Julie,

I am in similar situation as you, new and don't travel much. I try to stick to the following:
1. Get individual FF and hotel accounts for each person to earn miles/points for paid tickets and hotel stays.
2. Try to credit most of the points to 1 account, which means all cc points go to 1 account.
3. Try to keep points in the hotel accounts. To me, they are more flexible than airline miles. (Exception: if the airline account gives more for each $ spent.) I use hotel points for free hotel rooms and to round out the airline miles. For example, if I have 23,000 miles in my ff account and need a coach ticket, I can transfer enough hotel points to make up the 2,000 miles. So far, I have not been able to move my CO or NW miles without paying a fee. I have no idea how to get a free hotel room with my airline miles.
4. When traveling with hubby, always use the same hotel account(s) to keep points consolidated and to get the elite status.

I am not certain if my system is good. May be someone can improve it for me.

Nancy