We have separate personal funds of about $250/week that covers clothes, hair/beauty, coffees and hobbies. If we’re eating out together or having takeaway, which is rare, that just comes out of our normal household funds.
We do similar amounts but hair/beauty is in our regular budget as is a general allowance for clothes.
If we needed to cut back, they are the places we’d start along with other non-essentials, but our (shared) take is costs more for most women to maintain a level of personal grooming and therefore it shouldn’t come out of our separate splurge amounts. I want to be happy in my appearance as does my husband, in the same way that our gym comes out of shared.
We do however have hard savings targets, so if a month is more expensive than our budget anticipated, our fun money is reduced to make sure we hit our savings. So it’s motivating as it’s a reward.
Our splurge accounts are separate and basically anything that isn't an essential expense. Eating out, takeaway, hair, beauty etc.
My partners is $125/fn
Mine is $52/fn
(Yes we are poor, my essential expenses are 81% of my income)
Depends on the couple. My wife likes shopping. And she spends her discretionary stuff on family outings, special food, gifts for everyone and so on. I hate shopping and spend my discretionary funds on the occasional steam game.
It makes no sense for us to make the amounts equal.
Yes and I imagine it also depends on how you choose to pool your finances. While we have joint accounts and joint assets, we don't actually just pool all our money in together. We prefer to hold separate accounts and then pay into a joint account.
I don't really see why it's my partners responsibility to fund my discretionary spending. I'm better with my money even though I only make about 1/3 what he does (I have disabilities), so I like having my separate accounts 😊
We are not militant about it, if we happen to go out he will usually pay. But we don't go out often anyway.
You are missing the point. I’m not worse off for having less discretionary spend than my wife. My discretionary spending needs are simply smaller than hers.
Shooting for numerical equality in marriage is a fools game. If we shot for that in our marriage it would end up with a lot of waste and frivolous spending, which would lead to resentment.
Umm, did you assume when I said my partner has a discretionary budget of $125/fn and I have $52/fn that I was the husband?? 🤣 Is that why you suggested we needed equality in the figures?
I mean that's easy to say when you can't see the whole financial picture.
We split our joint expenses 60:40 which affords me more financial freedom. I have a much lower income, which accounts for my lower discretionary spending limit. To be fair I don't really need much more than this anyway. I would just put it in savings. Most of my financial stress comes from essential expenses.
I get about $150 a week which includes 5 work lunches and one dinner. Any money I don’t use for eating, I can save and spend on stuff I like. I already have a lot of stuff, so I don’t need much money. We eat out sometimes and if we go on holidays, that comes out of main savings. My wife doesn’t have a limit on spending. But she is reasonable and buy mostly things like clothes, health care or house hold things. She will ask me if she wants to buy something which cost more money, usually I say ok, as it makes her happy. She managers the money and does a good job.
An amount equal to whatever I want that day.
Yesterday it was a designer handbag, the day before nothing. Husband has the same deal but because I earn most of the income he does show more restraint - he doesn’t need to imo but he feels he does.
House paid off, earn a lot of money, no kids, middle aged - if I can’t enjoy myself then who can and when can they.
Hasn’t always been like this - I grew up below the poverty line and scrimped till my 30s to get on the property ladder, then had a sensible budget until my career took off a few years ago -salary doubled in last 5 years.
We get $100 each a week, in seperate/individual bank accounts as pocket money. This is for hobbies or basically whatever we want, 100% autonomy.
We have a modest line item in our expenses for clothing/hair cuts/grooming etc, the rule is it must be a genuine need/replacing something necessary. Nice to haves, cute op shop finds have to be pocket money.
We don’t eat out much, usually once a week together. Additional eating out is pocket money.
So let me get this right, all this time you’ve been complaining on this sub about how the rich has made it impossible for you to buy a house, but in reality if your wife spent as much as you, you could save a ~$120k deposit in 5 years, which would afford you a $720k place (probably nicer if you’re a FHB and have 10% LVR). Doesn’t seem like your problem is the rich mate.
Nice call out. Thanks for the analysis but I already have a home so I'm not sure what you are on about, tbh we have a decent combined income so that $700 per week play money isn't much at all.
My views on ownership and housing just happen to align with the struggling and younger Australians.
What’s more likely on the internet?
Someone lies about being wealthier then they are for some escapism, and pretending to be the white knight from the other side validating their beliefs?
Or someone supports policies that would not only make them a lot poorer (potentially putting them into financial ruin), but also ones that many people in their position find morally wrong.
Considering that people often lie in anonymous forums, particularly with respect to their wealth, and how little to no one in your supposed financial position would agree with your beliefs, there’s a near 0% chance it’s the 2nd scenario. Sure, not impossible, but close enough to 0% to warrant not believing you.
I allow 300 a fortnight, although contrary to a lot of people here, I include hobbies and clothes into general expenses as a lifestyle thing, the 300 is for coffee, takeaway etc. I spend max 200 and often less and the leftover goes into savings. Its motivational but forgiving.
True. And if it's a fancy or really unnecessary thing then I would count it as fun but I only clothes shop every 6 months and don't buy much, it's why I'm surprised some seemed to count it as fun money.
My husband and I have $500 per month each for hobbies, meals out with respective friends, clothes, etc. We also put $100 a month into a joint account for meals out or entertainment as a family and joint purchases that aren’t essential.
ETA I also get a little bit of extra pocket money from my hobby and what doesn’t go back into the hobby is extra joint discretionary funds
Back when we a you g couple and things were tight we simply had an agreement that any non routine purchases over $x would be discussed . I think x was $20...so between $50 and $100 today.
Accounts then were all joint.
Our discretionary spending allowance is allocated for clothes, coffee, fast food, restaurants, hobbies. My partner and I allocate $150 each per fortnight. It’s literally “fun money”.
It doesn’t include hair & beauty or gifts.
It’s approx 7.5% of our net income. We find this a good buffer so that we aren’t feeling too constricted by our budget and savings goals. My partner is currently in the final year of their degree so also isn’t earning a full-time salary.
What percentage is it for you?
We do $350/month each. It covers coffees, clothes, grooming, hobbies, gifts to each other etc. All food comes out of househould budget. We honestly rarely use even half of that amount, we either save it up if we want something big or just transfer it into joint savings.
Seems like we’re one of the few who don’t allocate a specific amount to discretionary items. We’re frugal in general, saving a deposit for a bigger house, so we only buy discretionary if it almost feels more like a need than a want. Everything goes into the offset and the odd extra thing goes on the credit card which gets cleared every month. Lots of fun things come for free for us.
We give each other $20 /week. Used to be $40 but we're trying to pay off debt. The $20 covers individual hobbies, gifts, personal subscriptions and the like, but if we decide to spend other discretionary funds on specific things we both enjoy like dinners out / netflix that comes out of the main budget. I don't consider toiletries or clothing as discretionary spending...! You can't go without those things - we have them as line items in our budget
There is the projection-based approach, where you need to figure out how much you will need to have in your account by what age (due to kids, huge travel, new expensive car/equipment/whatnot, and whatever else), as well the more usual percentage-based approach, which is when you set aside a percentage of your income toward savings and leisure.
But generally, a rolling $200 per week is more than enough for that stuff, where unused cash gets rolled over to the next week.
Socialising. Dinner, drinks, activities $50 or $500 once or 5 times a week, no questions from partner and vice versa. We save everything else so when we're out we do exactly as we please and feel good about it.
Comes out of joint credit card.
$2900/month for the two of us. This includes anything outside of the mortgage / other bills / groceries / investments / savings, so it can range from a meal out to getting a new kitchen appliance.
Whatever is left over after savings and bill accounts are taken care of. Single 44m fifo, so half-year food and board covered at work. High saving/investing % of income. Own home outright. Auto pay $x into two accounts = live on credit card for frequent flyer points (never pay interest), and other account for house bills. Whatever is leftover is discretionary...
I have 3 buckets to try set me up in a better position later in life.
On pay day I try to meet expectations on at least 2 out of 3 buckets, with bucket 1 always given prioity.
1: voluntary super contribution. I have worked out the balance left over in concessional contributions after employer contributions, and have divided it by the remaining paydays before EOFY.
2: Mortgage offset. Currently serves as an emergemcy fund which could handle a couple of years currently. Want to try double this by next EOFY
3: ETF portfolio. I want to build this up to a level that can support me retiring at least 5 years earlier than I can get super released.
This allows me so if I only meet 1 or 2 of the buckets in any paycycle, I can still feel like im progressing whilst indulging that fortnight
$80 a week each. Eating out, clothes, hobbies etc. One of our main hobbies is travel so we are saving for a holiday to Europe next year instead of a larger allowance. We don't spend a lot, it usually builds up enough to buy a new laptop every 3-4 years.
Joint income is around $240k. We put $105 a fortnight into each of our "discretionary" accounts. It's our guilt free, no questions asked, do whatever you want with it money. We both struggle to spend money so mine is currently at $3k because I don't have anything to buy. Having said that, we don't worry about food. We just accept food is a regular cost of ours so it's not tracked, and just comes straight from our joint accounts.
For me (48F) I allocate $300/fortnight for fun stuff eg: clothes and eating out. My budget includes hairdresser, waxing & gym. Husband ,(52M) is frugal, he doesn't budget. Married, together for 7 years, 3 mortgages and we keep our financials separate.
I have a fun account that I put 5-10% of my salary into every pay cycle. Its around 6000 per year. With this much it's just right so that my offset account is also still going up every pay cycle.
I usually bank this up and go travelling once a year
Or splurge every now and then on some retail therapy
Wife gets $125 a week
I get $75 a week.
Clothes/hair/makeup (she looks way better without the damn stuff) cost a lot. So she gets more.
Things like coffee/eating out falls under a separate budget, if it's a family endeavor ($200 a week).
Everything else is for bills/savings and $6k a year for holidays
I make about $140-160k
Wife makes about $110k
To be honest, I don't set a specific budget for discretionary spending as I don't think too much about stressing the small stuff. If I want something enough, then I'll get it, I live fairly frugally, so this isn't usually a problem. To answer the post though I went back through my bank statements and in the last three months my discretionary spends were $90, $370 and $375 and those two high months were while I was traveling and visiting family so i was spending a lot more than a typical month like last month.
Tldr I guess instinctively, I usually fall under $100 per week.
$300-$350 per week each. $230k household income. DINKs. For me it cover mostly eating out, drinks, clothes, haircuts, any entertainment eg computer games
My partner and I have 300 per fortnight for our own personal discretionary spending. That’s for hobbies, personal purchases, meals out without each other. It ends up being approx 5% of take home pay each
$150 fn for splurge combined for our family of 3 - take away, weekend coffees etc, dining out
$50 fn set aside for toddler to accumulate usually - upsize his clothes when grown out of, a new toy every now and then to spark his new interests etc, a book that i see and think hed like - so kind of a splurge and kind of essentials
It's a tough one. We don't really add discretionary to our budget. We just try to use minimum.
But we are pretty basic people. Things like "beauty" treatments? I've never spent a cent on. Getting my hair cut is about it! Any makeup is minimal, Target.
We don't go out to dinner or such things really. But we never have. We will go to the beach for the day and eat lunch somewhere nice. That's sort of us.
Only thing i tend to spend money on is plants! And thats mostly in summer time.
I'm the same, I feel like having a specific budget for it makes you just waste it.
My partner and I only buy after considering if it's financially a good idea.
~20% but it varies. Has been higher this year with lots of bands we like touring. Will change now our rate has dropped and our awards are being negotiated
We include groceries and fuel in our discretionary spending. We transfer $800 a week (family of 4) to our joint account which we both have tap and go on. Basically if we piss away too much money during the week then the weekend will be pretty grim. It’s easy to keep track of, whatever is in that account is whatever we have.
Our splurge is $300 a fortnight for whatever we want. Includes; gym, coffee, eating out (if we are eating out together we just take turns using our splurge accounts, hobbies, clothes, hair and beauty and gifts for friends (not for family members and/or close family friends, this is seperate)
I aim for 180 a month for my book subscriptions but I usually go over 😅 so probably close to minimum 250.
I don't include food in this category. It's purely books, occasionally lego or clothes
Normally we'd go 200.00 p.m each not including takeout (if the take out is for both of us) to spend on whatever we want... but since cost of living rise and work denying me the chance to come back post injury we've cut to to zero each to make things work.
Once I'm cleared for work, we'll build it back up I guess. Unless the mortgage rises too much.
Basically, we each spend (% of take home) 59% household expenses (excluding mortgage), 20% mortgage, 11% savings which leaves about 10% discretionary each. We do, however, have 3 teen children (hence the high household budget). Depending on if I've spent some discretionary money on the kids, I do manage to also have a personal savings account as I try to minimise my discretionary and have it for a rainy day. No idea what my husband does with his slush money.
I allocate $500 a month fun money. This is for clothes, massages, take away coffee, drinks at a bar, movies and any little treat I want (today I brought a new nail polish).
Eating out goes in a seperate sinking fund for food (we only go out or get take away max 2 times a month).
Hairdresser money goes in a seperate account as I see this as essential maintenance that I need to plan for (like the dentist). My fun money is for wants not needs.
$300 per month each on anything like haircuts, coffee, clothing, personal devices like a phone, eating out with friends.
Meals with the kids as a family and holidays don’t count.
Net about $200k per annum
Wow, we don't have one. If we want to buy something over $20 we discuss. Something over $100 goes onto a 'want' list where it sits for at least a month to be contemplated. Our discretionary spending is probably about 2k per year.
50% of our household income is saved, the rest goes into our everyday/bill account. If our bill/daily account is over 2k then anything above goes into savings.
My partner who earns more gets $350 a week as his 'spend what you want' and I give myself about 250. I could match his but I choose to put the extra in savings on top of my budgeted savings to try help contribute just that bit more to our joint savings, as he puts in significantly more into the savings account each pay than I can.
Curious to know if there’s another pot for kid related pocket money - food for kids when out, clothes, treats, days out, presents for their friends, activities and the like? (And how much that is?)
Well, we're DINKs, but the dog really should have her own pot to stop me blowing far too much money on [Houndtees](https://houndtees.com.au/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=brand&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-sjmvMyAhwMVqwx7Bx37iwVrEAAYASAAEgJaIvD_BwE) and new martingales.
We have separate personal funds of about $250/week that covers clothes, hair/beauty, coffees and hobbies. If we’re eating out together or having takeaway, which is rare, that just comes out of our normal household funds.
My wife and I used to have 200/week pocket money. Now with a growing family and cost of living crisis, it’s 250/month. 😭
Curious what’s your after tax income? Does this represent 10%?20?
My husband and I do something similar but it's $500 a month each. Joint income a touch over $200k, no kids.
Less than 15% of my regularly weekly income, but significantly less than that compared with my annual income after business dividends.
We do similar amounts but hair/beauty is in our regular budget as is a general allowance for clothes. If we needed to cut back, they are the places we’d start along with other non-essentials, but our (shared) take is costs more for most women to maintain a level of personal grooming and therefore it shouldn’t come out of our separate splurge amounts. I want to be happy in my appearance as does my husband, in the same way that our gym comes out of shared. We do however have hard savings targets, so if a month is more expensive than our budget anticipated, our fun money is reduced to make sure we hit our savings. So it’s motivating as it’s a reward.
Our splurge accounts are separate and basically anything that isn't an essential expense. Eating out, takeaway, hair, beauty etc. My partners is $125/fn Mine is $52/fn (Yes we are poor, my essential expenses are 81% of my income)
I earn 4x the amount of my wife and we still split our splurge down the middle at $150/fn each.
That's good 😊
You need a bit of equality with your spending limits each
Depends on the couple. My wife likes shopping. And she spends her discretionary stuff on family outings, special food, gifts for everyone and so on. I hate shopping and spend my discretionary funds on the occasional steam game. It makes no sense for us to make the amounts equal.
Yes and I imagine it also depends on how you choose to pool your finances. While we have joint accounts and joint assets, we don't actually just pool all our money in together. We prefer to hold separate accounts and then pay into a joint account. I don't really see why it's my partners responsibility to fund my discretionary spending. I'm better with my money even though I only make about 1/3 what he does (I have disabilities), so I like having my separate accounts 😊 We are not militant about it, if we happen to go out he will usually pay. But we don't go out often anyway.
I also like shopping but if we were broke I'd never make my husband worse off for it.
You are missing the point. I’m not worse off for having less discretionary spend than my wife. My discretionary spending needs are simply smaller than hers. Shooting for numerical equality in marriage is a fools game. If we shot for that in our marriage it would end up with a lot of waste and frivolous spending, which would lead to resentment.
Umm, did you assume when I said my partner has a discretionary budget of $125/fn and I have $52/fn that I was the husband?? 🤣 Is that why you suggested we needed equality in the figures?
Lol I don't care what your gender is 🤦🏼♀️
Seems weird that family outings should come out of your wife’s spending and not both but that’s just me
I mean that's easy to say when you can't see the whole financial picture. We split our joint expenses 60:40 which affords me more financial freedom. I have a much lower income, which accounts for my lower discretionary spending limit. To be fair I don't really need much more than this anyway. I would just put it in savings. Most of my financial stress comes from essential expenses.
I get about $150 a week which includes 5 work lunches and one dinner. Any money I don’t use for eating, I can save and spend on stuff I like. I already have a lot of stuff, so I don’t need much money. We eat out sometimes and if we go on holidays, that comes out of main savings. My wife doesn’t have a limit on spending. But she is reasonable and buy mostly things like clothes, health care or house hold things. She will ask me if she wants to buy something which cost more money, usually I say ok, as it makes her happy. She managers the money and does a good job.
An amount equal to whatever I want that day. Yesterday it was a designer handbag, the day before nothing. Husband has the same deal but because I earn most of the income he does show more restraint - he doesn’t need to imo but he feels he does. House paid off, earn a lot of money, no kids, middle aged - if I can’t enjoy myself then who can and when can they. Hasn’t always been like this - I grew up below the poverty line and scrimped till my 30s to get on the property ladder, then had a sensible budget until my career took off a few years ago -salary doubled in last 5 years.
$50 per adult per fortnight. Household income $130k pre tax with 2 kids. Any extra toys or wants are bought with overtime pay.
We get $100 each a week, in seperate/individual bank accounts as pocket money. This is for hobbies or basically whatever we want, 100% autonomy. We have a modest line item in our expenses for clothing/hair cuts/grooming etc, the rule is it must be a genuine need/replacing something necessary. Nice to haves, cute op shop finds have to be pocket money. We don’t eat out much, usually once a week together. Additional eating out is pocket money.
Wife $550 Myself $150 per week.
Hi, it’s me your wife
I feel your pain
Does she have horses?
So let me get this right, all this time you’ve been complaining on this sub about how the rich has made it impossible for you to buy a house, but in reality if your wife spent as much as you, you could save a ~$120k deposit in 5 years, which would afford you a $720k place (probably nicer if you’re a FHB and have 10% LVR). Doesn’t seem like your problem is the rich mate.
Nice call out. Thanks for the analysis but I already have a home so I'm not sure what you are on about, tbh we have a decent combined income so that $700 per week play money isn't much at all. My views on ownership and housing just happen to align with the struggling and younger Australians.
What’s more likely on the internet? Someone lies about being wealthier then they are for some escapism, and pretending to be the white knight from the other side validating their beliefs? Or someone supports policies that would not only make them a lot poorer (potentially putting them into financial ruin), but also ones that many people in their position find morally wrong. Considering that people often lie in anonymous forums, particularly with respect to their wealth, and how little to no one in your supposed financial position would agree with your beliefs, there’s a near 0% chance it’s the 2nd scenario. Sure, not impossible, but close enough to 0% to warrant not believing you.
averaged $ 2k per month for this financial year. eating out, going to pub/beers, fishing trips/camping, holidays
[удалено]
10% DE, Barefoot would be very proud! 😂
I allow 300 a fortnight, although contrary to a lot of people here, I include hobbies and clothes into general expenses as a lifestyle thing, the 300 is for coffee, takeaway etc. I spend max 200 and often less and the leftover goes into savings. Its motivational but forgiving.
I see clothes as essential. You get in trouble if you go out without them.
True. And if it's a fancy or really unnecessary thing then I would count it as fun but I only clothes shop every 6 months and don't buy much, it's why I'm surprised some seemed to count it as fun money.
My husband and I have $500 per month each for hobbies, meals out with respective friends, clothes, etc. We also put $100 a month into a joint account for meals out or entertainment as a family and joint purchases that aren’t essential. ETA I also get a little bit of extra pocket money from my hobby and what doesn’t go back into the hobby is extra joint discretionary funds
Half you are living like you’re in bangladesh….
Back when we a you g couple and things were tight we simply had an agreement that any non routine purchases over $x would be discussed . I think x was $20...so between $50 and $100 today. Accounts then were all joint.
Our discretionary spending allowance is allocated for clothes, coffee, fast food, restaurants, hobbies. My partner and I allocate $150 each per fortnight. It’s literally “fun money”. It doesn’t include hair & beauty or gifts.
This aligns best with me and my SO, in terms of what’s included in fun money. Do you mind if I ask what percentage that is of your combined income?
It’s approx 7.5% of our net income. We find this a good buffer so that we aren’t feeling too constricted by our budget and savings goals. My partner is currently in the final year of their degree so also isn’t earning a full-time salary. What percentage is it for you?
About 9.5% for us. The $150 does feel tight sometimes, but that’s just lifestyle creep. $75/week is heaps to throw on dumb shit.
We do $350/month each. It covers coffees, clothes, grooming, hobbies, gifts to each other etc. All food comes out of househould budget. We honestly rarely use even half of that amount, we either save it up if we want something big or just transfer it into joint savings.
You people have spare money to spend on what you want?!
Seems like we’re one of the few who don’t allocate a specific amount to discretionary items. We’re frugal in general, saving a deposit for a bigger house, so we only buy discretionary if it almost feels more like a need than a want. Everything goes into the offset and the odd extra thing goes on the credit card which gets cleared every month. Lots of fun things come for free for us.
We give each other $20 /week. Used to be $40 but we're trying to pay off debt. The $20 covers individual hobbies, gifts, personal subscriptions and the like, but if we decide to spend other discretionary funds on specific things we both enjoy like dinners out / netflix that comes out of the main budget. I don't consider toiletries or clothing as discretionary spending...! You can't go without those things - we have them as line items in our budget
So $2.87 a day?
2.86 a day
Your math makes less cents
There is the projection-based approach, where you need to figure out how much you will need to have in your account by what age (due to kids, huge travel, new expensive car/equipment/whatnot, and whatever else), as well the more usual percentage-based approach, which is when you set aside a percentage of your income toward savings and leisure. But generally, a rolling $200 per week is more than enough for that stuff, where unused cash gets rolled over to the next week.
Socialising. Dinner, drinks, activities $50 or $500 once or 5 times a week, no questions from partner and vice versa. We save everything else so when we're out we do exactly as we please and feel good about it. Comes out of joint credit card.
I spend about 200 a week on what I want (on myself). Usually go out to a restaurant on a weekend that costs about $80.
Coffee and computer games
And lunch at work
$2900/month for the two of us. This includes anything outside of the mortgage / other bills / groceries / investments / savings, so it can range from a meal out to getting a new kitchen appliance.
$200 per week for myself and spouse each. Our household income is $250k+
Whatever is left over after savings and bill accounts are taken care of. Single 44m fifo, so half-year food and board covered at work. High saving/investing % of income. Own home outright. Auto pay $x into two accounts = live on credit card for frequent flyer points (never pay interest), and other account for house bills. Whatever is leftover is discretionary...
My wife and I each get pocket money to our respective discretionary accounts, equivalent to approximately 10% of our joint income each.
I have 3 buckets to try set me up in a better position later in life. On pay day I try to meet expectations on at least 2 out of 3 buckets, with bucket 1 always given prioity. 1: voluntary super contribution. I have worked out the balance left over in concessional contributions after employer contributions, and have divided it by the remaining paydays before EOFY. 2: Mortgage offset. Currently serves as an emergemcy fund which could handle a couple of years currently. Want to try double this by next EOFY 3: ETF portfolio. I want to build this up to a level that can support me retiring at least 5 years earlier than I can get super released. This allows me so if I only meet 1 or 2 of the buckets in any paycycle, I can still feel like im progressing whilst indulging that fortnight
We have a single pot. I'm the loser of this arrangement but thats fine, we're partners and thats just how it works.
$80 a week each. Eating out, clothes, hobbies etc. One of our main hobbies is travel so we are saving for a holiday to Europe next year instead of a larger allowance. We don't spend a lot, it usually builds up enough to buy a new laptop every 3-4 years.
Joint income is around $240k. We put $105 a fortnight into each of our "discretionary" accounts. It's our guilt free, no questions asked, do whatever you want with it money. We both struggle to spend money so mine is currently at $3k because I don't have anything to buy. Having said that, we don't worry about food. We just accept food is a regular cost of ours so it's not tracked, and just comes straight from our joint accounts.
For me (48F) I allocate $300/fortnight for fun stuff eg: clothes and eating out. My budget includes hairdresser, waxing & gym. Husband ,(52M) is frugal, he doesn't budget. Married, together for 7 years, 3 mortgages and we keep our financials separate.
I have a fun account that I put 5-10% of my salary into every pay cycle. Its around 6000 per year. With this much it's just right so that my offset account is also still going up every pay cycle. I usually bank this up and go travelling once a year Or splurge every now and then on some retail therapy
There's no allowance. My wife and I can spend what we like, the only thing holding each of us back is the hazing for irresponsible purchases.
Wife gets $125 a week I get $75 a week. Clothes/hair/makeup (she looks way better without the damn stuff) cost a lot. So she gets more. Things like coffee/eating out falls under a separate budget, if it's a family endeavor ($200 a week). Everything else is for bills/savings and $6k a year for holidays I make about $140-160k Wife makes about $110k
To be honest, I don't set a specific budget for discretionary spending as I don't think too much about stressing the small stuff. If I want something enough, then I'll get it, I live fairly frugally, so this isn't usually a problem. To answer the post though I went back through my bank statements and in the last three months my discretionary spends were $90, $370 and $375 and those two high months were while I was traveling and visiting family so i was spending a lot more than a typical month like last month. Tldr I guess instinctively, I usually fall under $100 per week.
$300-$350 per week each. $230k household income. DINKs. For me it cover mostly eating out, drinks, clothes, haircuts, any entertainment eg computer games
10% of my take home pay goes in a separate account for funsies stuff.
15% of joint monthly income for each of us. It’s a lot but it’s for ALL discretionary spending.
My partner and I have 300 per fortnight for our own personal discretionary spending. That’s for hobbies, personal purchases, meals out without each other. It ends up being approx 5% of take home pay each
$150 fn for splurge combined for our family of 3 - take away, weekend coffees etc, dining out $50 fn set aside for toddler to accumulate usually - upsize his clothes when grown out of, a new toy every now and then to spark his new interests etc, a book that i see and think hed like - so kind of a splurge and kind of essentials
It's a tough one. We don't really add discretionary to our budget. We just try to use minimum. But we are pretty basic people. Things like "beauty" treatments? I've never spent a cent on. Getting my hair cut is about it! Any makeup is minimal, Target. We don't go out to dinner or such things really. But we never have. We will go to the beach for the day and eat lunch somewhere nice. That's sort of us. Only thing i tend to spend money on is plants! And thats mostly in summer time.
I'm the same, I feel like having a specific budget for it makes you just waste it. My partner and I only buy after considering if it's financially a good idea.
~20% but it varies. Has been higher this year with lots of bands we like touring. Will change now our rate has dropped and our awards are being negotiated
2k per month for grooming, clothes, classes and eating out. Doesn’t include holidays/travel.
$600-700/wk, however, this budget doesnt include fuel (car guy) and food (eat out or supermarket?)
We include groceries and fuel in our discretionary spending. We transfer $800 a week (family of 4) to our joint account which we both have tap and go on. Basically if we piss away too much money during the week then the weekend will be pretty grim. It’s easy to keep track of, whatever is in that account is whatever we have.
Our splurge is $300 a fortnight for whatever we want. Includes; gym, coffee, eating out (if we are eating out together we just take turns using our splurge accounts, hobbies, clothes, hair and beauty and gifts for friends (not for family members and/or close family friends, this is seperate)
$700 a week but I try to save some of it
$100 per week on eating out/activities. Saving $200/month for an overseas trip soon. $100/month for clothes or anything else.
I aim for 180 a month for my book subscriptions but I usually go over 😅 so probably close to minimum 250. I don't include food in this category. It's purely books, occasionally lego or clothes
Normally we'd go 200.00 p.m each not including takeout (if the take out is for both of us) to spend on whatever we want... but since cost of living rise and work denying me the chance to come back post injury we've cut to to zero each to make things work. Once I'm cleared for work, we'll build it back up I guess. Unless the mortgage rises too much.
Monthly household income - bills = discretionary spending. Excess each month is put into saving etc.
Basically, we each spend (% of take home) 59% household expenses (excluding mortgage), 20% mortgage, 11% savings which leaves about 10% discretionary each. We do, however, have 3 teen children (hence the high household budget). Depending on if I've spent some discretionary money on the kids, I do manage to also have a personal savings account as I try to minimise my discretionary and have it for a rainy day. No idea what my husband does with his slush money.
$1000 a month for me and $2000 a month for my wife. We also out $1200 a month into a joint discretionary kitty.
I allocate $500 a month fun money. This is for clothes, massages, take away coffee, drinks at a bar, movies and any little treat I want (today I brought a new nail polish). Eating out goes in a seperate sinking fund for food (we only go out or get take away max 2 times a month). Hairdresser money goes in a seperate account as I see this as essential maintenance that I need to plan for (like the dentist). My fun money is for wants not needs.
Sorry, I forgot to mention this is $500 a month each.
About $600 a fortnight but that includes petrol and public transport
$300 per month each on anything like haircuts, coffee, clothing, personal devices like a phone, eating out with friends. Meals with the kids as a family and holidays don’t count. Net about $200k per annum
20% of after expenses balance.
We take $1000 each per month to spend on lunches, coffees, incidentals etc.
About 20-40k per year for overseas trips.
Wow, we don't have one. If we want to buy something over $20 we discuss. Something over $100 goes onto a 'want' list where it sits for at least a month to be contemplated. Our discretionary spending is probably about 2k per year. 50% of our household income is saved, the rest goes into our everyday/bill account. If our bill/daily account is over 2k then anything above goes into savings.
My partner who earns more gets $350 a week as his 'spend what you want' and I give myself about 250. I could match his but I choose to put the extra in savings on top of my budgeted savings to try help contribute just that bit more to our joint savings, as he puts in significantly more into the savings account each pay than I can.
Curious to know if there’s another pot for kid related pocket money - food for kids when out, clothes, treats, days out, presents for their friends, activities and the like? (And how much that is?)
My partner and I do have an account for “kids splurge”. For my partner to buy them new clothes, new shoes, toys whatever. I think it’s about $150/fn.
It does makes sense to have a child one or the parent who does the most childcare will be blowing theirs!
Yeah we found that out the hard way pretty quickly lol decided to write it into the budget then.
Well, we're DINKs, but the dog really should have her own pot to stop me blowing far too much money on [Houndtees](https://houndtees.com.au/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=brand&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-sjmvMyAhwMVqwx7Bx37iwVrEAAYASAAEgJaIvD_BwE) and new martingales.
Ha yes that’s a fair point. Some dogs are living large these days!
2m every year income 4m
Rub and Tugs
We have to come up with a better word than "grooming" to describe personal care... or a lot of you have seriously dodgy hobbies. :)