Who balances the books in your relationship?

If you’re living together, engaged, or married, you eventually have to decide how you’re going to handle your joint finances. The issue of whether or not to merge your finances and have joint accounts is a whole ‘nother post. I’m just curious about the simple act of balancing the household budget. Who does it? I know some couples where one person is entirely responsible for all things bill-related, and the other person has not a clue how much they pay for internet or car insurance. On the other end of the spectrum are the couples that take turns paying bills, or sit down together every month to balance the books.

In my case, I’d say we split the responsibilities pretty evenly. I’m usually the one physically writing the checks and updating our spreadsheet, but Mister Redhead generally balances the checkbook. We’re usually in the same room when this is going on and reading the bills and balances out loud, so neither one of us is in the dark about how much money we have going in and out.

What about you? If you’re part of a couple, who does most of the financial bookkeeping? And why?

Mint.com: Do or Don’t?

I’ve been toying with the idea of joining Mint.com for more than a year. For the uninitiated, Mint is a financial website that organizes all your accounts in one spot. Then it tracks your spending habits and shows them in graphs and charts to help you understand where your money is going and points out areas where you could save cash. It also suggests offers that could save you money (for example, it might suggest a credit card with a better rewards system). The company likes to boast that the average user can save $1,000 during the first visit alone.

Sounds cool, right? It’s certainly an impressive system. But a couple of things have held me back from signing up. First and foremost: security. Of course, the site reassures visitors that it’s safe. Its reasoning is that you never share your identity; you never enter your real name, social security number, or address. And you’re not making payments or moving money through the site; it simply organizes your funds. But still…you’re entering your bank account numbers and passwords. And what if someone managed to get around its “bank level” security and hacked into those numbers? Frightening.

The other thing holding me back is the fact that I enjoy crunching my own numbers. I’m serious. I like sitting down with my pile of bills, calculator, and Excel spreadsheet and doing some good old-fashioned math and Excel equations. Yeah, it’s slightly time-consuming. But taking the time to work through my finances makes my spending stick in my brain. It’s like this: People can tell you how to kick a goal. People can demonstrate kicking a goal. But the only way you’re truly going to learn to kick a goal is if you put yourself on the soccer field and go through the motions, again and again, and ingrain in your brain exactly what you need to do to get the ball in the goal. By doing my own calculations, I’m ingraining in my brain how I spend my money, and where I can do better.

On the other hand, Mint might be a quick, easy way to get a different perspective on my finances. So, dear readers, do any of you use Mint? Do you feel safe doing so? Has it dramatically changed your spending habits? Are there any annoying quirks? And has anyone actually saved $1,000 during their first visit?