently have one checking, one savings and one credit union account. We use the CU account for medical/emergency, and it's a simple savings, has only an ATM card attached, no debit.

Hubby and I share one checking account. We also have a checking account just for paying out of pocket medical expenses. The money in that account can be deducted from our state income taxes. Other than that we have various investments but we don't access that money for day-to-day living.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

We have one checking account where all our monies go/come. This has always been what we do when I worked and when I didn't. That was just important to us.

We also have a savings account with this bank that does not have too much in it. We have a checking/savings account with our old bank because they have really good savings rates. (Our checking account is still open with a zero balance, but I have not written a check on it in over 5 years.) We also have accounts with a third bank that I joined before I was married and my brother was in the Navy (Navy Federal Credit Union). I joined when I was eligible and just kept it all these years. (I put dh's name on it when we got married.) When we got our settlement last year, we opened a money market account there to put it SOMEWHERE with a great rate (5.85%) and figured out what to invest in, etc.

So, we have three banks and 7 accounts, but only one main account for our everyday account.

We have two checking accounts as of right now. Dh has his, I have mine. I pay my main bills such as my car insurance, cell phone, etc., he pays his. For our joint bills, I write him a monthly check to cover our joint bills (house, utilites, etc.) We are looking into getting one joint account. I'm also opening a savings account in a few days.

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We have one checking account.

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~Happiness is a large family~

We have 2 accounts, one is our joint acct, he has one in just his name for his business expenses (he is self employed.) We pay all the bills we can online or by check. We use or Visa Check Cards for personal spending.

We have 2 checking accounts--1 is a joint account, the other is just DH's (his expense checks from work are deposited into it), we have a joint savings account at our bank and I have my own savings account with ING that I add to every time DH gets paid.

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