Traditional marriages seemed to have two main modes of managing money: Dad handed over his paycheck to Mom as soon as he got it, and she gave him an allowance for beer and cigarettes. Or money was a man’s business, and Mother had an allowance for clothing and household operations but had to beg her husband for big purchases such as a washing machine.
I’m not saying that either of these systems was better; obviously, if I thought they were better, I’d be agitating for my household to use one of these methods. But they were simpler. They cut down on the losses, in time and money, that are created when you blow up the fixed boundaries.
Couples have created any number of alternative systems to try to get around these problems. All of them have drawbacks.
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