Separate but (not) Equal Checking

My boyfriend and I have been together 6 and a half years. We share a mortgage together, we have a son together, we are actually engaged and plan on getting married when we can afford it. But the one thing we don't share is our checking accounts. As bad as I am with money, he's worse. In fact he only has a savings account and that's it, the bank TOOK AWAY his checking acct.

We have this strange way of sharing the bills; I write the checks and he pays me back. But its never prompt and I have to harass him. I am listed as an authorized user on his savings account but he's not listed on mine. As of today he owes me at least 1000 dollars. Three hundred from a previous pay period and 700 for his part of the mortgage and daycare bill. The problem is that he gets paid on this weird commision thing. His first paycheck is usually $799. His second paycheck is usually about $1100 give or take a couple of hundred. As of right this second my mortgage (which is due on the first) is not paid and is technically not late until tomorrow. I have to call it in today. My checking account has $930.00 in it after direct deposit. My Savings has $41 in it and my growth money market savings has $342.00 in it. I try not to touch my growth money market savings its my puny emergency fund.

The bills I have to pay are my mortgage, the daycare which is 210 this pay period and my dmp of $367. C's savings account has $815 in it. I am taking $700 today, I've never actually gone to his account and done that. He's not going to be happy at all but I don't care. I'm tired of having to play catch up. He takes sooooooo long to give me the money he owes me its ridiculous. And I NEED the money to pay the bills; otherwise they won't get paid.

We have got to figure out a way to bank without making the other feel as if they constantly owe money. Right now I hate when we go out to eat because subconciously I keep track of how many times I've paid vs. how many times he's paid. Its easier for me to pay bc I have the debit card, he has to go to the atm to get cash. And he always tells me that "he'll pay me back". ......and then I feel like a heel reminding him about that 40 bucks that he said he'd give me.

I think this weekend I'm going to go and open us up a joint checking and divert a portion of each of our direct deposits into it. I like having MY money but sometimes I really hate having separate accounts.

Right now we are paycheck to paycheck in our lives and we shouldn't be that way. Even with my dmp our debt to income ration isn't that bad. I think its like 27%. I am going to seriously evaluate our budget and post it all on monday. Then we can see where all of the money goes. I think I'm going to be sick just thinking about it.

Sorry for the rambling, incoherent post.