Don't picture your relationship as two people pulling a wagon. It's like two legs carrying a person.

If you break a toe, your legs don't have an argument about the fact that one of them is forcing you to limp. You just automatically change your stride and keep going.

It's hard as hell to get into the two legs mindset. If, say, you're working and the other one isn't, or if you're working more hours, it's easy to get to thinking that it's your money, like you're the father doling out an allowance, and that your significant other has to answer for every penny.

Or, you get into this bullshit math where you take home $500 a week and your girl or guy brings home $300. Your bills are $600. So, since you're using everything in the house equally, you split the bills down the middle, $300 apiece. Now she has nothing, and you have $200 left over, which you hold up in front of her, flipping the bills past your nose and sniffing deeply. "Mmmmm ... I sure do love the smell of sweet, sweet money. Bet you wish you had some."

That's when money destroys relationships. When you're still thinking in terms of what's yours and what's hers, and what each of you have "earned" in money or time or unpleasant tasks that need doing. As long as you're keeping a separate score, you're still not thinking of yourselves as a couple. You're just roommates.

You have to get to the point where you can trust each other to draw from the same pool, and if the girl says she needs $50 worth of (vagina polishing cream? I don't know my girly products) that you trust she is being responsible. And when your job earns you some extra money in one particular week or month, you both get to decide how it's spent. Even if it was your working overtime that earned it. Otherwise, everything becomes a battle.