Bills, Shmills

Bills. Yay. What fun, what joy they bring to our lives. To open the mailbox, hoping for a huge check from publishers clearinghouse, only to find tons of envelopes and post cards, none of them sending you money, but all of them reminding you to send them money. You'd think they'd return the favor a few times a year, wouldnt ya? My question, and yes I want you to answer, is this. How do you and your spouse divvy up the bill paying? Do you combine both of your earnings into one pot and then pay all the bills out of that pot? Why? Do you do a his and hers type set up, where he pays a portion of the bills and she pays a portion of the bills? Why? If they are in a one pot process, who is in charge? Why? We have tried several different methods over the years to see what works best for us. We have done it with me being in charge of the pot. We have tried it with him being in charge of the pot. Both have pros and cons. For the next few months we are going to try this his/hers method. I dont know what is going to work best. I dont suppose it really matters so long as it all gets paid, right? But for curiosity sake, I wonder what other families do and why. Do you have any great pointers to share, or any great failures to share? I know for us our greatest failure is lack of organization. If the bills dont get put in the same place no matter who checks the mail....well, you can imagine how that goes.