How much do you spend on yourself per month?

[purplespink]

This is to include clothing, cosmetics, hair, nails, coffees with friends, books or any hobby related things. I’m a SAHM with an 8, 6 and 5 month old. I have £100 per month to spend on myself and any coffees out etc, although this excludes gym session payments.

Hard to say as clothes/haircuts are not every month, so there are peaks and troughs.

If we're discounting gym/exercise classes, I would think it would probably average out at £100 or less. I assume you're not including things you do with the children as part of that budget.

This is surely a "how long is a piece of string" question though? The amount you can spend will be determined by family budget and the amount you want to spend will be related to how you like to spend your time/what your friends want to do etc.

That’s right, children/family stuff is separate. Yes it is very subjective isn’t it ☺️

Currently £300 which goes on hair, Botox/microneedling etc, nails, and netball. It doesn’t go very far as you can imagine with those things, I usually need some kind of ‘windfall’ like a bonus for new clothes lol. We have a good income between us but priority has been house and holidays, would love to get it up to £500!

Some months - £8 (£2pw on my bridge club).
Other months - few hundred, if I buy clothes, go on an outing, whatever.
I don't have a set budget for it.

Easily £500 as that’s my fun money pot that is always used up. That also doesn’t include holidays, so is mostly skincare, beauty regimes, entertainment subscriptions, clubs and activities, coffees and take aways and any clothes etc.

But I have no kids and a high income so I have to spend it on someone ;)

For me I have a separate account for haircuts and excluding haircuts I have £50. Really not a lot but it’s because I force myself to save for other things like Christmas, dentist etc so need to be really strict.

I dont spend money on cosmetics, hair, beauty treatments, and I don't shop for fun, so most months nothing.

Occasionally I might need to replace an item of clothing (but I shop mostly is supermarkets and charity shops so not much £), and sometimes I go for dinner or drinks with friends (but that's more likely to be with DH too, so would come from the joint "spends" account rather than my personal spends account).

I'm generally not a big spender (which ironically leaves me with plenty of money available to spend).

Hair and beauty stuff probably averages out at £40 a month
Clothes £80 a month but I buy new things every 3-6 months rather than monthly
Hobby average £150 per month
WLI £180(!) per month average - trying to shop around to decrease this cost but it’s been so life changing that I’ll try to keep finding savings elsewhere

I really don't spend that much on myself at all. Last thing I bought for my self was some £9.99 gardening shorts in August. More of a needs must than something fun.
I do get my hair done so that's £60-£80 but I try to stretch it out as long as possible so won't be every month but every 2 to 3 months.

If I need new clothes then that's more spendy £100-200 but really I just try not to buy much clothes I don't get much enjoyment from it. I guess I do have some anxiety over spending money. I've never experienced having that much money so every spend is stressful.

I feel like as a family we are spending so much on bills food necessary stuff for the kids I just really don't want to spend on myself and I'd rather save. Although saving feels so hard to do. We are a one income family (additional needs child) so I imagine those earning far more will be spending more.

Don't do coffee out or have gym memberships or really get that much cosmetics at all. If I do it will be for my birthday.
It's all a bit boring and I'd love to have more money! I worry with the cost of living continuously going up we will really struggle. Netflix is the only luxury we have left.

No idea, but as my household budget is almost certainly very different to yours, there's no point comparing.

What you need to make sure is that what you spend is affordable in your household budget and equal with what your partner gets for personal spending money. I'd budget all family costs jointly, then split whatever's left 50/50 into personal accounts so you both know what you can spend on yourselves.

A lot. I'm retired, and spend a lot on /gym/ wellbeing. But I am more than comfortable and mortgage free.
It wasn't always like this!

I think that is pretty generous actually.

we assign 200 to our personal accounts as personal spends. It’s not always spent. I don’t get any treatments done monthly. But I go to yoga, get coffees, etc
clothing can come from the monthly personal spends or I use my personal savings pot for bigger spends…a bag etc

Ooh, interesting question. I keep spreadsheets to keep track and make sure I don’t wildly vary from year to year. On average, it’s £154 pcm on clothes (that’s everything- walking shoes, socks, tights, workout gear, underwear, dry- cleaning, alterations) and £132 pcm on skincare, haircuts, shampoo and conditioner, make-up and any extra occasional treatments like Botox, dermatology appointments.

My workouts are mostly done at home using weights and YouTube and I pay £13 per month for YouTube premium. I’m in a couple of book groups but mostly read from the library and our own shelves, so that generally works out at about £4 per month for library reservation fees. £8 per month on a Substack subscription. I have a 60+ pass so get free transport and try to do free exhibitions and lectures. I don’t buy coffee out! So my pastimes are typically fairly inexpensive. But if I want to do something like a course or attend a class or have some extra personal training or go out for lunch/dinner with friends then I’m happy to spend a bit more- up to about £100- £150 per month- if I’ve got the budget that year.

I do piggy back on DH’s subscriptions to various journals which he largely gets through work and which would be expensive.

haven’t included contact lenses, glasses, dentistry which in a bad year certainly add up.

I also spend on holidays, weekends away, nice inessentials for the house, but these are shared benefits!

solo holiday once a year -£100
facial treatments-£75
Lunches, coffees with friends £160
Clothes - £100
toiletries -£10
Dental hygenist -£30 ish

I save a lot too.

My DH and I have an equal amount for personal spends but he spends more as he’s into golf and goes on much more expensive nights out than me.

My DH and I have a fancy gym membership but that comes out of our joint money same as our cinema membership.

I’ve never added it up! Nails every 2 weeks, toes every 4 weeks, facial once a month. Botox every 12 weeks, polyneucleotides 2/3 times a year. Lashes and brows every 6 weeks. Gym membership, weight loss medicine, skincare and make up as needed, haircuts when needed. Probably way more than I should a month in all honesty but not going into debt for it.

I spend very little on myself. Im not into lotions and potions for my skin, or 'tweakments' and i only get my hair cut every 6-9 months. Colour i do myself, same with nails which i do myself when i fancy them done for a special occasion. I have a decent coffee machine at home so rarely buy coffee out, and i usually have things like makeup and nice toiletries for Christmas so don't often need to buy them.
This isnt to say i go around looking a mess, i style my hair, cover my greys etc, wear light makeup, i just go for a lower maintenance approach.

It makes me happier to put spare money against the mortgage, or into my savings or pension, or against stuff for the kids and things like holidays.

Everyone is different there's no right or wrong

Hair - £15 (£30’every 8-9 weeks)
Nails - £0
Coffee - £0
Lunches - £0
Beauty stuff - I buy No7 face creams
Botox - £800’year
Clothes - £2k every once in a while.
Nights out - whatever I want but £2-300

I’m low but high maintenance

Christ on a bike, that’s a lot. Do you have a good pension?

£220 is the personal spend budget for us each. Not sure how it became such a specific amount, I think it was £200 then one of us had a pay rise so we added a little. Pays for anything personal to us so coffees/meals/trips with friends/family, haircuts, my expensive skincare although cheap stuff comes out of joint shopping, clothes, shoes, any treatments, hobbies etc. Joint meals out/activities come out of a separate pot.
It’s usually fine but some months like when you have to replace shoes/bra etc it doesn’t go that far. I have a separate savings pot where I put birthday/christmas money and I dip into that if I go over one month. Or if I go under I put some back in. And my husband pays nothing for hair cuts so the months I have to pay an extortionate amount for the hairdresser stings a bit! But yeah I guess it’s really for anything that’s a personal choice rather than jointly done or a necessity.

Too much probably!
Pilates £160
Gym £40
Threading £ 20
Its an expensive month this month aa im having lip blush and tattoo eyeliner refreshed so thats a couple of hundred but its not been done for 2 years
Botox £170
Lashlift £30
Henna brows £30
Pedicure £50 ( every 6 weeks)
Hair £70 every 6 weeks.
Night it with friends, a couple of hundred, that is to the theatre,pub
Afternoon tea x2 £100
They'll be other stuff.

About £200 a month on gym and fitness related stuff.
Then £32 a month on nails.
I occasionally buy myself clothes and shoes, but not often.
£200 a month on therapy.
£20 on subscriptions.

DH & I each have a fun money budget of £800

It’s actually refreshing to see many of us spending on ourselves on this thread.

Often amongst women, specifically mothers, there’s almost this unwritten competition of who spends the least on themselves.
‘oh I never spend money on myself, I always spend it on the kids’ But fuck that. I am worthy of having money spent on me.

Hair: £100
Make-up, skincare, perfume, toiletries £50 (ish?)
Drinks out/dinner £100
Coffee and parking £80
Clothes: £250?
My garden £50 (bedding plants, new shrubs, sprays, etc)