£40 per week personal spends

[mishfish]

I’m trying to become more sensible with money now our personal circumstances have improved. Would £40 per week personal spends be realistic for the odd bits and bobs (ran out of tea bags, emergency sandwich when out) be realistic?

My plan it to withdraw £40 every Monday and save any unused personal spends to top it up.

I have a book to write it all in so I can see where I’m going wrong

I don’t want to set myself up for failure from the outset to would like some opinions on if I’m doing just that!

I’m also going to start meal planning and taking over the food shopping so it’s done more wisely (DH currently does the food shop and is quite lazy and not very wise with it so I make do with what we have)

I think it depends on what you define as personal spends. If all other spends have been accounted for, then £40 a week is a lot (that's £6 a day on lunches if you work 5 days a week, or £240 a month). What will you have to show at the end of the month?

I used to give myself £10 a week, 'purse money', as I called it. This was for the occasional lunch at work (normally bring in lunch from home), milk/bread runs (should be covered in the weekly shop, but in case we ran out), school donations etc.

It worked well for me. If I increased it to £40 then it would be spent on junk.

I have £20 a week for spends for anything like that so I think you'll be fine on £40

I have £100 per month. That's for any coffees, lunches, haircuts, clothes, toiletries, socialising without the kids. £40 would be great!

Hmmm maybe I’ve allocated myself too much then. I’ll do £40 per week for a month and see if I can reduce it to £30 per week if that’s more suitable.

For me it would include- weekly coffee with friends, monthly eyebrow and top lip wax (unavoidable), beauty products/toiletries that don’t go on the food shop, snacks and drinks for me and my 3 kids if we are caught short whilst out, if I’ve run out of teabags and coffee at home, milk and bread top ups, would save up money from this for rare hair appointment.

My personal money is 40 a month. But all groceries inc forgotten bits come out of the food budget, transport comes out of the transport budget etc. Literally the 40 is just for whatever the heck I feel like.

Depending on how dire your straits are, things like "emergency sandwiches" may be something you need to plan for (carry snacks) or just go without - nobody will starve. It's that sort too of unnecessary spending that adds up without you realising.

Tbh I think if you take out £40, you'll spend £40. Take out £100, you'll spend that etc...

I've tried £100 a week for petrol (I drive miles to work), food top ups, make up cinema etc. It all goes on food we don't need ( go to get milk, end up with a £20 basket) and petrol which costs £££

Depending on how dire your straits are, things like "emergency sandwiches" may be something you need to plan for (carry snacks) or just go without - nobody will starve. It's that sort too of unnecessary spending that adds up without you realising.

I completely agree and this is something I’m working on. Now our circumstances have changed I’m able to be a lot more organised with my time and feeling a lot less chaotic than I was before. I’m awful for forgetting drinks and snacks when we are out and using contactless to buy them so am making a big effort to prepare properly before leaving the house with the kids

I aim for £10 per week. Your plan sounds good, writing down everything you spend. I would give that a go and put any unspent money into a savings account. After a few weeks, or a month, see how it’s going.

@adora I have a book with an opening balance, spends and closing balance for each day

I’m doing well so far. Was actually thinking of topping up (like a petty cash float) rather than withdrawing £40 every week regardless of what I’ve spend the previous week.

Well today I put £100 in my purse:

£2 at train station on magazine and drink
£10.20 on parking
£22 on petrol
£5 lunch
£10 on stuff son needs for duke of Edinburgh on Friday

Was a training day in London and nowhere else to park.

I used to take £100 a week. At the time I was into going to the cibema, pub and meals out on a regular basis. I reduced it to £40 and often have spare after I spend about £15 on lunches for the week.

I’ve started with a base of £40 a week. Every Friday I take out enough to cover my riding lesson on a Saturday £30 and then the additional that I know I’ll need plus an additional £10.

This week I know I’ll need at least £20 extra to buy donuts for the office for my birthday. 25 donuts comes to around £20 from the lovely bakery.

I aim for lunch from home 4 days a week.

I do £40 a week which normally covers
-a meal out to pub/restaurant
-a few lunches (subway/mcdonalds etc)
-personal snacks from tesco etc which aren't covered by joint food money
-daily snacks at work
-any parking etc
-small purchases if i have enough left.

Leftover money goes in piggy bank.

If i don't take the cash out, i overspend

I do £50 pw but that includes DD's dance class (£10) DS2's athletics (up to £10), odds and ends of shopping, coffee at work a couple of times, a couple of lunches at work, random stuff eg kids haircut, tickets for concert, just stuff you need to pay cash for.

Sometimes I have £20 left, sometimes I have £2 left. £40 sounds good to me op.

@clary that is not £50 personal spending then! It sounds to me that at most you are getting £20 for your own frivolous stuff (ie after kids activities and family shopping), none on weeks when your kids need haircuts, I expect. Which is fine, unless your DP really is spending £50 per week on his own whims and nonsense...

I do £60 per week for frivolous spending (all food and toiletries etc are budgeted for separately) but clothes have to come out of that. So if I eat lunch out three days a week, no new shoes etc for me! I usually try to save most of it so I can buy nice things less frequently, but some weeks are better than others.

I'm not sure why the milk etc top up would come from your personal spends? Surely this comes under food budget?

My personal spends include things like clothes and gifts. So I might go a couple a of months without spending anything and then buy a few things all at once. For just the odd incidental day to day things, £40 a week sounds loads!

£20 per week for me. I spend it on the weekend newspapers, the odd snack and coffee if I'm out + occasional car parking. Hair, clothes, top up shopping and make up are all separate budget items on my nerdy spreadsheet.

I give myself and DH £50 each per week for personal spends. I always have £30 left so top it back up to £50 each Friday but DH blows all of his! I am quite frugal and use a travel mug for tea and only eat in the staff canteen if my friend is working the same day.
I have just realised that it's £400 every four weeks! Making me think now!
I think £20-£25 a week is enough though.

Oh, all food items come out of the food budget

I have £50 a week personal spends .. I might buy a bottle of gin or a couple bottles of nice wine from Waitrose. I went to the cinema last week to watch bohemian rhapsody and got a big bowl of their nachos ... i sometimes have a nice lunch somewhere and take a book, or sit in the corner of a Wetherspoon one afternoon with a few Gin and tonics and a book
I've picked up loads from charity shops all in brilliant condition £50 gets loads ... it gives me much more freedom to do things

It’s worth stocking up on tea, coffee & popping a couple of pints of milk in the fridge. This saves the need to pop to the supermarket for these items and coming out with all the extras at £20

It’s a good idea to keep all the receipts for the week and checking back what you are spending money on that you perhaps don’t actually need. Then swap or adjust your behaviour.

Coffee out & snacks are nice - - but adds up, invite friends home for a drink sometimes instead and keep snacks hidden in the boot of the car invade you need them

I have £40 a week personal spending money but that is for things like clothes, makeup, toiletries (that aren't in with the food shopping), going out with my friends, beauty treatments etc. Anything child/family related and food shopping is seperate.
Some weeks I spend £5, some weeks I spend £60. It rolls over and I save up for big purchases like a new coat or a gift for someone.

Just to add I don't have to pay for parking and I work in a restaurant so I get free meals at work.