I think you stated it pretty accurately when you said, “we live as though we have a single joint account, but we don’t.”

It’s awesome that you are both happy diving into excel, and taking time to budget together. That’s not something that we do that well in our house, which is why we moved to a simpler way to manage our finances.

It sounds like you maintain a monthly savings account, an operating account, and several sub-savings accounts. Ultimately, it sounds similar to the hybrid approach, with more organization and sub-budgets. I think as our son gets older and sub-activities and miscellaneous expenses grow — we will have to move to a similar approach.