How to sort out money whilst waiting to divorce?

My wife and I are divorcing, we have a joint bank account where both our wages go in and we pay the bills and spending money come out of it.
My question is I want to start sorting out finances as my wife is spending like no tomorrow and this is fact not just my side of the story.
I want to have it so we can pay the bills, money for our daughter, food shopping, days out etc so she doesn''t go without, then she can spend her money and I can spend mine.
I earn more so will pay the bulk but it''s starting to gall me when she spends £160 on a top and pulls £100 every couple of days from the joint account telling me she works as well.
The final straw is seeing how much she has spent over xmas on presents and nights out etc.
I earn approx 4 times what she does a month and expect my money to pay the bulk of the bills but I am fed up of me trying to sort out finances and her thinking she can just keep spending whilst we wait to sell the house and move on.

Each time I have raised this it descends into a shouting match.
Surely she can''t expect me to just keep shelling out for her and her family all the time?
Any advice please?

I believe you can close the account without your ex''s permission. Pop into your bank on Tuesday and go through the options

I wonder if you are going through mediation or have sought legal advice at all?
Marital assets are considered joint until everything is finalised.
Is it possible to work out exactly what the outgoings are for necessities, gas electric etc, and then pay that into the joint account including an agreed amount for maintaining the status quo, then paying the rest of your salary into a new account?

If your wife earns considerably less than you, would she be able to maintain a reasonable quality of life if you were to do this?

Maybe part of her reaction stems from fear of financial insecurity however if some kind of agreement can''t be reached by communicating, legal advice or mediation might help to focus the key issues.

Obviously she hasnt realised that when she requested a divorce from you she is also going to get divorced from your bank account. You might be able to freeze the account without her signature but that would cause issues with bills etc.

I would suggest you open your own account and have your wages paid into that rhen work out proportional how much you need to transfer to your joint account.

work out how much you will have to pay in child maintenance and include that as your proportion of your costs.

Sort it all out then inform your stbx.

If I do pay my wages into a separate account and pay for bills, food etc then any money I have left would she be able to claim it when we come to split the money?
We have agreed 50/50 on the house sale and the joint savings but as of when she requested us divorcing we agreed to save our own money as well.

It would possible be included but you could argue that as your separated it was not martial assets.

Your stbx needs a reality check, if she is divorcing you then she needs to be financially independent and cant assume she will have the same income in the future.