My husband and I spent the first few years of our marriage using seperate bank accounts and spending as we did when we were single. Every month each of our paychecks went into our respective accounts and we found that when it came time to pay the bills, we had to divide them up based on who had enough money left to cover them. It was paycheck-to-paycheck living all the way. Unfortunately we found ourselves dipping into the little savings we had to cover our mortgage and other bills. As the months went on, our savings was getting smaller and smaller. Something had to be done.