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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Cannot agree on ‘fun money’ amount

106 replies

Captainobvious35 · 10/07/2023 15:29

Hello,

Me and my OH are both bad spenders and have decided to allocate a monthly budget for fun money. I am wondering what other people’s budgets are for this. We have a disposable income of about £1,350 between us once all bills, food, mortgage etc is paid. This is without moving any money into savings. I think we should put about 600 into savings per month and the rest can be fun money. He thinks that this doesn’t leave us with enough fun money (£375 each per month.) I think he’s out of touch!

AIBU?!

Please any guidance will be so helpful, we’ve never budgeted before and always end up wasting our money.

Thank you.

OP posts:
Curseofthenation · 10/07/2023 15:36

I think in your financial situation that you're pretty bang on.

DustyLee123 · 10/07/2023 15:36

Are you married ?

OttilieKnackered · 10/07/2023 15:37

We have £100 each. £375 is bloody loads.

Sanch1 · 10/07/2023 15:40

My DH and I have £400 each, recently upped from £300 as I got a promotion. Its mostly more than enough for each of us. I probably spend more as I get hair, nails done regularly and go out with friends more plus pay for a PT from mine. He probably has a pot!

lorrylau · 10/07/2023 15:43

I'd put the £600 away, like you suggest and work with the rest. Saving is a good habit and it's rewarding to see the pot grow and handy come Christmas/holiday time. If you are wasting money it worthwhile looking at where the cash is going. Monzo bank let's you analyse your spent, it rounds up expenses to the pound into saving and allows you to set up pots to help you save.

fireplacetiles · 10/07/2023 15:43

£250 each but we are adding £1100 to savings as well. We pay out for things like subs to clubs, gym classes and the like and OH buys bits for his sports car. It's plenty but we aren't drinkers or smokers. I usually spend £500 a season on new clothes/ shoes.

fireflyloo · 10/07/2023 15:46

Depends what your fun money includes. If it excludes gym membership, hair cuts, dentist, phones then yes that's a good amount.

HermioneWeasley · 10/07/2023 15:55

What savings do you have
what pensions do you have
what are your financial goals

Original poster
Captainobvious35 · 10/07/2023 15:55

We are unmarried with a 1yo. Yes it excludes our gym, dentist etc that is all covered by direct debits. Fun money would be for going out with friends, buying clothes, hair/nail apts, etc and any unforeseen one-off payments (parking tickets for example)

Thank you for all of these helpful posts, will definitely look into Monzo.

OP posts:
AffIt · 10/07/2023 16:03

We have four accounts we pay into (two joint, two personal): living (so bills, food etc) and savings are joint and a set amount goes into those per month, based on a percentage of what you earn.

Neither of us have cards for these accounts. One of the savings accounts is locked down, the other two are easy access so we can transfer if required, but that's to be avoided.

Personal cost DDs (gym membership, phone, Spotify subscriptions etc), then anything over and above goes into a personal fun account.

Transfers are done at the beginning of the month, everything is paid for on an equal basis and whatever is left over is pretty much free.

Monzo is good for this sort of thing, but most high street banks will let you do the same.

SoWhatEh · 10/07/2023 16:06

Financial advice I was given is that fun money is no more than 5% of your income if you are in debt and up to 10% if not. Having instant savings to cover unexpected costs like car or white goods breaking down or one- off high costs like clothes, gifts and hotels for a wedding etc, plus proper long term savings is way more fun long term that frittering it all.

£375pp pcm for fun money is plenty.

NorthWestThree · 10/07/2023 16:12

OttilieKnackered · 10/07/2023 15:37

We have £100 each. £375 is bloody loads.

This!

Curseofthenation · 10/07/2023 16:14

Oh, I assumed it included things like gym membership tbh!

isthewashingdryyet · 10/07/2023 16:15

Do you have six months bills and expenses in an account in case of redundancy or job loss ?
Do you have enough savings for replacing the boiler, the roof and the cars ?

Are you both saving enough into a pension ?

Are you saving for holidays, Christmas, birthdays etc ?

Are you saving for your child’s education? Uni is hugely expensive. Top tip, saving for this should be in your name not your child’s as they will spend it all on rubbish when they are 18 and the Uni fund will need replacing

£375 x 2 = £750 a month. That is a huge amount of frivolous spending to most people

and are expenses for you child allowed for in the joint account and not yours?

Jackonary · 10/07/2023 16:15

Do you have separate savings for things like holidays/DIY/regular but not monthly bills? We have about £500 per month fun money between us but that is after a lot of other things are accounted for separately (kids activities, holidays, savings etc).

Drews · 10/07/2023 16:16

Savings should be included in your 'Bills'.

Then whatever is left over is your fun money.

Original poster
Captainobvious35 · 10/07/2023 16:22

I have about 3k personal savings, he has none. No debt. Joint savings were 10k but we’re currently renovating so they’re dwindling quickly. Thanks for the new posts it’s so helpful to see how others do it.

OP posts:
isthewashingdryyet · 10/07/2023 16:25

You need to build your savings up a lot more before you have so much fun money.

Coralsunset · 10/07/2023 16:25

Yeah, I think in this situation £375 each should be plenty. I would probably save more tbh

babbscrabbs · 10/07/2023 16:26

We have £300pm each - but have about 70k in savings between us. We could do £200 tbh. We do use the joint account for family meals out and holidays though.

Curseofthenation · 10/07/2023 16:28

I also assume that birthday presents for family and friends etc. come from this pot? I don't have many pots in my budget 😅. There's bills (including fuel), savings and 'fun' money that is essentially for everything else including for spending on DS, special occasions, club memberships etc.

AffIt · 10/07/2023 16:31

£375 x 2 = £750 a month. That is a huge amount of frivolous spending to most people

Well, depending on where you live and what your interests are, split between two people, that's roughly about two meals out a month (£300), two visits to the cinema / one trip to the theatre or opera (£100), a couple of days out with lunch (£100), maybe some hobby costs (£50), a few workday coffees / drinks (£100) and a bit left over for holiday savings.

That's assuming two people without children - add kid stuff in and those costs rocket.

Admittedly none of that is essential, but neither is it a particularly Paris Hilton lifestyle.

Original poster
Captainobvious35 · 10/07/2023 16:39

Yes child’s stuff comes out of joint, her new clothes/shoes I have accounted for already as a ‘bill’ as they go through so many at this age. He pays more into joint but he earns more. No savings pot for holidays we usually just use our disposable income or our joint savings if we want to go somewhere. This is why I’d like pots so we know exactly what we’ve got for different things. Now that our joint savings are going on the reno it has made me think we need a plan to top them back up/save more. Our issue is we do like to eat out and enjoy life, maybe a little too much I do feel we could cut down. We have good pensions.

OP posts:
OttilieKnackered · 10/07/2023 16:42

AffIt · 10/07/2023 16:31

£375 x 2 = £750 a month. That is a huge amount of frivolous spending to most people

Well, depending on where you live and what your interests are, split between two people, that's roughly about two meals out a month (£300), two visits to the cinema / one trip to the theatre or opera (£100), a couple of days out with lunch (£100), maybe some hobby costs (£50), a few workday coffees / drinks (£100) and a bit left over for holiday savings.

That's assuming two people without children - add kid stuff in and those costs rocket.

Admittedly none of that is essential, but neither is it a particularly Paris Hilton lifestyle.

For us, £150 on a meal out for two would be very fancy (or very boozy). And a trip to the theatre very rare. Our cinema tickets are about £7 and we’d spend another few quid on sweets from the shop.

To me and most people I know your spends are very middle class! Especially in this COLC.

kitsuneghost · 10/07/2023 16:47

I do it a little differently
I keep 5000 in a separate account for fun money and only use it if I need to for bigger fun.
If I need to use some I cut back on other months to repay.

I always make sure savings and bills are accounted for before using money for anything else though.

Although 375 sounds a lot at 4.5K a year. Half of that can be easy swiped out on one holiday.