<prompt> Human: My wife and I just got married about a month ago. Weve shared finances since we moved in together about a year ago but now we are going to get a joint bank account and close our individual accounts. How do you buy surprises when you both have the same bank account though? For example I want to get her an electric guitar for her birthday in December but a couple hundred bucks at guitar center is definitely not going to go unnoticed here. My parents have shared finances for 25 years of marriage...have they just been pretending to be surprised this whole time??  <response>: You can still have your own hidden accounts for this type of thing. Whether it be a legit bank account, or you just stash 20 cash here and there, you can easily save up to buy something as a surprise. If you dont want to hide anything, buy a visa gift card from the grocery store, then go to the guitar store and get an electric guitar with that. You can tell her you got her a gift, shell know the amount, but not the actual gift. 