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!

Ok. Haircuts was a poor example as it isnt an essential. Maybe substitute hairdresser for glasses if I need them.

Jesus. The reading comprehension on this thread is on a par with my fiscal responsibility.

I read this and assumed you meant people weren’t understanding your post…

As a response to yet somebody else telling ne to use the £400 to pay my cc which I literally said I was doing on the very first post.

a fair bit, but I leave it in premium bonds so I can’t go mad with it! 🤷‍♀️

I see. But people are assuming you are still planning your overspending because your question is literally asking what people fritter their mad money on.
Round in circles a bit.

My comprehension is okay thanks, I see you're planning on paying it off next year, which is good, but I don't understand how you ran up so much debt on non essentials when you had £400 to spend on non essentials??

Yeah.. but are you buying new glasses because your prescription has changed enough that you need to? If you're just buying new ones because you want them that's also a also bad example.

Sorry, I'm also a glasses wearer 🤓

I think someone upthread said - the comfortably off got that way by not having a mad fund for random spending. 😂

I was looking into those and then thought "no, I cant afford them". 🤣

I might get some once Im in a better place for a bit of fun. I know they arent the wisest investment.

I dont even wear glasses. Maybe I'll get some anyway. 🤣

Glad it's not just me reading it that way!

OP: I get £400 mad money, but also £3000 debt from spending mad money, how much mad money do you get and what are your ideas for spending it?

We don’t do well with having that type of budget, but most of our silly money is takeaways, probably $200-300/month. DH buys mystery things on Amazon, and I’ll do a friends day every other month which is usually about $100. Clothes and hair we look at what we need vs what’s in the bank. Kids clothes (needed) we buy as we need them or ahead if we see it in the thrift shop, and then reduce other areas if we have to.

Because (as I think I've also said) I'm stupid.

Some of it is because I had it set to automatically pay for things and I thought I had changed that but only realised I hadnt when the statements came through and I didnt just pay it off straight away. Some of it was thinking Ill pay it off next week but not doing it. Some was that I used it for the purchase protection and yes, didnt pay it off. Most of the time when I used it, it was with a view to how to pay it off but I just didnt for a million different reasons (excuses).

Hi OP. We have about £300 a month each after saving for holidays and Christmas and paying the credit card (I have no desire to have less money and clear the card asap as it's low rate). It will be paid off in about 2 years. We save £400 a month for a family holiday.

We spend it on clothes, haircuts. Drinks with friends. Family of 6 🤠

Not a set amount, I live within my means.
Imagine I'll get a sarky comment from op for being so clever.

Maybe 800 of my personal money. It does tend to get frittered though on things for the house that isn't really needed, clothes, random stuff from the supermarket etc

I don't calculate fun money. Once the finances are paid and depending what's 'leftover' at the end of the month, put some into savings and keep any spare to rollover. This is if a good month, others there will be extra things needed like vets, kids' stuff, dentist etc. If I've got some 'fun' plans I use what's needed, new clothes, haircut, meal out, treats. I don't feel the need to think oh I've got £200 spare so I'm going to spend it for the sake of it. Xx

You sound very bad with money OP. I have never thought of my money like that or just frittered it away as it's too hard to earn.

don't really think of mad money. We are generally quite frugal, but can afford to enjoy a treat when out if we want. Today I was at the beach with 4 friends, we are all of the same age(late 50's) and all retired early to this warm country. We always always bring a cool bag each (just small) usually with wine or rum and juices in it. Sometimes we bring some fruit or wraps. Today we ordered a big margarita pizza from one of the beach restaurants to eat on our loungers.. was supposed to be 12 slice..we asked them to cut in in 10, two nice sized slices each.. total was 600 pesos including tax and tip (we tipped a bit more on top.. the server was lovely) That is about 7.5 pounds divided by 5! it was amazing. My husband was out last night at a local bar with his friends. He had 3 beers and took a motoconcho back (I had dropped him off) 700 pesos including the ride home.. so about 9 pounds. We are very careful with money. Life can change in a heartbeat. Sorry though @DecemberGoneWild If you have credit card debt, you should really not have mad money. Get that cleared before you keep spending on "fun" things. I promise that you will enjoy them more when you do not have a cloud hanging over you in the form of a credit card bill!

A lot (household wealth fluctuates by tens or hundreds of thousands on any day, millions up or down on a year is not unusual).

Rules of thumbs we use:

• only allow deliberate, not accidental, ‘lifestyle creep’
• buy time, not stuff
• avoid false economies (temping to spend an hour on Amazon finding the best value widget, but that time is better spent optimising bigger things).
• very consciously don’t buy the ‘status competition’ things. Lots of rich parents at school, quite happy for them not to think of us as in that league.

Tended to spend fairly freely on DC. Now DC getting older we are thinking more deliberately about whether that’s teaching the right lessons.

You are wrong. I used to be bad with money! 🤣 I no longer am (manifest!).

Never that bad really if you have saved up enough for a house deposit and uni fees for your son?

Err, zero. There's nothing left after bills and the kids going through shoes like they're made of paper

That has come from our "joint money" so it's sort of accounted for before I get my selfish money iyswim?

You’re not helping your case OP, I was trying to stand up for you 🤷‍♀️

I read that in a Moira from ‘Schitt’s Creek’ voice 🫣🤣