My daughter has lived with her fiance for 2 years now and here is the advise I gave to her and it totally has worked out for them.
BEFORE you move into the apartment figure all the total bills, rent , utilities, cable, internet, phone etc.. divide this by 2 , then by 4 each of you deposit X amount of dollars each week into a JOINT checking account.. hers are direct deposited.. so thier total montly bills are 2000.00 ,they each put 250.00 weekly into the account. They pay the bills togehter out of this checking account monthly. They BOTH have access to the account. Some months it cost a little less some a little more but they leave the extra in there to cover unsuspected bills!!
MOST utility companies can give you a rough estimate of the bills from the year before, you can ask them what the monthly heating bill was to get an estimate, Gas will do the same.. you may not live the same lifestyle of the prior tenents but it will give you a starting point!
On Sunday they do thier food shopping together and split the bill..
Although Id like to say I believe in marraige first, the current divorce rate is so high , maybe its a good thing if you test the waters before you jump into marriage. Good luck in what ever you decide to do!!
