Cannot agree on ‘fun money’ amount

[Captainobvious35]

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.

Same! I don't feel like I am missing out at all, I like my simple life (though it would be nice if DS was up for going out more). But I guess for a lot of people it would be super boring/they wouldn't be happy to be as scruffy as me!

Will he agree to try your plan for a couple of months and see how it goes in practice?

I’m currently sat in the dentist waiting room. I’ve just seen the hygienist and now I’m waiting to see the dentist (who scares
me) and this definitely is not “fun”.

😂😂

@Herbiebanannas - what app are you using the provides you with analytics? That is really helpful

@Soverymuchfruit yes we’ve agreed on that amount, he wasn’t super resistant per se he just thought it didn’t sound like enough (?!) but judging by these replies it seems a reasonable amount to start with. We can always adjust it if we need to.

We both like to live life to the full. Who knows how long we'll have our health and be here so we like to enjoy our lives by socialising, buying clothes, eating out, holidays, beauty treatments etc. We both have about £450 a month to spend.

How would the local economies manage without people like us to spend locally ? Everyone I know who can afford it spends like us too. Maybe it's a Northern thing.

As long as we have savings, investments no debts, good pensions etc then who cares? I can't imagine judging what some other people want to spend their money on. I've seen too many relatives either die young or spend it all on care home fees. That's not for us. The kids get plenty too so no one is missing out.

£600 into savings every month seems very sensible to me. I think £375 a month on yourself is quite a decent amount.

We don’t have a fun money budget as such, just spend as and when but tbh mainly on DD so I can’t give you a figure. But we also save a few k each month as well. If that dips then we look at our outgoings. If we weren’t saving anything we would probably both freak and go through our spending with a fine tooth comb.

This link is useful and Ramit Sethi's show on Netflix is great.

www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/c-conscious-spending-plan/

It’s a Revolut card and the Revolut app.

it shows you which stores, restaurants etc you have spent the most at and monthly trends as well

I like my simple life too. DH and I realised during lockdown we could cut each other's hair and have saved a fortune, so we've carried on. Neither of us feels any worse for it and we both WFH now too so don't particularly need to look well groomed every day.

It is good to be fairly flexible as one month that amount would be excessive if you go "simple" but then the next month you may have to go to five birthdays or get a new winter coat or boots and that will eat all that amount in just one go. So having a pot helps.

We spend that easily. We also save around 2k a month. You do realise people earn different amounts? We’re not earning well just to sit at home every weekend.

Exactly.

Life is a balancing act and I have seen too many people live voting lives saving any penny never to see any benefit.

Most people get pleasure from spending their hard earned money on nice things and nice experiences. A life where you make a conscious effort to restrict that spending when you can afford it sound very dull to me.

WE have about 4K between us for fun money. Not something I'd stress over.

@namechange55465 Sorry that's an absolutely ridiculous amount of money to spend on that kind of stuff in a month. Noone I know would dream of having two expensive days out with lunch plus a trip to the theatre plus go out for two very expensive meals in a month.

No one you know would dream of doing 2 days out, 1 theatre trip and 2 meals out in a month?
Sounds fucking miserable!

I have a nice day out most weekends, plus lunch out, drinks and a nice dinner one of the days or something mid week. What’s the point of never doing nice things with your life?
Cool for you if you and your husband could never dream of spending more than £300 between you a month. If someone has money what’s wrong with them enjoying it?

Yes I agree that money is for enjoying if you’re lucky enough to be able to. My great aunt and uncle saved and saved, never holidayed abroad through their life (no kids either to hold them back) and lived a very frugal life. They died of old age and left about 300k in savings (plus their estate) to a close relative, who is now enjoying their money. None of us realised how much they had stashed. It makes me sad. Furthest they ever travelled was Ireland, they lived in England.

Did they want to travel though? Maybe they were happy with a simple life and didn't feel the need to spend more than they did.

😂

Hope you’re okay now though 😩

I'm quite cautious as I grew up quite poor. I would not feel comfortable spending that much money without having enough saved. Martin Lewis gives such great advice on this stuff. If you have the cash, you should save at least 3 months income as 'emergency funds' that you never touch. 6 months is best and what we finally have. After that you want to make sure you have a good pension and some savings accounts for any children. We lived very frugally for about 5 years to get out of debt and an emergency fund and I do not regret it. We had lots of good times, but just without spending so much money as we had before. Its not for everyone though! I should say we now travel and are more free with money :)

Just because it's not normal for you, doesn't mean that's not the case for other people! 🤣🤣🤣

£200 each max assuming you eat out together some of that and don't gamble or do drugs

Are you serious do people spend that every month that's mad

Yeah, I was wondering this also. How can you manage on so little? What about haircuts, nails, beauty treatments, new clothes? Do you never go anywhere or do anything?

Is this an alternative reality my god are you the ex MP for Uxbridge?

In the current climate especially with kids most can't afford the mortgage so don't waste on non essentials you don't need clothes every month a take away can be a treat or a bottle of wine.