WE HAVE A BUDGET MEETING OVER A GLASS OF WINE

NATALIA ALEXANDROU, 37, lives in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, with husband Kristian, 42, an architect, and their three children, aged eight, three and one. Natalia works one day a week as a digital marketing consultant and receives £400 a month from Kristian. She says:

The last thing I want is to feel like a kept woman, so receiving a monthly ‘income’ for all I do with our children is the perfect solution.

When I had a full-time job, I would contribute to the mortgage and bills. I’m not able to do so now, though my contribution to family life is no less valuable.

I also have my own small income from my part-time job, and the child benefit money of £195 each month.

Kristian covers all the bills and when I was made redundant while pregnant with my third child, he set up a standing order to pay £400 a month into my bank account. I do most of the grocery shopping out of that and, in the run-up to Christmas and birthdays, he transfers an extra few hundred pounds — I work out what it will all cost and then let him know.

One evening towards the end of every month we’ll sit down with a glass of wine to have a budget meeting.

If I’m running short, after buying extra for a birthday or school stuff, he will transfer more money.

he never takes the view that I’ve had my money and once i t’s gone i t’s gone, because he knows I’m not frivolous. We’ve never had a row about money.

As an effectively singleincome family, with three young kids, money is tight. If I want to go out with friends but have run out of money for that month, I tell them I can’t make any plans until the following month.

They know this i s how Kristian and I arrange our finances and none of them has ever said they find it odd. It certainly works for us. Other than the mortgage, we have no debt.