How much do you spend on yourself per month?

[MrsRandy]

Excluding food shopping, bills, rent/mortgage.

How much do you spend on yourself per month on beauty, meals out, takeaways, clothes, going out for the day/evening etc.

Do you have a budget?

I budget around £500 to spend on whatever I want to each month and usually spend it all. My DH has the same amount too. This is after we have allocated our savings money for ourselves and our DCs, and also put money into the holiday pot.

I spend a lot, but would never spend what I couldn't afford. Everyone is different. My bf doesn't spend hardly anything and she's just as happy as me. Theirs no point her getting her nails done every few weeks as she's always mucking out her horse but she drinks expensive drinks where as I only drink every few months.

Here’s pretty much our household income v expenses

Me 3100
DP 4100
Child benefits 280
Total 7480

Housing
Mortgage: 1900.
Insurances(life, house): 150
Total Housing: 2050
Utilities
Electricity 150
Waste collection: 30
Broadband & TV: 70
Mobile phones x3: 60
Total Utilities: 310
Food & Groceries
Groceries & household food: 500
Dining out / takeaways: 200
Total Food: 700
Transportation
Fuel: 250
Car insurance & tax: 150
Maintenance & NCT: 100
Public transport / Parking: 20
Total Transport: 520
Education & Kids
School books, uniforms, fees: 50
Activities, sports, clubs: 50
Pocket money/treats: 60
Total Kids & Education: 160
Entertainment & Lifestyle
Family outings, hobbies, gifts: 200
Subscriptions, books, etc.: 60
Miscellaneous expenses (haircuts,nails): 60
Personal spends:200 x 2 = 400
Total Entertainment: 730
Savings & Miscellaneous
Emergency fund / Savings: 2,000
Holidays (monthly allocation): 500
Clothing: 200
Miscellaneous buffer: 300
Total Savings & Misc.: 3,000
TOTAL MONTHLY SPENDING: 7,480

its always changing a little bit with COL etc but that’s pretty much it…

As much of my disposable income as I want to!

Some months this could be as little as 50€ sometimes as much as 800€ if hair, aesthetics and clothes/shoe purchases are all in same month.
More if it's time to pay for my 2x yearly treat of girls holidays.

As long as our bills are all paid, I have a savings amount I'm comfortable with in both joint and individual accounts, everything else I earn is mine to spend as I wish.
DH is the same with his disposable money.

I do understand we are very privileged and life
has definitely not always been like this.

so for me I have 200 at least but I don’t spend that every month…

never really added it up, if I take out everything I do with DH and DCs, highlights would be:

PT/Pilates/yoga £800
face (Botox, microneedling, laser) £400
hair & nails £450
Dinner/lunch etc with friends £500 (that might be conservative tbh)

I also go on weekends away with friends 4 x per year and I spend a lot on clothes/shoes/bags. Not sure what that works out as.

Honestly? Thousands.

I don’t say that lightly and it hasn’t always been this way but I’ve been a high earner for about ten years and never spent money on myself.

Then, two years ago, something happened that change my attitude to life and how I want to live it.

I won’t do a full breakdown but I now spend a lot of money on Ozempic, Botox, nails, hair, skin treatments, cosmetic tweakments, beautiful wardrobe pieces and accessories, travel, and entertainment.

Money can’t buy you happiness but, for me, feeling I look good now makes me much happier than how I looked and felt for so many years.

Nobody commended me all those years for being financially sensible and having grey roots, forehead lines, cheap ill-fitting clothing, and carrying a large amount of excess weight.

Probably about 1400 , but that’s because I have an expensive hobby, get my nails done fortnightly, eat out twice a week at least and I really like wine 🤣

Just here to appreciate your organisation, epic effort!

I don't have a budget. I buy things randomly if I fancy them (mostly used books off the Internet).

Swimming pool membership is about £26 a month and I go fairly regularly (two or three times a week) and potter about. I have my hair trimmed about once a year for £15.

I occasionally have a coffee and a cake, or lunch out with DH - once every couple of weeks or so. We sometimes lunch out with friends. I buy clothes in High Street shops like Peacocks, or George at Asda if I see something I fancy.

We could afford to buy a lot more I guess, or go out a lot more, but I'm not that interested.

Ah thank you ☺️ it’s a constant work in progress, I like to have a job for every bit of money, so even if we do overtime I try to assign it a job whether that’s savings or a bigger purchase for the house etc

This month has been a bit much:

Eaten dinner out 6 times, average £50 each time
Coffees after gym £15
Hair £65
Clothes, beauty products etc £1198 (I do stock pile products when on offer and went a bit wild in the LK Bennett sale)
Nails £25

Oh dear 😅

Thank you! It is definitely eating out, coffees and impulsive purchases (like going into b&m and coming out with 10 extra items) which I know is quite easy to crack down on!

agree with prioritising. I love walking and jogging but not a fan of the gym, so I cancelled my membership

After bills and savings are allocated I have £1k a month for my spends. This doesn't include holidays as have a separate pot for that. But does include travel to work (about £30 PW) and work lunches which can be as cheap or as spendy as I choose. I generally spend most of it. Anything left over I transfer into my gifts (this is gifts to me) account.

Single, higher earner, all kids financially independent.

Never feel bad for telling the truth! I’m sure you deserve it, and agree that some things in life can change our mindset about money x

love this 😊

so sick of seeing threads where women have to be competitively frugal for fear of judgement. Earn your money and spend your money without judgement

About 300 a month!🫣 need to cut back asap and stop the mum group coffee dates as that’s about £100 a month alone!!

B&M is lethal! I don't think it's possible to leave the store empty handed 🤣

my husband is the same

but sadly I should have taken more advantage of this like you! I followed his ways and didnt send a bean even though I needed to

I have always spent under what I could but recently I have had a heart condition diagnosed so I think if I do want something I may just buy it. We had already come to this point sort of as I’m 60 this year and I keep saying to DH that DS will just end up spending all the fruits of our labours. I dint like shopping much but I do like holidays and going for massages.

Hardly anything. I’m generally either skint, or have some money but remember the skint times so it gets saved. Then skint again.

BUT I am naturally frugal, I don’t see it as a hardship at all, any more than I would think not buying a horse for myself was a hardship.

No nails, very few haircuts, supermarket hand cream etc, plenty of clothes suited to my life, couple of bags of clothes ready for when I slim down again (ha ha), plenty of books waiting to be read and so on.

I have a list of books I’d like to buy one day, and I’d actually quite like a dressing gown sometime this year. But I don’t feel lacking or less than because I don’t have other things, I feel satisfied.

I’d say roughly £600 a month

Not much really. I get my hair done every 8 weeks which costs £100.

I don't have any other beauty treatments and I rarely spend money on makeup as I ask for bits every christmas, and if I do buy something it's Rimmel. I do buy face creams, but nothing too lavish, so probably about £50 a year on those. I buy about 4 nail varnishes a year.

I do buy clothes twice a year. In Spring and Autumn spending about £150 each time.

But, I do have one kinda lavish holiday a year. Last November I went to Paris for 4 nights, and I spent over £4k. This easter I am going back to Paris, and I am sure it will be a similar amount spent. I get one holiday a year, and I do it in style in 5 star hotels.

£40 every three months is not excessive at all for a hair cut ? Cutting back on that won't save you much.

Your looking at this the wrong way

Both you and partner need to get wages going to separate pots for every single thing you need.
Eg fuel , car payments bill, food spend each month and so on
Savings/house savings /then after all that and if you have children bdsys /Xmas/clothes /clubs...
You work out what you want to spend on yourself

£100/£125 a month. Would love more, but took on a bigger mortgage last year - our environment as a family is a big priority.