DH usually has ideas for where it's going to go. We discuss them and prioritize.

He usually feels guilty that I benefit the least from it, especially because he tends to spend a chunk of it on his hobby. But usually there's nothing I *need*, and a lot of it goes to joint needs/wants. So it doesn't bother me.

We always use them for debt payments or "us" stuff. I might take a small portion of any bonus I get (like <$100) for something fun.

I encourage DH to do the same with his bonuses, but I don't take that extra from his. 

We do all joint funds, but I just feel weird about taking something from his bonus to spend on JUST me. 

I would tell him to take $200 out of it, and then split the rest between savings and the CC.  Then he should take the $200 and go buy himself something fun to celebrate his hard work.

ETA - I don't get bonuses, but Noodle gets a hefty one at the end of the year and usually we spend a little bit on something stupid and fun, and the rest goes into savings or our vacation fund or debt or whatever we're saving up or paying off at the time.

We treat bonuses the same as any other income. 100% of my husband's bonus and RSUs will go right to our savings.  We don't have any debt, but if we did I assume we would pay off the loans first.

We tend to treat ourselves throughout the year, so we don't have anything to splurge on right now.  We will probably use some of the money to pay for our vacation in March.

I do feel a bit bad since the bonus and RSUs total more than I make in a year. 

Our bonuses go towards our vacation budget.

I am conflicted about this.  We both receive bonuses, but mine are typically much larger than his.  As such, it is easy for me to do something fun with part of mine and then use the rest for savings or non-fun expenses.  For example, a majority of my year-end bonus gets allocated to funding our IRAs.  DH's bonuses are so much smaller in comparison that I feel ridiculous expecting him to allocate them proportionately to how mine get allocated.  But he never wants to use his towards fun things for himself because he doesn't think it's fair that my bonuses get wiped out on retirement savings, paying down the car, etc.  So, we struggle a little with them.

We treat it like any other income.... both decide what to do with it.  Since we don't budget for them, they usually go to savings for major house projects, or an extra-nice vacation that year.

If DH or I want something in particular and a bonus comes at an opportune time, we use it.  

FWIW, I'm the only one who gets bonuses, and they're based on overall company performance, not anything I did in particular.

A bonus is part of income.

Income is shared.

There is no stealing.

I usually take about 25% of my quarterly bonus for me and the rest goes to bills or debt.

DH will get a bonus this year, for the first time now that he is in a big company.  When I got bonuses in the past we put it towards our goals, usly towards debt or vacation.  We talk about what we should do with it.  Since we have debt it only makes sense to throw it there, when we are debt free it will probably go towards vacation.

How does he feel about it?

rikki311:

We treat bonuses the same as any other income. 100% of my husband's bonus and RSUs will go right to our savings.  We don't have any debt, but if we did I assume we would pay off the loans first.

Pretty much this.  It goes into the other pot of monies we have and decide from there.  Then break it up, whether house stuff, vacation, once a year splurges away...

I agree that a bonus is income.

I am puzzled every single time people on this board suggest it's in some magical other category.  It may be an income windfall, but it's still income and should be treated the same way.

misoangry:

A bonus is part of income.

Income is shared.

There is no stealing.

This.

There is no stealing in our house. Bonuses are ours to share, whether that means savings, debt, or splurging.

We use it as fun money.  I know people on here think that's a huge NO.  But both DH and I get bonuses for extra work done.  We still get our typical yearly income.  We've agreed the spouse gets 10% of any bonus. 

misoangry:

A bonus is part of income.

Income is shared.

There is no stealing.

Yes. 

volenti:

I agree that a bonus is income.

I am puzzled every single time people on this board suggest it's in some magical other category.  It may be an income windfall, but it's still income and should be treated the same way.

While I agree it's not some magical other category. For some people who aren't able to save for vacation or some other splurge with "regular" income, using a bonus for such a category is a good way to go. We try not to deviate our spending with our income too much, but with a bonus there is more wiggle room.

Here is my harshness:

If you can't save, you shouldn't splurge.

Just consider the bonuses now his opportunity to make up for the fact that you'll be his sugar mama once you're done with med school.

misoangry:

Here is my harshness:

If you can't save, you shouldn't splurge.

But my regular budget doesn't include a line item for a fancy vacation. 

I don't consider bonuses a definite thing. 

IF we got the bonus, we'd put it in the fancy vacation fund. 

I shouldn't be allowed to take said fancy vacation because I didn't save it out of the regular budget?

ETA: gotcha, I'm not allowed to splurge on anything if I have CC debt. 

misoangry:

Here is my harshness:

If you can't save, you shouldn't splurge.

What do you mean? If I wasn't clear in my OP we save a certain amount of money every month without fail. It's not thousands of dollars, but we definitely save.

Pardon me but I don't understand something.

In the original post you say, "...tonight I'm going to ask him what he thinks we should do with the rest of it without giving my input so I don't feel like I'm taking over." 

Later you say, "We have 1 last credit card that we're paying off from my H from before we were married."

Why do you have to tip toe around bonus i.e. you don't want him to feel like you are taking over, but the credit card debt from before you were married is a "we're paying off."

Just curious.

tosababy:

Just consider the bonuses now his opportunity to make up for the fact that you'll be his sugar mama once you're done with med school.

Lol :)

We treat ours like any other income, but we also each get a % of paychecks into our personal spending accounts - so by getting a large bonus we get extra money to spend. We both get equal % of each paycheck, so neither is penalized for income disparity, but both get rewarded for earning more income.

If we got a large amount due to a bonus and did not really have anything to spend it on, we could donate it to a vacation fund. When we had debt, we still got a %, but it was much smaller - need to have a reward for extra work, but also work towards financial goals.

misoangry:

A bonus is part of income.

Income is shared.

There is no stealing.

This.  What's his is mine and what's mine is his.  I think it's important for spouses to share in the decision on how the money is used, just like any other income. 

Typically the way we've approached bonuses (assuming there is no major financial obligation taking precedence) is that the spouse receiving the bonus gets to spend the first few hundred bucks as they wish, and the rest is joint money.    I think it's a good balance between rewarding the person who gets the bonus, but also keeping joint priorities and goals in mind. 

In this instance if you choose this approach, I suggest asking your husband to hold off on his fun money portion of the bonus, and putting the entire $1500 towards the CC.  Assuming you guys can pay off the rest of the balance by the end of the year, then he can have a few hundred bucks in June to spend completely guilt free.

Blessed55:

misoangry:

Here is my harshness:

If you can't save, you shouldn't splurge.

What do you mean? If I wasn't clear in my OP we save a certain amount of money every month without fail. It's not thousands of dollars, but we definitely save.

This made more sense in my head.

I'm not sure how to articulate it more clearly.  LOL.

I'd let him have a small splurge and toss the rest towards a goal.

For us, Un budgeted income varies on the amount but normally a splurge with the balance tossed in general or vacation savings.  

Recent splurges DH bought me an iPad (over the summer) and I made him pick a snowblower since he was holding off because he didn't want to spend the money after I got sick. (this was before he figured out I had good STD and LTD coverage).  The rest of the money from these two went into vacation savings for a big trip after I'm done with treatment.

His next one will probably be spent on house wants as he wants the yard regraded. 

Eta: our SL interest rates are really low as is my car loan we make more with it in savings or investments. 

Julia_JJ:

misoangry:

A bonus is part of income.

Income is shared.

There is no stealing.

This.

I agree with this in general though if the extra income is earned through specific extra work (such as if I opt to teach Extended Day which is completely awful) then we might use a bit of the extra for a splurge. When our budget was tighter, this normally meant going in the vacation fund for wherever we wanted to go next. 

Now, DH gets quarterly dividends. That is just plain old income as it's part of his pay structure. He's not doing anything extra specifically for it. His dream is to build a certain car. If he chose, on his own, to acquire an extra project specifically to go towards that particular goal that we are NOT budgeting for at this time, I would be okay with that until the baby is born. The only reason I wouldn't be okay once the baby comes is because he works at least 80 hours/week already.