Is £100 a week spending enough?

[shouldntbeonhereagain]

Genuine question as I feel like it should easily be. To be clear, this is for my own personal spending so clothes, toiletries, travel, socialising, presents, hair cuts etc. Also, wine as we don't include that on house keeping. Increasingly feels like it doesn't touch the sides. What am I doing wrong?

Depends. What travel do you have to pay for? Are you a soap-and-water girl or do you use more toiletries/makeup? Do you socialise by going for a walk in the park or out for meals?

Why are you getting spending money as an adult? Who is giving it and what spending money do they get?

clothes - that isnt a weekly expense.
toiletries - should be part of the weekly shop.
travel - holidays alone? Or family?
presents - whose?
hair cuts - again nit weekly.
wine - easy to lose out of the costs

What travel are you paying for? Makes a big difference if you're paying for £50 petrol a week or just an occasional train ticket or whatever.

I have less than that "personal spends" a month, but it doesn't include travel, presents or basic toiletries (shower gel etc). I'd find it hard to do presents out of personal spends in December with Christmas so I budget for it separately!

I have been increasingly struggling with £500 a month. To be fair that’s including travel at about £120 a month. But yeah that’s not enough for anything but the basics toiletry/skincare wise, a couple of coffees, a few yoga classes and a dinner with mates or DH.

Lots of people give themselves "spending money" to help them budget.

I think you need to budget out the gifts, clothes, travel, wine, haircuts and toiletries separately. They're things that you can track the spend and breakdown to how much to put aside weekly.

When I was saving for a house deposit I gave myself £75 a week fun money - but this was solely for coffees/meals out with friends/make up. Everything else you list was a separate line item.

You are finding it's not enough, so I'm not sure what answer you want from us?

You need to write down exactly what you are spending over a few weeks to see where the money is going.

That's actually quite a lot when saving. It's more than most people I know have to spend on such luxuries even when not saving

I have £250 per month. But doesn't include petrol, toiletries (they go in the joint Tesco shopping). Neither does it include any health care like contact lenses or dentistry. So really it just covers personal socialising without DH, clothes, and the occasional present for DH. It doesn't go as far as it used to but it's enough.

I spend about £75/week but I rarely get a haircut or spend anything on beauty or go for a meal out and don't really buy clothes (mainly replacing anything worn which was more this year as needed new coat, shoes etc) - it covers my hobby, the occasional massage, socialising (drinks, coffee and cake), occasional theatre ticket, presents (for DH, best friend and some small things for my parents) a girls weekend away once or twice a year. I added up all my spends over the year to average out what it was per month. WFH though so reduced opportunities for food out, popping into a shop etc

Thanks everyone, helpful replies. Obviously all of this is subjective/discretionary and I recognise it's more than most have. My husband and I get the same 'spending' weekly. The trouble is that mens and women's expenses don't compare imo. For example, I get 2x hair cuts a year. I buy moisturiser/razors/shampoo and face wash but not make up or anything. I spend 100 per month on gym membership and that gets me lots of swimming /HIT and yoga classes. I think I probably spend too much on food and booze treats especially for the kids. Presents are for my family and friends. Travel to see my family and friends. Kids get a different budget.

£100 after shopping and bills is a nice amount to be left with, but things like your gym membership £100 a mth, think things through like do i use this enough to be paying this much or could you get a cheaper gym membership and find a yoga class elsewhere or go swimming on certain days, maybe look around at prices and think of whats a necessity and what you would maybe be able to cut down if you need other things more ♡

Nit weekly! 😆

OH and I spend about £30 a week each on things like going for lunch, drinks, cinema, coffee etc.

Hair cut every couple of months is £45, toiletries are around £15/month. Clothes/shoes/bags etc are very variable but I’d expect to be over £600/year. Transport is £120/month or so for fuel, parking and train/bus tickets. Holiday on my own with friends at least once a year and that’s £3-400 & I got to the theatre regularly so average £100 a month on tickets.

So with everything you mentioned I’m spending over £100 a week on average. It sounds a lot (& is not insignificant) but it definitely buys a lot less than it used to. Not that l long ago I used to be able to easily have a lunch out, a couple of coffees & a cinema trip in a £25 budget. I now quite often see the £30 swallowed up just for lunch. Things have got significantly more expensive

We seperate money to both contribute towards presents, Christmas, holidays each month I put x into holiday pot and so does he.

I'm on pension credit so that just covers food electricity gas and water. To socialise I meet people at church every Sunday. My budgetary approach is wear it out, use it up and make it last. My food is largely suplimented by Olio.

I guess that is what I am looking for validation in. It just feels incredibly tight over the last 6 months especially and I wasn't sure if it was me ! A coffee at the deli near my kid's school is £3.80. I grew up with very little and has always worked before kids. I would never have thought 100 a week would be tricky to manage.

For me petrol is the biggest expense after council tax and gas/electric. I think i have about 100pw but when birthdays/Christmas come up it can be tight, particularly if you need to go out which is automatically £50 if there's food and a drink involved.

For our finances we each have an allocated amount of 'personal spending' going into individual accounts with everything else being joint. This was £100 a month for the first ten years of marriage, and we recently reviewed and updated this to £150 a month. So £100 a week sounds like lots to me BUT we have a lot of things that are covered under joint spending like any necessary clothes spending for work or to replace a worn out/wrong size item, or cost of travel.
I don't usually go our for hot drinks or meals, basic toiletries are part of joint spending as are haircuts (£23 every 5 months for mine). If i wanted more expensive items those would be a personal spend and i would have to save up for them. I usually have money left in personal spending to buy presents, games, craft supplies and takeaways when i want to skip cooking.

My point is that everything is relative, and the money figure can be misleading as for different people it covers different spends. If you have the money available from your joint account to increase personal spending, and that is in line with what you both want financially, go for it. We have always allocated the same amount for both partners though, as otherwise it can feel unfair.

I’d say it’s a decent amount but certainly not enough to go wild, especially if around a fifth of it goes on the gym so you only have £75 to spend as you please.

If kids have a separate budget, why are you buying them treats out of “your” budget? I’d also put the toiletries in the weekly shop for everyone.

I transfer £100 every Friday to another account to help me budget. It never lasts the week.

I spend 100 per month on gym membership and that gets me lots of swimming /HIT and yoga classes

I mean, that is a ridiculous amount.
I am paying £160 per year for my gym (classes would be extra), but the other gyms around here I checked out tended to be £33pm including classes.

I think I probably spend too much on food and booze treats especially for the kids.
I would presume that treats for the dc come out of family spend, not personal spend, including if I bought myself a cuppa when taking them for that treat.

A coffee at the deli near my kid's school is £3.80

Coffees out are extortionate.
Which is fine if you have plenty of spare money in your budget for treating yourself, but I presume from the fact you've started this thread, you don't have the amount of spare money needed to feed that habit - so walk home and make yourself a coffee there.

I mean, any "how much....." question is as long as a piece of string. There seem to be a disproportionate amount of wealthy people on MN, who will think £100 is a drop in the ocean. Many people have closer to £100 per month to spend on themselves.

It's tight based on your lifestyle. So you have to decide whether you want to cut back on your spending to keep it within £100 a week, or allocate yourself more spending money.

It seems as though your husband is managing ok. I suspect that's because he has a cheaper lifestyle and not because of men's and women's costs being different. You talk about 2 haircuts a year and buying basic toiletries. I don't see why his total costs for these are any different. Yes, an individual hair cut will be cheaper, but he probably gets his hair cut more frequently than this.

I have £15 a week. Take it out in cash when it's gone it's gone.

I pay 120 for the gym each month and it’s worth every penny as it offered structured lessons which I attend daily. Works out at £4 a session. Health, strength and wellbeing are priority, critical to longevity and stress levels.