Managing a personal allowance through Quicken

Ferguson.colinr

Hello,

The way I manage my finances with my spouse is that we both contribute jointly to our household checking account and from there we pay our expenses, we also have an allowance - say $1000 per person per month allocated at $250 per week. Is there a way I can set up an allowance budget for each of us and have the expenses categorized (restaurants etc.) while also keeping track of who spent which money?

Thanks,

Tom Young

Perhaps you could provide more detail here as to what's going on currently, in the real world, such that somebody could make some practical suggestions. 

You say you both contribute to the joint checking Account, but what does that mean, exactly.  Assuming you both have jobs are you both depositing your paychecks into the joint Account, or do you each have you're own checking Accounts into which you deposit your paychecks, and then transfer money out of those Accounts and into the joint Account? 

If you do have separate checking Accounts are they both in your "joint" data file, or outside of that file.  How, currently, are you handling the personal allowances?  Do each of you withdraw $1,000 per month from the joint Account and then spend the cash as you wish, or does each spouse deposit that amount in their own checking Account, or is this more of a "mental" allowance where each spouse spends money out of the joint Account as they wish, honoring the "no more than $1,000" rule?  If a spouse doesn't withdraw the full $1,000 is the balance "lost" or carry over to the next month? 

Frankly it seems the whole point of an "allowance" is that it's money that the recipient doesn't have to account for to the donor.