I admit it. I'm a bit nosy and I love to read about others people's lives. Nora and Nilsa did this post recently, and I thought I'd steal it. Hope you enjoy learning more about the life of Kelly and Eric :)
Obviously I am not including anything about childcare as Eric and I have no kids or pets and thus no responsibilities as far as that is concerned. Happily.
Vacation Time: Eric and I are very lucky that we have the same vacations. We usually start/end school slightly different days and have some differing days off, but for the most part we take vacations together, which is the best. I plan the vacations, which I love to do.
Work: Eric and I work in different school districts, and at different grade levels, but we work similar hours. We both work full time, plus I tutor after school and Eric runs an after school program at his school.
Food: We used to grocery shop together, but now we mostly order from Peapod (read about the pros and cons here). We make the list together, Eric puts it into his phone and pays the grocery bill and I wait for the delivery guy to come and put away the food when it arrives. I go to Panera weekly and on occasional Whole Foods and Trader Joes runs. As for cooking, we each make our own breakfasts and lunches for the week (which normally involves me cooking something on Sunday for lunch). Eric cooks dinner 90% of the time. We also have our own shelves of the pantry for our breakfast/lunch and snack foods. Eric claims that I am bad at sharing and he is good, but I think this photo of me stealing a sipping of Eric's drink on Saturday says it all...
Clearly, sharing is not caring.
House Cleaning: We both pick up after ourselves for the most part, unless one of us goes on a random cleaning rampage which we have both been known to do. Eric washes a lot more dishes than me, I love to run and empty the dishwasher. I also happily fork over my salary from one tutoring student every other week for someone to clean my house. Best money spent ever. Not kidding.
Laundry: We both do our own laundry. I am too picky about how my delicate things are done/taken out of the dryer. Eric is too picky about how his clothes are folded.
Yard Work: All Eric. My only contribution to this is when I feel bad for Eric and contribute to the shoveling by doing the front walkway. Even this is rare. I am spoiled… really.
Home Improvement: This is mostly all Eric… and my mom. I did make a collage of photo frames this summer… which Eric put up. Do I do anything to contribute to this household?
Communications: I'd say this is more me. Eric jokes that I am in charge of his social calendar and he has to contact me to know if he is busy. Obviously he chats with his own friends and family, but I am often planning things, I send out Christmas cards, thank you notes, buy most presents etc. Good to know there is some reason Eric would miss me if I was gone.
Activities: I plan a lot of activities, but Eric often gives ideas. As I mentioned, he never knows our schedule though, that is all me.
Finances: We have our own accounts and credit cards, though Eric did somehow score a copy of my credit card which I'm happy to say he does not abuse :) We split big monthly household expenses evenly, and are each in charge of separate smaller bills that we originally divided when we moved in together 5 years ago. I pay heat and electricity and he pays cable/internet. We both pay our own car insurance, I pay homeowners insurance. Eric pays for more things on a daily basis like the grocery bill and eating out, and I pay for bigger things like classes, trips etc. It sounds confusing but works well for us.
Who Wears the Pants: Me. Anyone know who knows Eric knows he only wears shorts :)
How do you divide household chores?
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Lol. This was fun to read. I love that photo of you stealing a sip of his drink! The look on his face is priceless. And yes, you are right - Eric does only wear shorts. ;)
ReplyDeleteI think you guys do a great job of splitting things up! And I am happy to hear you could make a cleaning person work for your budget. I agree that it is the best money spent!
I always think it's so interesting when married couples have split finances! One of my best friends and her husband sound just like you and Eric, but my parents had joint verything and my mom controlled all finances. Hahaha, I have no idea what it will be like when I get married. Or what I would prefer. I would like to be married to someone that is better with money than me so he can keep me in check. ;)
ReplyDeleteHahaha - that last line about pants versus shorts cracked me up ... why do New England men (in particular) think it's ok to wear shorts year round??? =) Sweets and I are similar to the two of you in terms of finances ... we keep separate accounts, separate credit cards (separate debt!) and split up who pays what bills. For the two of us, getting married in our 30s meant we had our own system of doing things before, so it was just easier to divide bills than it was to combine accounts!
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHA to the last line of this post.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to have to do this post now because I REALLY enjoy reading it!! With Eric switching from school to work throughout the last couple of years how we handle our finances has changed SO MUCH from year-to-year! We're in a good routine with it now but I'm sure it all be shaken up again when Eric is done school next year and gets a full time, permanent job!
haha i love it. i give the ideas and anthony figures out how to do it cheaply. our paychecks are deposited into our joint checking and then some of it goes off into the electronic world into other savings accounts. i work part-time, anthony is full-time and then he owns a business on the side. i used to tutor but decided it was not worth the haggling of schedules. anthony clearly makes more money than me and his money is my money to blow ;)
ReplyDeleteTesting
ReplyDeleteOh sure, now it works. Confused. ANYWAYS, I love this post, I love you and Eric. My goal in life is to have a relationship exactly like yours. And a life, basically.
ReplyDeleteThe end cracks me up.
ReplyDeleteSo interesting to read about this; i love that everyone does it differently, too!
I wonder why it is that girls (usually) are the ones to do the cards and etc.? I don't think he'd even remember his parents birthday if I didn't remind him :)
Glad you played along!