Children's Shared Expense Management for Blended Families
With a divorce happening every 36 seconds, more and more families are becoming blended. It has become common for families to have children from each parent living together. While they can all live together as siblings and step-parents treat them well, the reality is that they have their own set of biological parents as well. Each birth parent is responsible for paying their child support and add-on expenses. They have their child support agreement in place and the payment amounts. They also have a split agreement for any occasional expenses not covered by the child support. Each parent and step-parent has to track expenses for the children in the household so that the responsible parent can reimburse them for their share.
Benefits of Using An Expense Tracker for Blended Families
Co-parents are legally required to pay for children's expenses even if they don't want to. It can get even more confusing when multiple co-parents are involved and children from different birth parents are living in the same household. For example, John and Tina together have two children Alex and Mike. Similarly, Peggy and Peter have a daughter Emily. John and Tina have divorced. Peggy and Peter never got married. Now, John and Peggy are married and all three children, Alex, Emily, and Mike live with them. John is more than happy to pay for Emily's piano lessons for Peggy's half. However, Peter still owes Peggy (in this case John) his half. John also needs to track co-parenting expenses with Tina for Alex and Mike. Tracking all these expenses and who owes what can get very confusing. Cent can simplify the process for them.
No Misunderstandings - Since all expense requests are assigned to the responsible parent and managed digitally, there is always clarity about who owes what.No Delays - Every co-parent is notified immediately when an expense payment request is created.
Accountability - All expenses are digital and trackable. No one can deny that they didn't see an expense.
Payment Tracking - All payments are tracked and applied to the appropriate expenses. There are no more claims of missed payments.
Legal Proof - All expense and payment reports can be used as the legal proof.
With Cent, co-parents from blended families can easily make payments for their outstanding bills. It makes it easier for them to talk about these expenses.
How to manage children's shared expenses as a co-parent from a blended family
To manage shared expenses for your blended family you don't need to download any apps. Cent's blended family expense management works on any device including your Android Smartphone and Tablet, iPhone, iPad, Macbook, and Windows PC. Below are the detailed steps to manage your co-parenting expense for your blended family.
From Top Bar1. Click on Add Expense.
2. You will be redirected to the Add Expense form.
3. Enter Expense Name.
4. Select Expense Category. You can pick Activities, Childcare, Child Support, Clothing & Shoes, Education, Medical, Shopping, Transportation, Travel, and Other
5. Enter Expense Amount.
6. Select Expense Status. Select "Open", if you have already paid the merchant. If you are proposing a large expense then select "Proposed".
7. Select Expense Date or the Planned Expense date.
8. Select Child(ren) the expense is for.
9. Select the co-parent to request their share.
10.Select the their share.
11.Cent will calculate the amount they are responsible for.
12.Upload a copy of receipt.
13.Enter a message for your co-parent.
14.Click on Save.
15.Your co-parent will be notified immediately of the new expense.
From Expense List Table
1. Click on Add.
2. Follow steps 2 to 15 from Top Bar to complete the expense reimbursement request.
Once the other co-parent receives an expense reimbursement or approval request, they can easily pay for it or pre-approve it.
Creating expense reimbursement requests related to children's shared expenses is very effortless with Cent. It makes it much easier for co-parents to discuss these expenses, which allows them to spend more time with their children. Cent makes it easier to be a financially responsible co-parent.
Managing recurring expenses for activities, baby sitting and education is very easy. Learn more about how to manage recurring expenses for your blended family here.