As you’ve probably realized by now, we are very nontraditional when it comes to how we handle our finances. We don’t put a lot of stock into societal “norms”. You would be right if you assumed that the same is true for how we split the bills in our marriage.

For the first 4 years, I wasn’t able to truly contribute to the household financially. So, as SOON as I got a job, I knew that I wanted to split the bills in some type of way. We came up with a method to do so that was ultimately fair to the both of us.

As you probably saw in our Instagram post, Dj pays 57% and I pay 43% of our expenses.

Here are the exact steps we used to come up with those percentages:

Step 1: Calculate total income

Person #1 ($3000) + Person #2 ($2000)

Total income = $5000

Step 2: Divide individual incomes by the total to get a percentage

Person 1/Total = $3000/$5000 = 60%

Person 2/Total = $2000/$5000 = 40%

Step 3: Calculate the total amount of joint expenses

$1,500 total joint expenses. (Utilities + housing + groceries + etc…)

Step 4: Multiply individual percentages against total expenses

Person 1 = 60% x $1500 = $900

Person 2 = 40% x $1500 = $600

Step 5: Split the bills, fairly

Person 1 will contribute $900 to the joint expenses and Person 2 will contribute $600.

It’s really that simple. We chose this method because we saw it as a fair way to split the bills based on our respective incomes. No one has to feel like they are over paying or under contributing.

Honestly, the best part of this method is that it can apply to various situations: relationships, marriages, roommates, etc. It doesn’t matter how many people are involved, the math will still work.

[Our personal expense tracker calculates this for us so we don’t have to try and figure it out every month!]

Is this something you would consider doing? What is your method right now?

— Dannie