How much “fun” money for a family of 4?

[Cowardlycustard2]

I am trying to sort out a new budget for 2018 and determined to stick to it this year. We have enough for our needs but never seem to have anything to save due to frittering money away. Doing budget with specific amount set against different categories. What would be a reasonable monthly budget for 2 adults, 2 dc early teens for “fun” things? Am thinking stuff like dc doing activities like swimming, cinema trips, odd takeaway or pub tea? Am thinking around £200 per month. Is that too much or little? We are not in an expensive part of UK. Any ideas gratefully received

Well one family visit to the cinema can get towards the £80 mark if kids are paying adult prices and there's popcorn and a drink involved.
So on that basis £200 per month doesn't sound a lot.

What "fun things" to DCs do, and how often?

We don’t do anything very expensive really. Cinema gone down to £5 per person locally which is brilliant! I guess on average month we would go watch a movie a couple times (DH never comes as he says too noisy). Swimming a couple of times. Elder dc likes to go into town with friends on train for a Nando’s or similar maybe a couple of times a month. She gets £40 per month pocket money to cover stuff like this but I will often bung her an extra £5 to cover the train fare. Maybe £300 a more realistic amount to put against that category then?

Really it all depends how much you have. I usually work out how much I have to spend in other areas and what's left is fun money. I recommend the 'Good Budget' app, basic one is free and plenty for me. You can link 2 devices to it so both you and DH can see how much fun money is left at all times. Good for watching your savings grow too.

Thanks Credit will have a look at that. Did try YNAB for a bit on the free trial but I couldn’t get on with it, never got past first hurdle of working out what you are supposed to do on first screen to set yourself up

Um Thats really the reverse of how you do it, a sensible amount offun money for a family of four will vary dramatically depending on your bills and income . Work out your income take off your bills, take off your voluntary monthly expenses that you are committed to (gym membership, Netflix,club fees etc). How much do you have left?

How much of that do you want/need to save and how much can you afford to spend

We have about £1000 per month “spare” after all bills, food and holiday fund, etc. So this money in theory can be divided up into savings and “fun” so just wondering what other people would do in this situation and what percentage to allocate to each “pot” I am ashamed to say I don’t know where half of it goes at the moment that’s why a budget desperately needed.

I think £200 sounds like a good amount. You'll be able to do paid activities at least once a fortnight. Or even every weekend if you're doing cheaper things. You'll have enough to have fun but will probably need to pick and choose what is important to you.

We have a gym membership and life insurance (vitality) that gets us a free Starbucks and a free cinema ticket each week. So for £130 a month we can go swimming as often as we like and go to the cinema 4 x month.

We also have a Merlin membership for theme parks plus other attractions. That’s £400 a year but good value for the use we get from it.

I have £700 left over after I have paid for everything, I put £300 in savings (half short term and half long term) and allocate the rest for fun, but I never seem to have enough fun, so anything left over at the end of the month goes forward into short term savings.

Can you try to add up how much you currently spend on fun? Decide if holidays and Christmas count or if they are separate. Also kids pocket money. Then decide if the amount you spend is ok or if you want to tighten your belt. Ours tends to be more in the school holidays as we tend to do some big outings then, so I think termly rather than monthly!

17/12/2017 11:03 Heratnumber7

"Well one family visit to the cinema can get towards the £80 mark if kids are paying adult prices and there's popcorn and a drink involved. "
Wow our local cinema charges £5.50 for an adult ticket.

I would also try and think about holidays and if u have that much spare income i would look at annual passes.

I think a couple of cinemas do them aswell as theme parks.

But before setting numbers i would get family to do a spending diary for a month as theres always extras you might forget. Eg always eating out after an activity or buying a takeaway on weekend. Or grabbing takeaway coffee on way to work. These add up and sometimes are worth the extra spend or could be cut back on.

So have you a line in your budget for

• six months of expenses emergency fund (you may have already have this)
• white good replacement
• Christmas
• Holidays
• building repairs (how old is your boiler? roof? worth figuring out when they will need replacing and save towards it)
• Home decorating
• car repairs / replacement (tyres / oil if nothing else).
• annual bills and insurances

DH and I have £75 each to spend as we wish, we then have £50 for family fun, £30 for a take away and then I budget for swimming / gymnastics / after school activities.

Thanks for the replies. Some good ideas here. I must admit I never thought about stuff like replacement of white goods. Boiler is new this year and has 10 year guarantee so hopefully should be OK for a bit. Going to start a spending diary too.

So in ten years time you will need around £3.5k for a new boiler. £30 a month for that

Good thinking Fridge! I actually paid for current boiler through a lottery win this summer. First and probably only time have ever won anything