I am not married to my boyfriend, but we have lived together for almost two years. I have no kids of my own, and he has three. All of our money is pooled together, and we pay bills first (his child support included), and then we set aside roughly $400 a month for any extras that may pop up for his kids (not including birthdays or holidays). Some months we don't use any of that money, other months it all gets used. Depends on what is going on. We also pay for the children's health insurance and dental insurance; any costs above and beyond the premiums for these is split between us and the girls' mother. As for an exact dollar amount, I really can't say.

My bio kids did not live with my spouse and her kids so we worked out a dollar amount whereby I paid my single share of household expenses directly toher in one payment.
I did kick in some on her kids, usually dinners out, presents and such but nothing was required on my part.
Nor did my spouse help me pay my child support to my ex.

I don't have kids of my own. My husband and I have a shared checking account where like TRay, all bills are paid first. Rest goes for food, gas and whatever comes up for his youngest, who lives with us.

All of the money is pooled. We run this as a traditional nuclear family would be run. The only difference is that I am just the step-father and I love my kids. They are MINE because their father is slow to pay child support, provide emotional support, care or guidance and doesn't do all of those little things a daddy would do. Yea, though they are 14 and 12...they still need that kind of love, time and affection, and I love having them in my life.

My DH and I split everything. Both of our checks go into the same account and it pays for everything. His child support is deducted directly from his checks. He also pays insurance. Left over medical bills come out of our joint account along with gifts, school supplies, lunches, sport stuff, and travel expenses. His kids live 1000 miles away.

My husband has 2 children from a previous marriage, I have 1 child from a previous marriage, and we have 1 child together. We are ONE family, regardless of how we got here, and we spend the money as one family, not a lot of individual pieces. If we did that, I think we might not be able to see beyond that, and we would be a split family. After all, riches cannot be bought by money, they are earned with hugs, kisses, tears, anger, anxiety, frustration, and love.

We split everything down the middle, 50/50. Even though my step son is not my bio son and his mom doesn't pay child support, I still feel like he's my responsibility too so it all works out pretty good for us.

My daughter lives with my husband and I and my husbands son lives with us full time(he has sole custody) and we just put all our money together. There is no splitting anything with us, we're a family!

~bella

I used to pay in certain cases of convenience (such as if I am the one taking SS to doctor, I'd pay, if he needed shoes and we were out, I'd pay). Until I realized that BioMom was not paying one red cent for anything except her trips to Vegas, clothes, and cheerleading for her own daughter. Also, SS started to think I was supposed to pay for everything for him as well(including his own entertainment such as Xbox games. He even said he didn't mind who bought him his cell phone (as if he was getting one)). Due to lack of respect and failure to help out on biomom's part and SS's attitude of entitlement and ingratitude, I quit paying for things. However, I paid for his school fees (100.$) and doctor bill (373$) and have not received anything back from biomom. My husband is afraid to ask because she makes up silly excuses for not paying and has a hissy. SS also gets paid very very well for helping my husband work on the weekends. I'm talking VERY WELL, especially for a 7th grader. Basically he stands around holding a string and then sits in the car the rest of the time, and walks away with 60$ a day, and pouts when he is responsible for buying a present for his dad on his birthday. I am not expecting him to spend all his money on others, but to understand what it takes to honor someone who does so much for him as his dad does. By the way, he has done nothing for me the last two mother's day and birthday except say "Happy. . . " I guess helping him with homework, getting him to practices, etc. just don't count.

I have bio kid and step kids that are here 24/7. We pool our money together..excelt..My ex pays child support..I put that money in a separate account.....my husband knows that goes for my sons gas money ( he is 17) special dances, sports events and his car insurance. Extras. He is very generous and doesnt keep score..he trusts me...I trust him..It all evens out.....the one part that we do not see eye to eye is.........buying his ex wife gifts from the kids.....were not talking 20-50.oo gifts.....Im talking 100 to 200 dollars worth of gifts for Christmas and birthdays, Mothers day............I do not buy my ex gifts..but if the boys want to and are broke.....I give them money from the child support account..........

I have 2 my hubby has 2, all of our money goes into one account and everything is paid out of that, including his support. Once it hits the account it is no longer his and mine, it is ours. We do buy clothes (mainly shirts)occasionally for his girls but not much else in regards to school clothes and what not. That is what the BM's support is for and at 170 a week, it is plenty. We do buy them toys for our house and at birthday/christmas, they pick a minimum of two things to keep at our house the rest goes back to their mom's. We only have them on the weekends so it is silly to leave everything here. In the beginning they used to take everything home, that changed when we kept hearing "we are so bored". As far as amount spent at Christmas and Birthday...Birthday's we spend between 50-60 on each and Christmas we spend 100 each. This has worked great for us becuase we never have the but we spent blah blah on yours and only blah blah on mine.

I have one bio-son and one ss. My bf and I try to do whatever we can. We treat the kids equally. All the money goes into the household. I do admint though that when I go clothes shopping that I will buy my son a couple of extra clothes. SS is living off of hand-me-downs. I do buy some new things for him here and there though.

I'm glad I am not the only that feels it's not our job to get gifts for the ex's. My SS is almost 13, and I told him that I will go with him to get a gift for his father. He should not be bothering his BIOMOM or Stepdad with that. I even put a note on his mirror with the date of his dad's birthday a month ahead of time so he can remember to ask me. He was so selfish running around making his dad do things for him, he never took the time to ask me, and behind my back, he had his stepdad go get a present for his father. He did that solely so he wouldn't have to ask me. I was furious. I would never get a present for his biomom. There comes a time when a kid has to start thinking of others. I don't care how much adolescence sets in. It's not a complete excuse for thoughtlessness. I don't care how well the two families may get along.

In our house, it is on a need basis. Though at times hubby does go overboard with SD, it has been slowing since what I put into his personal account gets less and less each month. I pay the bills out of the joint checking, then I put money in DH account.
Sounds bad, but if I split all that we had after bills into our personal accounts, all his money would go to SD, with no regard for surprise expenses - like water heater breaks, new furnace, new AC...
DH has no concept of money and well SD believes that world revolves around her and who is buying her what she wants. DH has even forgone gas in his vehicle to get her a new shirt or whatever, even expected me to fill his tank...well I didn't as it would have set me back on my gas for work and school.. so DH just sat home for a week or two.

Wow, this was an old post originally but still a good one. My husband and I have NOT combined any accounts due to his choice. He pays over $800 month in child support and has visitation. I have to pay all the household bills. So his child support money goes to his children's expenses. Their mom is supposed to buy thier clothes and pack a bag. We have bought some "extras" to have here but when they are only here 4 days month, they don't need too much.

I have a bio son and I use my money to buy all of his clothesk,etc.., Grocery bills are usually split because I have 1 kid and he has 2 that eat twice as much. So we're feeding them 4x as much as my son eats (and I share custody of him so he is only here 50% of the time).

I used to buy more/do more for his children but I've had to slow down and refocus on needs, not just nice to haves.