Marital financial bliss? part 2..

I guess this time around I'll debate whether it's better to have seperate or joint accounts. I've found it to be easier personally if we have all joint accounts. Mainly because without one another we didn't have enough money to cover the bills individually. So it was a lot of hassle to have to keep giving each other a check for pretty much the whole paycheck, just so we could pay the bills.

But I can see how people have seperate accounts to have some privacy. I am writing this because I'm debating whether we should have seperate accounts for gifts, blow money etc. Right now we don't have a set budgeted category for either. In the earlier post I wrote we don't do gifts, and will discuss it if there is something we want. So we're not huge suprise gift givers.

I've also found that by sharing we're more accountable to each other. Because there is only one bill, we can't hide purchases really. And we use very little cash, and ATM withdrawals call attention to themselves. So I'd ask what'd you buy and the same with DH. But there is the possibility that we could open out individual CC and charge things on it. And have the bill sent to work. But where would the payment come from since we have a joint checking account?

I know we wouldn't do that to each other, but if we had seperate accounts would it be easier to spend money over budget? I wonder if people are more tempted when they know they aren't easily accountable to a spouse? I wonder if I would be? I know I would spend more money foolishly if I didn't have to answer for it. If I had $100/month or more in a checking account I might be tempted to eat out everyday or something.

So joint accounts probably work better for us personally. Do I think we'll get there? Maybe when we make 2x what we make now, we'll allow ourselves individual accounts. Because we'll be able to live large!

What do you and your SO do?