How much do you spend per month eating out & entertainment?

[wherehasthesungone23]

I've recently joined YNAB and I'm setting up categories - I've myself, dh 2dc aged 2 & 5 and I've put down £100 per month for eating out and 150 for entertainment (days out/ soft play etc). Does this seem realistic - what do people with similar sized familes spend on these non essentials - I now it will vary from family to family but I'm trying to pay off some credit cards and make savings where I can - is this a realistic target figure for these figures over the summer holidays (will be less when kids back in school & childcare)

If you are paying off cc debt then, to me, £250 is a huge amount to be spending.

You are right it is! I've fallen into a trap though esp with the kids - going somewhere most days for the holiday and when you add in lunch and entry to somewhere - even soft play it really adds up. I've tried cutting down to lunch out only once a week but even that is £25 (at least) for our family of four. Soft play is £10 for 2 then usually a couple of drinks.. swimming another £10 etc so that's £45 a week or £180 a month for 2 days out a week over the holidays. The weather has been truly shocking this July too so that's made free days out harder. It's good to get a bit of perspective though, I know I need to cut down.

@wherehasthesungone23 you need to prioritise the cc debt.
Try packed lunch with a trip to a museum or library. Then ice cream as a treat.
Saturday morning kid's cinema.
Go swimming or soft play after lunch and take drink and snack with you.

Movies for juniors, take your own sweets, the tickets are a lot cheaper.
Our local council did cheap family swims early sat morning, are there any offers on at your local pool?
Country park (or any park) with packed lunches and flasks with an ice cream as a treat. Weather really doesn’t matter. We were out hail, rain or shine. Kids love jumping in puddles or building dens, whatever the weather.
Library is free and they often have children’s activities on during the holiday, but a Saturday morning visit to read some new books and have a play with a few new toys passes a couple of hours on a dull day outside of school holidays.
If you have cc debt then lunch out once a week isn’t a treat, it’s a habit you can’t afford. Have a meal out once or twice a month & you’ve already saved at least £50 for the cc.

Those ages there are so many free things you can do.

Parks, beach, walks, library, museums, see if you have any free fun days locally (fire station, parks, church halls etc).

Take drinks, lunches and snacks on days out so its just entry and travel costs. Avoid gift shops.

Do you get universal credit/tax credits? There's quite a few offers if you claim them. (Kew gardens or wakehurst £1 entry, whipsnade/London zoo £3 entry, London transport museum £1 annual pass)

Eating out, see if you can find any of the kids eat free offers.

If soft play is a regular place you visit is it worth doing an annual pass? Do you have discounted or free swimming places near you? My city is free swimming for under 18s at certain pools. Or is it worth getting a membership for the pool so you could go more often?

Utilise discount codes - days out vouchers website if you use the train (2 for 1 entry). Clubcard vouchers. What jobs do you and your husband do? There might be discounts for certain professions. I saw a boundless card that offered great discounts to key workers.

Pay off your debt and do free days out/picnics.

Don't buy drinks at softplay! You're not a millionaire. Take their water bottles with you and do the 10-12pm or 2-4pm session so you can have lunch at home after/before you go.

£100 isn't a lot on eating out if you're going out for nice meals, but to spend on food at softplay/lunches for toddlers it's madness. Take a packed lunch.

Say no to drinks/snacks/ice creams. You're children are young enough to accept this quite quickly, do it now before expecting treats everywhere sets in as a habit.

It is harder to find low cost/free stuff when the weather is bad and depending on where you live, but make sure you're keeping an eye out for possibilities.

Keep the those numbers as absolute top end of the spectrum but try and spend less knowing that every packed lunch/free day out will be knocking more off your credit card.

Probably about £750pm for me DH and DD. We eat out twice a week and do something as family every weekend. Plus I’ll take her to soft play or farm on her one day off preschool each week.

I totally get what you're saying that as much as you'd like to save, pay cc and do free things with the kids, it is quite difficult not to spend at all so setting a budget is much better. Especially now that school's out.
I think it is a realistic amount depending on what you are aiming to do. It is a good idea to have that budget anyway even if you heed the good advice on here about taking water and food or doing free activities. You may find you have most of it unspent by end of summer which you can then use to pay more of cc or use for school shoes, uniform, etc.

To a certain extent it depends on what resources are available to you. When my kids were that age, we mostly did free things and took a picnic, and if we did go to a café it was for hot chocolate or a drink rather than an actual meal, with the exception of cheap toasties at the library café.

But I live in a tourist area with lots of free or cheap museums, nice walks, parks, library activities, festivals with free or cheap kids' activities going on over the summer, so there was usually plenty to do on a teeny budget.

If you are reliant on soft play and other expensive options, then you probably need to budget more.

Single mum with 15yo DS

£25 eating out (we only go once every couple of months)
£32 DS' swimming
£51 shared karate membership
£20 socialising at ours - food and drink for friends

Otherwise, I do parkrun (free), and we cycle & picnic (free). So £128 pcm

This summer we've spent £1k on a UK holiday, so an extra £85 a month.

We live rurally and there aren't really any paid activity options for kids. So we don't do them. Kids are not deprived!
Beach/forest, walks, bikes, playparks, geocaching, picnics, ball games, outdoor art (think collage with stones etc), chalk on paving, visit local animals like pigs sheep geese, treasure hunts.
If I was in debt I would spend £0 on entertainment until it was gone. Unless it will take more than a couple of years to pay off, and then I might go for £20/month for entertainment or something.

It's not feasible to budget or spend 0 on entertainment, even with debt. The thing with debt is that it's not just about paying the debt back, it's also about avoiding getting into more debt or getting back into
because you haven't properly budgeted for feasible expenses.

YNAB Reddit has some really good suggestions for how to view debt and things that take priority over debt (such as establishing an emergency fund so that you don't end up going back into debt when something happens as well as being realistic about how much you need to spend elsewhere).

The thing with YNAB is that it will force you to make decisions, so in some ways how much you budget isn't that important - you'll get to the point where you've spent what's in your 'envelope' and you need to decide whether you can move money from another category to cover it or whether you can't or don't want to do that. I think after a couple of months you'll get a feel for what a realistic amount to spend is. I have £250 in our budget for eating out and entertainment; if I get near to spending that then I have to look at things like our Xmas fund, our birthdays fund, etc and see whether I want to/can justify taking money out of there for entertainment, or take money out of groceries and cut back on that for the month. Sometimes just the idea of having to do that stops me.

I’m a YNAB user and do same as Hugasauras. I budget X amount, then if I’m running out of ££ in that category I need to decide if whatever I want to do is worth taking from other funds. It usually isn’t!

YNAB is excellent at teaching you that money is finite, and because if this what we choose to spend it on today can affect the future.

It can take a number of months to get that sweet spot of not too much, not too little, but it’s worth persevering.

About £400 a month for me and H- maybe only eat out dinner once a month but quite a few brunches and coffees and we usually go for drinks on a Friday evening in town

I completely agree with @Hugasauras. I manage my funds in a similar way. Every penny is accounted for in it's own budget line. If I want to 'overspend' on one budget line, I need to identify from which other line the money will come.

As @Hugasauras says, very frequently it clarifies for me that the potential overspend is not actually necessary. Even although I have an emergency budget line, I always see if I can juggle funds from other areas in the short-term to avoid using my emergency line for emergencies!!

Other posters are correct in what they say - yes, your debt needs to be cleared but you do also need to prioritise an emergency fund even if, like me, you avoid using it when you can!!

Good luck with clearing your debt, and if you haven't already had a look, Money Saving Expert has a 'Debt Free Wannabe' board where posters offer advice / ideas to help people realistically manage their finances.

I do YNAB and allocate £100 to family days out and £100 to meals out. Sometimes we go over sometimes we don't spend it all the. It rolls over to next month. Also when I'm allocating at the beginning of the month I check the diary to see if it's a busy month and budget accordingly.

Stick at YNAB even when you get confused, (which you will and we still do!) there are some great YouTube tutorials. It's life changing and has totally improved our family finances and we now have no debt apart from our mortgage.

If I were paying off credit card debt, I would not be eating out at all.

As PP mentioned, no more treats to the credit card debt is exactly what I would do. Set the DC a competition to find things to do that don't cost anything. Honestly, my parents were in reasonably comfortable circumstances but I can remember the (very few) occasions on which we had paid outings and meals out.

Now, I completely understand and advise you to do likewise.

What's right for you depends on how big the debt is and how long it will take to pay off. If it's going to be a long time, you need to include some entertainment/eating out in your budget, otherwise it will be utterly miserable.

Have you got all your debt onto low/no interest deals so all your money goes on paying off your debt?

It's not feasible to budget or spend 0 on entertainment, even with debt. The thing with debt is that it's not just about paying the debt back, it's also about avoiding getting into more debt or getting back into
because you haven't properly budgeted for feasible expenses.

I agree. I don't think what you're suggesting is a high amount at all. You need to be realistic with your budget otherwise it'll all fall apart. Try this budget for a couple months and see how it goes, maybe you'll be able to cut back further or maybe you'll realise you need to allocate a little more to this area.

I think it’s better to pay off debt slow and steady, whilst living your life, than it is to go hammer and tongs to get debt-free but be miserable in the process. It may be realistic to treat debt as an emergency when you’re single, or no kids, but I think once you’re in a family situation you do need to be realistic that sometimes spending a bit more is how things are.

If I were you I’d budget what you’ve allocated for August, then think if you can have a frugal September. Have a more generous October and a frugal
November etc.

Stick with learning YNAB and you’ll find you naturally start aligning things as time goes on - maybe the debt will annoy you more and you’ll get more aggressive paying it off then. In the meantime just stick to not overspending the budget.

How much debt do you have and what kind of debt?

When mine we're that small was lot easier do cheap or free days out and a picnic/ drinks.

We used do free community farm but had Pay bus.
Library
Swim session leisure centre
Soft play leisure centre much cheaper
Museum.
Rotate different parks

But I have 4 kids 3 are teenagers

Places we most likely go

Weatherspoons as kids menu cheap
Subway
Maccy ds
Greggs
Large chips chip shop
Buy one get one free pizza dominoes

Lots places summer doing kids eat free.

I paper budget and have set 200 for 4 kids not sure realistic but will try.
Planning 3 paid days out and some free stuff.
We not going on holiday again this year so want to do something with them.

We have debts but need some balance we have a plan and are budgeting and paying off significant amount off debt and on course have credit card at 0 by October so need some balance.

Eating out - I'd allow enough for 1 decent meal out for the 4 of you. Some months that can be a couple of takeaway / cheap lunches instead. But also includes snacks / drinks when out.

This makes you far more motivated to sort a snack / drink bag from home for days out!!

Days out - keep to free or cheap things and again take food to keep costs to entry fees only.

We eat out very rarely even on days out. Maybe get an ice cream but it's not usual. Have a big breakfast before going out and eat later on at home or head out after lunch. Mine aren't little anymore but we didn't do expensive trips, lots of free park visits.