This is my first time posting about our account. SO and I use a joint account to cover all apartment and cohabitation expenses. I contribute $1400 monthly to this account. SO's contribution varies based on his job. Using the minimum amount for SO, we have a $500 deficit in our overall budget. While his income is still leveling out, I'm fairly confident that that deficit will be covered by his additional contributions the majority of months. For months in which it is not, we have a buffer in our account, as well as several categories I can forgo to keep us within budget. Below is our spending for February. Budgeted amounts are in parentheses.

Rent (inc. trash, H20, pet fees, parking): 1411.66 (1650)
Gas: 77.13 (80)
Electric: 116.16 (140)
Verizon (Internet, cable, phone): 126.36 (126.36)
Groceries: 387.11 (300)
Entertainment: 0 (0)
Miscellaneous: 105 (0)
Couch: 150 (150)
Pets: 410.97 (200)

I previously did not have an Entertainment category. We've decided moving forward to include this as our grocery overage is mostly due to 3 times eating out. Since eating out is more fun for us, I've added a $75 entertainment budget beginning in March. Our miscellaneous spending is for a BJ's membership, reimbursements to my Jan. spending, and an account fee (only charged if our minimum balance is below $1500...shouldn't happen anymore). We budget $200 to DD and DC since we do not have pet insurance. My thought is this money would just grow and we'd have it for emergencies. Poor DD had such an emergency this month, so that's the overage there. The couch is on 0% financing until Feb of next year. The goal is to have it paid by Nov.