Child support covers the baseline. It does not cover the school trip, the boots, the birthday party, or the orthodontist. Those extras are where most co-parenting money arguments live.
Define what counts as a shared expense
Write a list. Everything not on the list is the paying parent's own cost. A typical list:
- School fees, uniform, trips and equipment
- Medical, dental and optical costs not covered by insurance
- Regular activities you both agreed to (one club, one sport)
- Childcare needed for work
- Big-ticket items over an agreed threshold
And explicitly out of scope: toys, treats, clothes bought at your own house, anything either parent chooses unilaterally.
Agree the split percentage once
The two common approaches:
- 50/50, simple, works when incomes are broadly similar.
- Income-proportional, if you earn 60% of the combined income, you pay 60%. Fairer where incomes differ significantly, and it is what most courts assume.
Write the percentage into the parenting plan and review it annually.
Set a pre-approval threshold
Pick a number, many families use $75 or $100. Below it, either parent can spend and claim. Above it, you need agreement in writing before you buy. This single rule prevents the "I never agreed to that" conversation almost entirely.
Keep a receipt trail
Every claim needs a photo of the receipt, a date, and one line of description. Whether you use a dedicated tool or a shared spreadsheet matters less than being consistent. The point is that a disagreement becomes a lookup rather than a memory contest.
Settle on a fixed day
Monthly, on a set date. Tally what each parent spent, apply the percentage, and one transfer squares it. Ad-hoc settling means the balance is always slightly disputed.
When it goes wrong
If your co-parent stops paying their share, do not retaliate by withholding time, courts view that badly and it is the children who lose. Keep claiming, keep the record clean, and if the balance becomes significant, raise it through mediation or an application to vary the order. A clean twelve-month record of unpaid claims is far more persuasive than an argument.