What is a reasonable monthly fun money amount for a couple?

[user1471267414]

Hi all

looking for advice on what is a decent monthly amount of disposable/fun money?

for context our joint income is £8300 and after bills/food petrol/debt repayment we have circa £3500 left (paying £1500 a month in debt) How much is enough each as our money with the rest to go in savings or a pot for things such as car other expenses e.g car repair? Our money will be for going out/clothes/takeaways at weekend etc. I thought £500 but OH thinks £1000. What do other people do

£500 a month plus £500 into the fun pot towards a holiday/big treat 🤷🏻‍♀️

Is this joint or each? We used to do £200 each but now it’s £250 and we earn less than half what you do but it’s literally everything personal from this budget all presents (include Xmas), hair,clothes,shoes, socialising and it doesn’t go far some months.

We have £300 each. It works fine for us.

I absolutely loathe the concept of ‘fun money’ being a set ’allowance’ each month, I think it’s infantilising bollocks. However most of MN seems to LOVE this idea along with joint finances and all the rest of it.

Why don’t you try not giving yourselves pocket money and spending as you need? You have a healthy amount of disposable income, especially if child-free.

We have a daughter . I do as well and hate feeling restricted and “having a job for every penny lol” but I guess I want to make sure we are sensible and don’t waste money

Really honestly given the drip feed on mental health issues and a child i think you need to centre choices around that.

i be doing less properly ritzy stuff and focusing on doing nice low key stuff (nice picnic vs Michelin tasting menus) and building savings as thats a very good combined monthly income and financial security does a lot for you.
I personally think improves mental health significantly particularly with regards to work / tough times at work as you feel you have choice and options with 200k+ savings in the bank

I still think 750-800 gives good head room to still be able to save whilst having a nice time.

Very candidly on £8300 after bills you'd be foolish not to get 60k each going into pensions before rule changes come in in 2029 and 20k each into ISAs (you may well have planned to do this already). Also child JSIPP and maybe some JISA...

Good luck and well done - Fantastic combined income!

No idea. Depends if you want to save up for expensive holiday or home improvements. And how expensive are your tastes. If you arent saving up for anything and have emergency savings spend the lot.

Humblebrag alert. Why not just spend what you want, it seems daft to have a set amount like a child

£260 each. We have separate pots as well for holidays, presents, car costs and groceries with a set amount put in each payday. The rest goes on debt or savings depending on where we are financially.

280 sorry

Nobody knew this from your OP. Debt is expensive when interest is accumulating. Those replies were perfectly reasonable with the information available at the time.

We have a similar household income. Our mortgage is low, so we -

Save £3000 towards paying off the mortgage
Save £500 for household expenses
Bills are £1500
Shopping and other bits £1000
Pocket money £1000 each

But it's not kind to advise, even if indirectly, people to stay in debt longer than they need to, potentially making the situation worse. If you had included in your OP that the debt was interest free, and that you have a child, people would have probably responded differently.

No-one can say what is 'reasonable' with so little information about your circumstances, it's also not clear how comprehensive your budget is, some people miss off hundreds of pounds a month from essential costs like insurance or car repairs also planned expenditure like Christmas/holidays etc. It's also not clear whether the figures you mention is just for you and DH, or if it's for the whole family.

There also seems to be a disparity in his and your attitude for money, such that whatever you decide, make sure you have the same amount and save some of yours if you don't want to spend it, otherwise he'll likely spend most of it on his wants, if it's a joint pot.

But I wouldn't compare with others who have different priorities, life stage etc, you need to make the most of your cirumstances, have a look at the financial flow chart to make sure you're considering all current and future aspects of your financial needs, eg it would be unwise to consider money to be available for fun if you don't have much in the way of savings for a pension, emergency fund or your child's future (or if there could be more DC in the future):

The UK Personal Finance Flowchart - UKPersonalFinance Wiki

My DH have £800 per month each for personal spends. This includes anything that benefits that one person (mobile phone bill, gym membership, spending on hobbies, clothes, meals out with friends etc).

all family holidays, days out with kids, house stuff comes out of joint funds.

is it 500 each or in total? Does it include bigger purchases like a new laptop or phone etc?

Sounds like you need to prioritise emergency fund savings, and then think more about long term savings for your future and your child’s future.
have a look at the flow chart for savings and become a bit more savvy.
your husband can be let go for no reason at all in the next two years, so you need to plan for this rather more than a fun day out or a meal with drinks

If you spent the next 6 months throwing as much as possible at your debt, it will have a positive longer term effect on both of your MH.

That's not being snippy, it's thinking about wellbeing in a different way than spending hundreds of £££ on "fun money".

you could have a take away/meal out and limit yourselves to around £300 per month and still be able to pay down your debt.

On a similar net income we have £400 each, no debt, but we have quite a lot of other shared goals (and children) so not going higher than £400 each currently, would like it to be £500. When the kids are flown I’d consider something closer to £1000 each.

I agree with others - start at £500, put another £500 into a separate pot (holidays maybe) and see how you go.

We have £1000 each but earn more and have 2 kids, and it’s plenty. I spend it on stuff like mobile phone, travel to work and work lunches, gym, hair and clothes, presents for friends and family, and activities and days out I do with the kids without DH.

People saying it’s infantilising - I don’t agree at all. It’s a way of budgeting so that disposable income is fair and independent. I earn far more than DH but this way we both have the same amount to spend on ourselves. I wouldn’t want a joint pot as I’d see how much eg DH was spending on me for birthday/Christmas etc, or I’d feel guilty about my clothes purchases.

Almost all the things you list would come out of joint money for us, our personal spends are for things that literally only benefit ourselves like my Botox, his Lego etc.

Surely it depends on what you like to do? I would find even £500 a lot of money to regularly spend in a month. All the things I like - theatre for example - I only do occasionally if there is something I'd really like to see. Dinner with friends is usually at someone's house - also like a nice restaurant but not every week. I love holidays and that's the main expense for me. I don't like overspending on clothes.

This why it is so hard to advise without a full budget break down.

You have a high income, so are likely to spend more on fun stuff than those with lower incomes.

How long is the debt repayment for (sorry if youve already said)?

Id be tempted to stick to £500 each, with the rest into savings while the £1500 goes on debt. Then reevaluate once thats paid off.

You also need to think about which pot big things like holidays will come from - because that has a big effect on if you need more fun money or savings money. The other way to do it is have a "fun savings" for holidays etc and a "household savings" for new cars, broken boilers etc

Personally I find it odd to have fixed budgets for things like fun money unless you are on a low income.

I do manage our money quite closely, I track what we have actually spent. It would only be cut down if it was more than we can afford or affected our savings beyond what we planned.

Why not try just spending what comes naturally for a month or two and seeing what it works out as?

@Chewbecca because it depends on your spending habits. We are high income but are high spenders too! If I didn’t have fixed budgets I would no doubt over spend in one area and be frustrated to not have enough elsewhere, I could easily spend thousands on clothes but want to go on nice holidays, so proportion our budget accordingly considering the whole year.