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My opinion: If I spend all my "allowance" money on garbage whereas my wife spends hers on things to make our life better (home furnishings, for example), I would (1) feel bad that I'm not contributing my share on something more worthwhile, and (2) probably start to annoy her by blowing all of "my" money on crap.
All couples are different, but I think by avoiding talking about money and purchases by just giving each person an allowance and letting them spend it on anything they want could lead to more problems than having an open dialogue from the start. Circumstances can and will change, and if you've never talked about it because you've been content spending your "allowance" money, that might not be a good thing!
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Sure, but we don't handle our money that way. For all major purchases that benefit us both equally (e.g. furniture, appliances, vacations, etc.), we discuss it first and then split the cost 50-50. For major or minor purchases that are primarily for one of us (e.g. I bought an iPad a few months ago), we pay for it solely from our personal accounts.
We don't avoid talking about money either -- far from it! We keep a spreadsheet of our household budget and review it every few months. This way we ensure that each partner in the marriage is contributing equally to shared household costs. Because we know we're both covering our fair share of family expenses, we don't have to ask for the other's permission nor do we feel guilty if we want to spend money on something we can't justify as a beneficial household purchase (e.g. my iPad from above).
I also suspect that many couples who simply pool all their money into a single joint account do the same thing only informally. Does this sound familiar to anyone? "You spent $1000 on a new set of golf clubs last month, so I get to spend $1000 on new clothes this month."