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Learning to split bills as a couple will make your life soooo much easier, and help to prevent money disagreements with your other half.
As you’ll know, talking about money with your partner isn’t always straightforward and it can lead to fallouts and disagreements if you’re not careful. Managing finances as a couple can be challenging, especially when it comes to splitting bills fairly.
Each relationship is unique, and so are the financial dynamics within it. Whether you're married, living together, or just starting to share expenses, it’s important to reach an agreement that both are happy with. Before you can do this, you’ll need to work out your own financial situation so you are clear about your income and expenses. Working out your personal 50-30-20 budgeting rule can help you ahead of a conversation with your partner.
In this post, we’ll explore the different approaches couples can use to split bills, look at how to split bills based on income and how to calculate bills based on income effectively.
Splitting bills as a couple
If you’re wondering how you split bills with a spouse or a partner, there are a few different ways to go about it. One of the most important considerations is your respective incomes as it might not be viable to split costs down the middle if one of you earns considerably more than the other.
Whether you’re married or not it makes sense to have a conversation about splitting the bills as early as possible in the relationship so you both know where you stand. After the chat, here are some of the practical ways to sharing joint costs.
Split all bills 50/50
The easiest way to divide payment responsibilities is to draw a line down the middle; each of you is responsible for half of the bill payments.
HyperJar is a handy tool for this as you can create shared jars without needing to set up a formal joint bank account. You could create one ‘house’ jar to cover everything from food shopping to utilities, or you might want to separate all your joint expenses into a jar for groceries, one for car expenses and so on.
If each of you contributes an equal share to household expenses - adding the same set amount each month to cover the bills you’ve agreed - and if both partners have similar incomes, this super simple method works well.
Spilt all bills based on income
In situations where one person earns significantly more than the other, many couples prefer to divide bills proportionally based on each partner’s income. This ensures that both contribute fairly according to their ability to pay.
If you’re wondering how this works in practice the good news is that it’s less complicated than you might think. To calculate bills based on income takes two steps:
How to calculate bills based on income
Step 1 - Work out percentage of household income
i) Partner A’s income/Total of both incomes x 100 = Partner A’s percentage of household income.
ii) Partner B’s income/Total of both incomes x 100 = Partner B’s percentage of household income
Step 2 - Work out contribution due from each partner
i) Total shared monthly expenses x Partner A’s percentage = how much Partner A contributes per month
ii) Total shared monthly expenses x Partner B’s percentage = how much Partner B contributes per month
Example: 60/40 split
Here’s what this calculation looks like in practice. For this example, Partner makes £42,000 per year and Partner B makes £63,000 per year, and their shared expenses are £2,500 a month.
Step 1 - Work out percentage of household income
i) £42,000/£105,000 x 100 = 40% contribution for Partner A
ii) £63,000/£105,000 x 100 = 60% contribution for Partner B
Step 2 - Work out contribution due from each partner
i) £2,500 x 40% = £1,000 monthly contribution for Partner A
ii) £2,500 x 60% = £1,500 monthly contribution for Partner B
You can use this formula to calculate your combined expenses and to split your bills with your partner based on your respective incomes.
One person pays the bills
Depending on your living and earning arrangements, it might make sense for one person to pay all the bills. Splitting bills based on income doesn’t work for everyone. Perhaps you and your partner have decided that one of you is responsible for working while the other is responsible for managing the house and looking after your child. In that case, if one person makes significantly more money, there’s probably no need to do the sums to work out how to calculate bills based on income. If this is the case, it makes sense for the person responsible for working to pay all of the bills.
Even if you and your partner work, you might agree that one person is responsible for all the bills to make life easier. The other person might then contribute a specific amount to a joint savings account, or take care of the rent or mortgage payments.
The key thing to remember is all couples are different and there’s no right or wrong way to split the bills – you need to settle on an arrangement that works for you.
When you share jars in the HyperJar app with a partner, you can send messages and reminders to them from the app. You can also schedule payments so that on the 1st of every month, for example, £500 goes into a shared ‘House’ jar.
You can also use jars to set yourselves targets for specific things, like a holiday or Christmas - an excellent option if you struggle to reach savings goals beyond your day-to-day spending.
Try apps for expense splitting
As most people manage their finances on their smartphones and via internet banking, it makes sense to use apps to find smart ways to split expenses with your partner. There are several apps that will help you divide bills with your partner, including HyperJar.
HyperJar is a perfect app for couples, as it makes managing money so much easier, as well as sharing payments and managing everyday spending. You can both use your HyperJar car to spend directly from the same jar and you’ll both get spending alerts.
You can also set various payment controls and earn rewards using HyperJar, which helps improve your overall budgeting and save money in different ways for everything from groceries and travel to major appliances like a washing machine.
Communicate
Being open and honest is so important when talking to your partner about money. You also need to communicate regularly to keep the dialogue open and ensure that you can resolve any disputes or disagreements around household budgeting.
It helps to set a specific day and time each month to discuss your finances, particularly if you’re committed to splitting your bills in the long term. You also need to be open with your partner if your financial circumstances change so that you can adjust expenses and your share of them accordingly.
Conclusion: How to split bills as a couple
Once you’ve worked out the best method for you as a couple, try HyperJar to put your theory into practise. Our prepaid card means you can both spend directly from your jars and pay for absolutely everything you need together. You’ll also have a record of who’s paid in what, and where it’s been spent. Another way to cut down on the arguments..
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