<prompt> Human: Im moving in with my girlfriend soon and its the first time either of us have lived with a partner. We talked about how to split shared expenses like utilities, rent, groceries, datesdinner etc. Some of the options were: - Try to keep it even: I pay sometimes, she pays sometimes and we settle as we go - Pay separately, keep receipts and settle up with a check at the end of every month - Joint bank account. We both contribute and pay for shared expenses with checksdebit cardI think the joint bank account is the simplest and easiest. I cant see any drawback. Is there any reason we should not get a joint bank account? Edit: to be clear, this would be a separate bank account from either of our personal accounts. It would get funded in small amounts regularly, as needed. And a side note: if we get a joint account, should we contribute equal amounts of our income or equal percentages of our income?  <response>: I was dating someone for five years and we were finally moving in together in an apartment. I thought about getting a joint account with her. Two years later, when we broke up, i was so glad i hadnt.Just have her pay you or you pay her. Pay with a cheque, use the memo line to note what the cheque is for, and youll be fine. 