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!

My dh worries about paying his tax bill. Doesn’t stop him frittering money on mad holidays. I prefer to save for a rainy day but we’re in our 50’s and now seeing friends who never get to see that rainy day, so that explains my dh’s attitude!

I don't understand...if you have £3000 debt why isn't the "mad money" paying that off?

Exactly this! What an odd post from the OP, she has no mad money at all yet seems to think she does. 🤷‍♀️

In my first post I literally said...
"most of my £400 going forward will have to go towards paying [my cc] off next year.".

I don't have mad money. Equally, I don't have debt.

As a couple we’re both paid into our joint account.

All bills, food shopping, car or vet expenses etc comes from there and we are also both transferred £400 each pocket money.

I rarely spend all of mine and end up putting into my own savings account.

It's a really helpful budgeting tool recommended by our financial advisor. You sound sneary. Surely your monthly direct debits are predictable, as is knowing you need to save a certain amount for Christmas and birthdays etc?

That's nice my love. I'll do a little song for you to celebrate.

Exactly. Pots are brilliant.

Thanks.

You can't be surprised at sarcastic answers when you start out with this:

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

and then go on to say that you have thousands in credit card debt.

£500 in my personal account, but also have an excess of £1,600 in the joint account after all fixed bills are paid and after savings, and we don’t spend anything like that on food and petrol. So if I conservatively say there’s another £800 in there that we jointly get as “mad money”, I have about £900 a month.

DH and I both get our wages paid into a joint account. £150 goes straight into a Revolut account for joint fun money every month. This can be coffee, meals, dates etc… but can only use that if we’re together.

Then we both get £400 each to spend on whatever we want. Going out with friends, coffees when alone, new clothes etc.

I definitely wasn’t trying to be sneery. I don’t count direct debits as pots, they just come out of my main account automatically and don’t need to be put aside into a pot. Everything else I just pay for with my credit card and pay off the balance each month, including Christmas (I only have a handful of people to buy presents for).

Why not?

I didnt go on to talk about how comfortable (or not) I was, did I? I just wanted to recognise that there are people who are accounting for every £1 and even posting anything about anythinb abput spending money is considered poor form by some.

I seem to have missed the bit where I said "I'm rich and also have loads of debt".

We did not spend a lot on our holidays until we had paid for our children to go through Uni, paid for their weddings and given them some deposit money for their homes. OP, I don’t know if you have children but to us, these things are more important than splurging. Yes we had holidays, but not always abroad or expensive.

Because in my mind, you don't have money to piss away on crap every month if you also have credit card debt. That makes no sense to me. We're all different.

But point taken.

Fair enough. Life would be boring if we were all the same ay.

We separate our direct debits into pots such as 'mortgage, tax, insurance' and transfer the correct money in each payday. It helps me know that they're all covered.

Christmas we save approx. £20 pm per child into named pots so that Christmas doesn't leave us in debt (as it used to). No credit cards.

We are spenders rather than savers though which is something I must work on.

My son has A LOT in savings. Enough to pay for a generous house deposit and a fair chunk of uni if he goes. We have saved for him since he was born and will continue to.

That has always been prioritised above holidays etc. We've been fortunate to be able to do that.

Pay off your credit card then, you crazy bint

I have no idea tbh, I don't fritter or buy loads of clothes, get my hair done whenever it's needed etc. Some months we have nearly 1k left by the end, some months we nearly get down to 0 just before payday, depending on what's been happening, birthdays, Christmas etc.

Tbh I’m not the best at budgeting so I don’t allocate a certain amount, but all credit cards are cleared every month and I save a minimum of £150 but usually more, up to to £1k a month. I am very fortunate in terms of my income and outgoings.

I am you muppet!

Why are people being arsey? OP clearly said that she needs to use it on her credit card.

most of my £400 going forward will have to go towards paying that off next year.

OP: do you have a zero % credit card balance, and when does the interest start being charged again?

I'm thinking about what is "most" of £400... let's say that's £300/month. If you have zero% on your CC balance until next October (inclusive) you'll just about get the debt paid off by end of "next year" (assuming "most" = £300).

If interest is being charged, "most" must > £300 to pay off by end of October next year. Have you actually worked this out on paper or on a spreadsheet?

What does "most" mean to you, and when you say "paid off" do you actually mean just paid down, not actually completely paid off?

So you can save for important things. You just really need to work at your credit card. I pay what I can by credit card because I get points but everybody should try and clear it off at the end of the month. The interest rates on credit cards are extortionate.