There are many ways to conduct your finances as a married or other-wise-committed couple. The most common three ways (very aptly described in this Slate series) are:

1. Common Potters or 100% combined finances, where everything goes into the same account and what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine
2. Independent Operators or 100% individual, where you pay yours and I pay mine
3. and the middle ground of Sometimes Sharers or yours/mine/ours, where, just like the name indicates, incomes and expenses are divided into individual ones or shared ones.

Both CB’s and my parents have the 100% combined method, but that doesn’t mean that joint finances is better or worse than other methods. I am a big believer in different strokes for different folks. Right now, we only have individual accounts, even though (1) we have similar views on saving, investing, and quick loans, and (2) philosophically I believe that our money represent our joint resources (especially because we married relatively young and we have certainly not accumulated any type of ”real wealth,” whatever that means). It’s just that the logistics of merging finances = a really big hassle. Neither of us feel up to tackling this hassle, and so it’s easier to keep bank accounts separate for a while.

We also decided how to split our finances for this school year, while I am a graduate student and CB is working full-time:

• I will pay for my tuition and most living expenses out of savings.
• I will remain on my parents’ family plan for cell phone, so all I had to do was pay for a smartphone. My monthly phone cost, however, is a big fat zero thanks to Mom & Dad.
• CB will pay my undergraduate student loans (less than $200/month), plus airfare for us to visit each other (around $500 every 2 months).
• If I really truly need money, all I need to do is to pick up the phone.

In many ways, finances after marriage will look exactly the same as finances before marriage, especially when it comes to the day-to-day things. We will eventually merge our money so that our bank statements catch up to our philosophy, but just not quite yet.

When did you merge finances (if you did)? Were you put off by the hassle of merging?

Minimalism and I have had a love-hate relationship. I’ve tried, but mostly failed, at minimalism, but now that I am prepping for a cross-country move, I am awash in this feeling of “die, stuff, die.”

Moving cross-country alone is an expensive, stress-inducing proposition: not only will CB not be there to gallantly handle the heavy luggage, even the cheapest moving vans can cost several hundred dollars for rental fees and gas. In an effort to preserve badly-needed dollars and sanity, I am selling almost everything (furniture) and donating everything else (books, kitchenware). The move has certainly motivated me to pare down my possessions.

Here’s what the move will cost me:

• $330: My one-way airfare from Southern California to the East Coast. Fortunately, I am flying Southwest so I can check luggage for free. So, basically, I have managed to fit most of my life into 4 pieces of luggage (1 carry-on, 1 personal item, 2 checked suitcases).
• $50: I am shipping a box of shoes and a few paintings. I tried, but it is so hard to give up good shoes. Or meaningful-to-me art.

Once I get to my new home, I will need to buy a bed, a mattress, a desk, a chair, possibly a nightstand and maybe a chest of drawers. Thanks to all of your horrible bedbug stories, not only will I never consider a used mattress, I’ve become wary of buying even a used lamp or picture frame because all I can think about are tiny little bloodsuckers hiding in the crevasses, waiting for an opportunity to attack. So if I buy new, that obviously means I can’t buy as much stuff as I can buy used. Ideally, I’d furnish my bedroom and pay for my share of furnishing the common living areas for less than $1,000.

Maybe this is the year that I will finally turn (a little more) minimalist. There’s nothing like the stress of moving and fear of bedbugs to persuade me.

If you’ve made a cross-country move on your own, do you have any advice for making the process easier, and dare I say, fun?