How much "fun money" is reasonable?

[josetann]

We budget $50/mo each for misc, or $100/mo total. But like everyone else, we budget differently than others.

$50/mo is budgeted for entertainment. Now, we haven't been spending anywhere near that (nor are we anywhere near the $50/mo misc), but there you go. And another $50 a WEEK for eating out, so a bit over $200/mo (this year, haven't really come close...last year, we actually went a bit over for half the year). Oh, and $50 a week for date night, though we haven't had a date since...well it was definitely last year. Not only is keeping track of your budget good for seeing where you're spending too much...but it's also good to see where you're not spending enough.

Even entertainment is defined differently by us (or at least, our budget). Entertainment would cover things such as going out to the movies, a netflix subscription, an audio system, pvr, media player, etc. (but funnily enough, not the tv). Memberships to zoos and the like are NOT included in that; I think those are more educational and stimulating, and for now our spending seems reasonable, so I see no reason to budget for that.

There's no "shopping" budget. Just try to get the best deal on what we buy, and try not to buy too much unnecessary stuff. Something that is a bit unnecessary may need to come out of misc funds (i.e., a new smartphone...I could half justify buying the last one, so the other half came out of my misc fund).

And travel...if that's "fun" money, then I think we're way up there. I don't know what our yearly income will end up being this year, but I would estimate 10%-20% goes to travel.

[bjl584]

I struggle with this issue. I save around 30% of my income, yet I am often still reluctant to have fun and treat myself. The money is there, and it's probably not going to be used for anything else, but I often have trouble bringing myself to just spend it on something. I have been getting better though. Going out to eat was something that I never did. I go out maybe once or twice a week now.

But, to answer OP, I think that it depends on several factors. If you are drowning in debt, then I would make a case that there is no fun money. If, on the other hand, your debt is manageable and your retirement and savings are fully funded, then I see nothing wrong with slurging a bit. Just set an amount that you are comfortable with. $50 a week? More? Less? You will have to decide what works for you.

[bhakta]

well after bills savings and all other expenses like debt and mortgage, how much are you left with? this could be your fun money? I usually save mine, but I'm only 17 so ya

[tan fish]

Agree with all above who said that it depends on your situation. Me personally, I budget about $150 a month for eating out each month for my wife and I. That basically means a semi-nice though still casual meal once a week, and a maybe a coffee or ice cream cone now and then. We really prefer to make our own food, because its cheaper, healthier, and dare I say, a lot more delicious than what we could get outside. We both enjoy cooking a lot.

[Clouse]

I get paid every two weeks like most people and on the day I get paid I withdraw 60 in cash but only allow myself to use up to 30 dollars for the next 2 weeks until I get paid again. I'll keep the remaining 30 in my wallet as it slowly starts to accumulate every time I get paid again. This allows me to have a backup fun money stash by splitting my whole fun money stash into two.

[elessar78]

This may sound like we spend uncontrollably, but we don't, but as long as we save 22% of each paycheck like we normally do and pay all our expenses, then the rest is discretionary spending. But again, we don't go out and blow every single dime of what's left. Whatever isn't spent we just roll into the next pay period's "operating budget".

[Bella Blues]

This may sound like we spend uncontrollably, but we don't, but as long as we save 22% of each paycheck like we normally do and pay all our expenses, then the rest is discretionary spending. But again, we don't go out and blow every single dime of what's left. Whatever isn't spent we just roll into the next pay period's "operating budget".

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I don't allocate a budget to any category but every month I have savings and I am also debt-free. I thought that maybe starting a budget would get me in a better place, like make my savings grow faster so I tried Dave Ramsey's method and YNAB. I tried both (not at the same time) for a few months and failed. By failed I mean, I didn't get to save money during those months. I am now back at my old method and it's working flawlessly. I learned that if it really ain't broke, don't fix it! I have begun saving again, whatever is left doesn't get budgeted, we just use money as we see fit. Whatever is left rolls over to the following month .

[esb3357]

Honestly we pay our-self and our fixed bills at the beginning of the month. Anything left is divided up among our variable expenses / wants throughout the month.

[elessar78]

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I don't allocate a budget to any category but every month I have savings and I am also debt-free. I thought that maybe starting a budget would get me in a better place, like make my savings grow faster so I tried Dave Ramsey's method and YNAB. I tried both (not at the same time) for a few months and failed. By failed I mean, I didn't get to save money during those months. I am now back at my old method and it's working flawlessly. I learned that if it really ain't broke, don't fix it! I have begun saving again, whatever is left doesn't get budgeted, we just use money as we see fit. Whatever is left rolls over to the following month .

I do want to clarify that through the years we have a good idea of how much our "costs" are so it's much more of a soft budget.

[Tree0164]

We are usually about $100-$150 a month this includes eating out or going to the movies.

[bUU]

This may sound like we spend uncontrollably, but we don't, but as long as we save 22% of each paycheck like we normally do and pay all our expenses, then the rest is discretionary spending. But again, we don't go out and blow every single dime of what's left. Whatever isn't spent we just roll into the next pay period's "operating budget".

This is basically the way we operate, though we target 23% actually. It helps, though, that we don't really spend much money for the sake of spending money. We spend money primarily only on things that make going through our everyday lives significantly better: So when we go out to eat dinner, it isn't necessarily to enjoy a dining experience or some-such, but rather to avoid having to cook and clean for ourselves for a meal, in recognition of how spent we are from work (for example). I suppose, in the interest of thrift, we have aimed our personal interests and penchants in a direction away from extravagant pursuits, i.e., entertainments that cost money seemingly (from an outsider's perspective) for the sake of costing money.

That's not to say we're misers. My spouse enjoys music. Instead of limiting purchases to a certain dollar amount, we've settled on a subscription music service (Zune) where we can download and carry with us any music we wants for a reliable price ($100 per year?). And we both read, so we'll buy books for our Kindles without regard to any budget, because quite frankly it is impossible to find the time to read so many books would cost more than any reasonable budget based on worth and value would impose on us.

However, on the other hand, we never thought to start skiing (expensive hobby) but rather stuck doggedly to hiking (free!) even in winter. We never thought to buy more house than we really needed, even though we could have qualified for a much bigger mortgage. We've moved away from driving a BMW to driving a Ford, and I doubt we'd even think twice about going down to one car, if we moved walking distance to one of our workplaces.

Life is filled with traps. With eating, there are so many rich opportunities to eat the wrong things, overeat, etc., and the key to staying healthy involves seeing those opportunities as traps and avoiding them. I sure wish we were more successful at that than we are! Regardless, money is the same way: Society affords us so many way to spend money, and what's worse, often aims their messages at our children who are less able to see things as they are and resist those messages. So we end up "overeating" from what consumerism makes available to us... three different sized iPods, because we can... must have that television two inches bigger than the one we have now, because we can... we've got to buy an ice cream maker, because we can - regardless of the fact that we'll use it no more than a few times a year. I'm no saint, sitting here looking at one of my two TiVos. But the path forward - the successful path forward, I believe - involves finding joy in things that are not part of the consumerism trap our society has built for itself.

[qadar]

I think fun money for entertainment and dining are things that we spend each month. Spending on clothes or accessories can be save as we don't have to buy latest fashion if we don't afford.

[kaleida]

I like it best when my fun money is the "leftovers" of my budget - a variable amount that's left over at the end of the month, when I'm finished paying for my own retirement savings and emergency savings and necessities and other commitments.

Last year I tried budgeting a fixed amount for fun and saving a variable amount for emergencies - I did add to my emergency savings, but not as much as I could have. I think that's because I felt like I was entitled to spend that fixed amount of fun money every month, even if something else non-fun came up in the $100-$500 range - like a car repair, or being a bridesmaid my sister's wedding, etc. With my new system, spending more on necessities = spending less on fun, but still nailing all my savings goals, and I think that's how it should be!

[Slug]

Last year I tried budgeting a fixed amount for fun and saving a variable amount for emergencies - I did add to my emergency savings, but not as much as I could have. I think that's because I felt like I was entitled to spend that fixed amount of fun money every month, even if something else non-fun came up...

The way I remedy this is that when I "pay" for the fun things I buy out of my play account I actually transfer that to Emergency Savings and then actually pay for the items from our primary account. Thus, every penny spent on fun is getting matched into our EF. Even though in the end it's all one big pot, it leaves me feeling like I'm saving more and our EF grew well in 2012. This also insures against over-spending since our play $ never makes it back into rotation so I can see how we're doing in the primary account. Works for me. Probably over-complicated for others.

[kaleida]

The way I remedy this is that when I "pay" for the fun things I buy out of my play account I actually transfer that to Emergency Savings and then actually pay for the items from our primary account. Thus, every penny spent on fun is getting matched into our EF. Even though in the end it's all one big pot, it leaves me feeling like I'm saving more and our EF grew well in 2012. This also insures against over-spending since our play $ never makes it back into rotation so I can see how we're doing in the primary account. Works for me. Probably over-complicated for others.

I think I'm visualizing that. What happens if the amount you spend on fun is less than the amount you want to save for emergencies?

I don't think it would work for me because I like saving a fixed amount every month and seeing it grow like clockwork regardless if what else is going on...but it sounds like it works well for you!