what's a realistic budget for these categories

[aliumbear]

So I'm going through my spends and I thought it would be best to set a monthly limit for the categories I usually spend bit more than I think is reasonable in; Stuff for the house, Gardening work and plants, Crafting, and books.
I know no one can tell me what to do but it would be better to get a perspective on how much is realistic to spend on each category - and I don't want to cut them out completely.

It depends if you want to buy new and what type of shops you like to visit

You could swap the garden centre for plant sales and buying direct from a nursery
Books £20 would get a really good selection second hand
Crafting you can shop around on Vinted and EBay and get some bargains

A lot of those would be what you have available after essentials, including savings for annual and irregular costs, pension, emergency fund etc. So work those out first and what's left is what you're free to spend on hobby items. If the numbers don't add up try and adjust what you can.

I would set a monthly discretionary fun budget instead of all your categories, and stick to that.

Can you take what you currently spend and reduce it to 70%???

My art supplies budget is around £100 for the year and I rarely spend that. I love art and do a few different crafts as well, but I rarely regularly spend money on things, preferring to use up some of the supplies I already have, so I suppose the question is are you utilising the things you already have?

I use a budgeting app, and assign £50 a month for homeware which also covers garden costs. Then £20 a month for books and digital downloads.

I don't spend that every month, but I roll it over so that if a larger expense comes in (e.g. fence blows down and needs replacing) there's money in the pot to cover it.

"Realistic" is going to vary wildly. Clearly those are things that you care about, so you want to spend something, so it's not good me pointing out that you don't need new plants, you can get books from the library, and you should use up your existing craft supplies before buying more.

Why not try reducing by a small amount each month and see if that feels achievable?

Gardening is variable through the year unfortunately so I reasses each month. Stuff for the house I set £100 a month, crafts is £30ish and books I set £20 and have a library card.