Budget: shared or separate?
The founder of a clothing brand talks about her relationship with money, from tracking personal finances to splitting costs with a partner.
Budget: shared or separate?
We're not afraid of difficult topics, so we keep diving into them headfirst.
Inspired by the Purpur. Relationships game, we asked the founder of her own clothing brand to tell us about her relationship with money.
On personal finances
I've been tracking my personal finances in a budgeting app for more than seven years (I think it's the most convenient one). By now it's a habit that helps me keep track of which areas of my life I spend money on and how that changes over time.
I know that I need a certain amount for health, sport and healthy eating, and that matters more to me than buying clothes. Or I know that I love giving gifts, so there's a separate budget line for that.
I can't say that tracking my finances made me change my lifestyle much, but I did see my priorities: I started eating out at restaurants and drinking at bars less, and over time I began spending more on sport.
I have a rough idea that if I want to go on a trip, then that month I either need to earn more, or buy tickets in advance and rent out my flat, so that my expenses don't change much because of the trip compared with everyday life.
On couples' budgets
I've had very little experience of living together with partners. And it was always a separate-budget system. We split the rent in half, and the same with trips.
I like it when a partner pays for dinner at a restaurant or picks up the groceries, but it doesn't stress me out to buy food for home, and I'm happy to invite them to dinner and pay for both of us.
I think planning a shared budget involves big joint purchases and agreeing in advance on spending for things like car tax, for example, or when you take out a mortgage on a house or flat. In all other cases, it depends on the partners and their current income.
If I feel that some holiday expenses will be hard for me to manage, I'll say so in advance, and I expect the same from my partners. It helps us find the most comfortable kind of holiday.
It's important to me that a partner is tactful enough in showing both their generosity and their limits.
To me, this reflects the level of comfort a couple can afford together.
In my current relationship we do split the budget, but it happened on its own.
My man is responsible for transport (we often drive out of town with our dogs, to workouts and around the city) and mostly pays at restaurants. I buy groceries for home and take care of beauty and clothes.
I love buying clothes both for myself and for him; for me it's a pleasure, and he doesn't worry about it. For other, bigger expenses, we plan to spend jointly and together, depending on who is earning what over a given period.
