So glad you enjoyed! Fun to revisit this myself after so many years :)

I have to disagree with the description that the combined money folks are “living in the moment”. It’s exactly because we want to travel now and are also saving so intensively for our future early retirement that the combined finances works so well for us. No hidden, unexplained spending tends to mean we maximize our combined savings. Every week after the pay is in and the bills are paid, the excess is skimmed off and invested (we do keep a $1k minimum to avoid bank charges and have easily accessable emergency funds). A combination of decent incomes and frugal living means we can cover the bare essentials on 55-60% of our income. There will be excess again next week so nobody feels the need to “spend it quickly” before it’s gone. If we do spend on nonessentials one week, there is just less or even no excess on Friday to transfer out. No harm, no foul, no finger pointing. We both know the purchase was carefully considered by whichever of us made it. If we have a car replacement or major trip on the horizon, we just stop skimming off the excess and let it pile up for the required number of weeks/months and then make the purchase with cash. It’s tagged for a purpose and neither of us feels the need to spend any differently than if it wasn’t sitting there. Maybe we’re completely weird, but it works for us.

@Jake
I’m not sure what the source of your sarcasm is. I’ll cop to being personally biased towards the solution that worked for my situation. The point of the post was to describe what worked for us and how we came up with it. But I thought I made it clear that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.
I would agree with the author (of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) that using both ways of viewing the world will benefit you. I’m a nuts and bolts guy with my finances. But I totally get the live-in-the-moment perspective. That’s what I aspire to while riding my motorcycle through the curves. It almost becomes a meditative state when you’re not consciously considering every individual aspect of riding through the turns, but taking in the whole experience at once. Living in the moment is awesome. If you hear riders talk about being “in the groove” or “zone” that’s what they’re talking about.

@Jeff Bell
That Chext service sounds interesting. We went the hard way and made a spreadsheet budget (my link is in the comments section of the Budget Templates) that does some of that. It forecasts my bank account balance into the future and shows what I’ll have when the bills come in. It was difficult to set up, but runs like a dream. I just check it every couple of weeks and make sure everything’s good.
I find that it’s easier having a separate account for budgeted items (whether you pool resources or not). I put what I know I’ll need in the budget account so my bills and goals are met. Then the discretionary $$ goes into a separate account for things like morning coffee. I could spend down my discretionary account if I wanted to and still know that everything in my budget is covered from the other account.

@Jenna
I’m glad you enjoyed it. It always comes back to doing what works.
It’s ironic – the most important part of a relationship is communication. Yet no four words in the English language can strike terror in a guy’s heart like “We need to talk.” :)

@Stephanie
It’s good to discuss issues before they get big.
Having a separate account for each of us made it much easier to balance our budget account. Sometimes I would go a couple of weeks without balancing, spend a half hour or so and it would be done.

@Jen@Master the Art of Saving
Good method. An ounce of communication is worth a pound of marriage counseling.

@Mistress Susan
I’ve heard of couples splitting it up like that. If that works for both that’s all that matters.

@Matalie@Mango
Depending on how they are raised, people can have a variety of hot button issues. Money is certainly one of the more important ones.
I’ll have to check out your site’s interpretation.