How much do you budget/spend on “fun money” per month?

[Coffeecoffeeinmytummy]

DH and I are always overspending on this category. I think it should be enough and yet somehow it never is.

We have 2 DC age 4 and 2. We have a funny arrangement with childcare/preschool/work shifts meaning that there are only two days a week when they’re both in childcare. 3 weekdays at least one child is with one of us, and then we’re all off together at the weekends. I mention this because I think it’s the extra spending on our week day days off that’s really adding up.

I budget £475 per month and that is meant to cover pretty much all “unnecessary” ie luxury day to day spending such as —Eating out either as a family or individually eg if DH or I go out for drinks or a meal with friends. We maybe do this as a family once a month and maybe once a month each separately for me and DH. Roughly £120 total?
-Days out, not including fuel but any other costs incurred like entry, train or bus fare, extra food or snacks
-Activities or random stuff with the kids that aren’t a regular class ie DD does a weekly dance class and this is paid by termly direct debit so it’s not in this budget but if we take them swimming, or go to a cafe or buy ice creams at the park it would come from this pot
-Any non-supermarket food eg if we pick up a meal deal for lunch. Or general random shop spending like getting kids a magazine or buying craft stuff
-Me occasionally getting my nails done £30 once a month average
-DH random spending on wanky craft beers or Apple Music. This is maybe £50 a month.

Doesn't include holidays. It feels like a healthy budget to have but we are frittering it away and it seems to mainly be on coffees, parking, bits and pieces that are only a few pounds at a time but are quickly adding up. Interested to know what others spend. I know it depends a lot on income - that goes without saying - and we are lucky we can afford this currently but we need to cut back.

Have you been through your bank statement and looked at the actual amounts you are spending on those things? Your estimates seem quite low eg £120 for drinks/meals out three times. Depends where you go of course but with beer in a pub around £6 a pint it soon adds up - and are you getting taxis home etc?
In reality, you have just over £100 a week fun money for the 4 of you which is nice but VERY easy to burn through on drinks, snacks and day trips.
Look at your actual figures and see where you can cut back.

Thanks @Findyourneutralspace I have been through the statements but it’s hard because costs seem to vary so much. This past month we ate out as a family once (£47) and DH had one evening out which with a taxi was about £50. I didn’t do anything (!) other than nails but we did get two takeaways which is more than usual for us which was £48. So yes I suppose if I treat this as an average month then it’s more than £120 more like £150.

Another month we might not eat out at all but then we might have bought theatre tickets or something else.

This on £100 pw I am afraid you don't have budget for regular meals out unless Weatherspoons or similar and nails and craft beers. When mine were your ages I took picnics everywhere coffees out are ruinous, get a nice thermos each. Can you not get memberships for things like swimming pools/ soft play ?

@Dyslexicwonder yes the coffees are ridiculous I’m actually a bit scared to add them up! Problem is that with two young DC in the winter it’s often just an excuse for somewhere to sit inside. We go to the library but everything else nearby that is inside has a cost associated whether it’s swimming, soft play, etc and none of those places will let you bring your own food or drinks other than water bottles for DC. In the summer if we go swimming the kids can just sit outside after and have a banana from home but inside you have to sit in the cafe if you want to sit down to eat anything. It really adds up.

we had looked at membership and didn’t think it worked out cost effective based on how much we use it but will check again, thank you

Church toddler groups ? I don't know where you are but the South Ken museums have inside picnic areas. Sadly you sometimes just have to go home for lunch:( or what I did, home an "at home" morning then very early lunch before heading out. London again but one a clock clubs were free....

£100 a week sounds plenty doesn't it ? But if you break it down it's only £25/ day for 3 weekdays and 2 weekend days, one has to work really hard to come in under this budget for 3 people (4 on the weekend) so if you go out to lunch as a family and spend £50 then you need to have another day where you spend nothing which is really difficult.

Why not try to keep to £10/ day for your weekdays off, maybe physically get a tenner out ? Then you have £70 for the weekend ?

My dc are teens, so different set up. My YNAB tells me I budget around £380 pm for fun spends, so not including kids activities, pocket money or holidays. Me and dh both have an element of discretionary spnd here (he spends his on video games and craft beer, I spend mine on gifts, occasional coffees at work and kindle books). In an average month we may go to the cinema once, may go out for dinner Or get a takeaway. Pub for a pint at the weekend after a walk. Coffee or lunch with a friend, maybe every other month. Concert tickets a couple of times a year.

I don't feel like we are spending a lot in this area of our lives although we do spend a lot on holidays. Everything is just so chuffing expensive atm.

With small kids I would be looking at ways to shave the regular costs, so could you get a membership to the leisure centre and swim every weekend. Look for 2 for 1 vouchers. Take coffee in a thermos and juice boxes and maybe a snack for after to keep you away from the cafes. The weather's getting better so easier to do walks or spend longer at the playground. The most important thing is to spend in accordance with your priorities. If having a big trip out or night away during half term is important to you, you'll have to scale back on the drip drip spends.

If the meal out with your dh is important to you, cut out the takeaway coffees etc.

Your budget sounds low. We’re a family of 3 and would have struggle to stay within that. Our daughters now 3.5 and we’re focused on paying our mortgage off. To reduce our spending we started to track our weekly expenditure using a spreadsheet. When we could clearly see how much we frittered away that really helped us to stop spending so much. We also challenge ourselves to various no spend days.

I agree with others that using low cost church or village hall groups plus taking picnics when you go out is a great way to cut costs.

Coffees out are deadly to "fun" budgets as it feels like a small spend, but if you end up doing it multiple times a week, it soon adds up!

I wonder how long it will be before someone comes along with a "£2,000 per week" (or something similarly huge) post with the smug subtext of "haha, I win, you poor suckers!"

I found that taking picnics saved a lot of money. You can easily spend £25 on shit sandwiches. So I’d only go places where there were picnic tables or timed visits so that lunch was after or before.

We don't have a budget for fun money because if either of us got an invite somewhere in say week 3 of the month and the budget only had £20 left but we knew we could actually afford to go then we would go anyway . We are not high earners but have no car finance , no debt , not a big mortgage and don't wear expensive clothes so we can afford meals out / days out . We have merlin passes so when the theme parks open again that will cut down our expenditure on other places as it's literally just petrol costs .

We have £380 per month for four of us which is tight but manageable. It mainly goes on coffee and cake at the weekends and the occasional entry ticket to a farm park or something. We eat out once a month - a pub lunch or breakfast. We have national trust membership on top which is absolutely brilliant. Take a picnic lunch and it's basically a free day out.

Like you OP we seem to fly through hundreds every month on similar - odd lunch here, coffees, magazines for the kids, random Amazon purchases - there’s always something they seem to need - this week was more glue for crafting. I’ve tried to cut down in the past but I’ve just kind of come to the conclusion that this is life. We’re not in debt and can still afford the big stuff like holidays so even though I suppose we’ve frittered lots away, we’ve had a nice time with it so I’ve made my peace with it.

@Airupnonsense that's exactly my attitude too , we spent an insane amount on crazy golf yesterday but we were meeting my older son in the city where he lives and it was just such a lovely end to the day we just thought sod it!

We have £300 for 1 adult / 1 teen / 1 nearly teen. That is meant to cover tickets for stuff meals out and then any little things I see I like - eg something small for house.

In theory it's enough but when we had couple takeaways a month it seemed to disappear.

I need to claw back some money so managed to only spend £100 last month and about £200 this month.

Your £475 budget is very high IMO.

For entertaining the kids (not their activities e.g. swimming lessons) I would manage on about £20/week when mine were young, so call that £40/week now (I have vastly over inflated that). I had National Trust membership on top.

I honestly bought about two coffees per year. Just stop doing it. Also take a packed lunch instead of meal deals.

Then enjoy your budget for the other stuff.

It’s just me and DD and I budget £1000 per month for food, fuel and fun. I have very well stocked cupboards and I try to use what’s in them rather than spend a fortune in the supermarket every week. We like to eat out and have trips away occasionally. I have a car but rarely go very far in it.

Sometimes I go over this budget but it’s a good rule of thumb.

I'm old but I wouldn't worry too much about the fun money as long as you are putting the maximum possible into your pensions.

Start writing down everything you spend at the time you spend it, rather than waiting to go through bank statements. Seeing my spending mount up, and where it went, massively helped me spend less and budget. I used a spreadsheet on my phone.

I think you need to get in the habit of taking snacks/ lunch with you as a general rule. It saves a fortune over cafe prices. We will often stop off for a hot chocolate or ice cream so I don’t completely shun cafes but it makes it much more affordable.

@Coffeecoffeeinmytummy do you have National Trust membership? We used to have £80 after all bills but I prioritised NT as it gave us days out & free carparks (especially at beaches where they are £5 a day!)

I think NT or English Heritage (depending on what's nearer you!) is one of the best things with a family. The parks and events are fab.

Invest in a new picnic bag and take sandwiches with you. That's what I did x

I've a good friend I meet regularly who never makes packed lunch, we meet in places we can do either because I always take packed lunch.

I reckon she's spent £3600 in the cafe in the last ten years of us meeting, and I've spent about one-fifth of that.

It's up to each to choose how to spend their money of course - but both sets of kids had the same amount of fun.

I have 220 quid for Misc expenses including days out. My toddler is 3 so her demands are still not that much I.e. a day at the library or park and she's happy. We having seriously cut back on takeaways as they are crap and expensive anyway.

Just sounds like you need to learn to live within your means.

You won't be the only family cutting down on takeaways, coffee and trips out.

A little bit of thought can go a long way. And if you seriously want to sort out this problem then you need to start having budgets. £50 takeaway budget, £50 you budget, £50 DH budget, £30 coffee (just as an example!!) and learn that once its gone and spent then that's that until next month.