How much "mad money" do you have?

[DecemberGoneWild]

Assuming that you are comfortable-ish. I know there are plenty of people who dont have anything. This is for people who are fortunate enough to have some.

By "mad money" I mean "pocket money" or "selfish money" ie money that is set aside for you to blow on whatever you like and doesn't have to be accounted for.

And what do you spend it on?

I get £400 a month. It's meant for haurcits, clothes, nights out etc but I currently fritter it away on crap and then have no money to buy things I need (I need new trainers but spent it all so am currently wearing trainers that are worn and give me blisters).

Sadly I also ran up £3000 on my credit card (mostly non-essentials) so most of my £400 going forward will have to go towards paying that off next year. So I'll still be (relatively) broke!

You're being unreasonable because you clearly can't afford £400 money to waste on things when you need to deal with that credit card. You're not as well off as you need to be for your lifestyle.

Well you have zero mad money because you should be paying off the CC!

£500 I don the same fritter

So I’ve recently started a DD to save £100 and am allowing that to mount up to do something v nice with

I sometimes try to spend £100 on gaps in my wardrobe due to weight gain

A lot is spent on eating out and Amazon bits

We have plenty of spare cash thanks to a couple of inheritances, however it is mostly invested.

We keep a buffer of available cash so we can buy what we need and treat the DC, but we wouldn't dream of spending it on stuff we don't need or frittering it away. The very thought brings me out in a cold sweat!

Why not just use plain English to ask people to validate the spendthrift lifestyle you cannot afford?

I have as much as I want, thanks. What do you mean you "get" £400? Where from? If you haven't earned it that's sad. Anyway, you're clearly financially incontinent and perhaps should seek help. What is the big deal with wearing trainers that have been worn?

No set amount. I can spend whatever I like, within reason. I don't have expensive tastes but I do buy too many flights and hotel stays 😊

Around 400/500 per month at the moment but I rarely spend this on myself. From next month though I will be saving it all to buy a car

Thank you for this. couldn't have put it better myself

I don’t set anything aside. I buy things as and when from my paycheck / current account (well actually I put everything on a credit card and pay it off in full every month).

I didn’t realise how common it is to have ‘pots’ for things, even when you’re comfortable / well off until I joined MN! I would find it very restrictive - what I spend money on each month varies A LOT, and my life is very unpredictable / spontaneous (which give me a lot of joy).

A lot of people have tens or hundreds of thousands in savings so the concept of just having a few hundred a month to indulge themselves doesn’t really apply.

I have £225 a month just for me. I put between £50 and £100 in a different account for irregular activity (eg once a year I have a weekend away with friends)

I have about £300 a month going spare but at the moment it’s not really fun money as most of it is going on dentistry. 🙄 (This is something I didn’t previously have to budget for but has now become an issue so I will now be putting aside a proportion of my savings towards dentistry as I suspect there is a fair bit more dental work to come).

But when I do get to spend it, I would spend it on birthday presents if someone has a birthday that month, maybe a lunch out with a friend. I spend some on vape liquids. Occasionally clothes but I don’t buy clothes often. A good quality shampoo and conditioner- again I don’t have to buy this often as I only wash my hair once a week.

@Strangequinoaconcoction I have tens of thousands in savings but that’s for emergencies and/or pension so it doesn’t affect how much I get to spend on myself.

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I don’t have an amount as such - as a couple we pool all our money and we don’t specify “mad money” or a personal budget. We have a current account and we just pay for things out of the one big “pot”, nothing is allocated. I probably wouldn’t spend more than a couple of hundred pounds on one item for myself without checking with DH, but he wouldn’t care if I did.

I can afford anything I need and I don’t have many frivolous wants - if I want or need trainers or a haircut I’ll just pay for them, albeit my last trainers were £29 and I cut my own hair. But I don’t fritter money, I just don’t enjoy buying or having “stuff” for the sake of it.

Fair enough, each to his own. I guess those people wouldn’t have so much money if they were mad spenders anyway

Is having an extras pot stopping you overspending or does it just make it seem normal to spend that much every month? I think you feel obliged to spend it as a monthly outgoing when it's not. It's your opportunity for savings being frittered away

How on earth have you run up £3k on a credit card if you really have £400 a month to fritter on crap? What on earth are you buying? I get £60 and DH and I have joint fun money of £60 for a date night or similar.

Is that £400 really just fun money or do things you need to buy e.g. Christmas presents come out of it too?

We save and we have “weekly spends” which is basically what is left after bills/savings divided by the weeks in the month. But we also “pay” ourselves £200 each which is our own money to spend on what we like. Nights out, clothes, hobbies. Etc

Mate if you have £3000 credit card debt you do not have £400 "mad money".

Well yes. Obviously. 🤣

No validating here love. If I was trying to validate it (which I'm not) I wouldnt need it from strangers on here.

You joking?! Being given £400 a month isn’t sad 😂 most people would love that surely.

Me and DH both have £100 a week into our monzos to do whatever with, however also free spending from the joint accounts of course. I try and keep kids things from the joint and things just for me from the Monzo but so often I buy things for various people in one transaction. I rarely spend all of my money.

I spend whatever I want and just keep a general eye on not going too crazy. I put everything on my credit card for the points and pay it in full every month. So I never spend more than I have in my bank account that isn’t already earmarked for something.

I would definitely argue that if you have credit card debt, your mad money budget should be zero.