Adult 'pocket money'

lovely-cup-of-tea

Hello folks,
I'm determined to get our finances in order over the next 12 months. OH and I both work full-time. I'm the person who makes sure that bills are paid as for quite a while OH wasn't working and after that we worked for ourselves (which means we had just enough to scrape by!) and I looked after the books.

My OH is lovely but given the chance to spend will do so! He likes to have money in his pocket and is only now beginning to have some idea about budgeting. When he was younger he was used to having lots of money and now that we don't his habits haven't quite caught up! :eek:

I'm going to suggest that we both put all our money into the pot for bills, shopping, entertaining and a savings fund and have a weekly or monthly amount of pocket money each that can be spent entirely how we wish. I was thinking that this money would be for clothes, books, a daily coffee etc.

OH smokes :mad:, should this come out of his pocket money?

So my question is, how much do you take from your pot as pocket money????

tom9980

lovely-cup-of-tea wrote: »

OH smokes :mad:, should this come out of his pocket money?

So my question is, how much do you take from your pot as pocket money????

Yes smoking kills and it costs a lot so he should pay for it, its not a "bill" its unnecessary. This kind of constraint of his pocket may make him cut down or stop.

Our spending is only about 1/4 of our income, we don't have pocket money we spend what we like on whatever we want for the most part. To be honest being given pocket money I think I would be in danger of spending it on things and justifying that by saying its my pocket money so I can spend it how I like.

Brallaqueen

Yes, smoking should come out of his pocket money.

How much money would you have spare overall, and would you be happy to only take a quarter each and save the other half? Without knowing your numbers it is hard to make a judgement.

At random, 25 a week for fun stuff.

mummyroysof3

That's how we did it for a while. We had a very small monthly am,punt and if one of us smoked it would have to come out of it

peachyprice

Yes, of course his cigarettes should come out of his pocket money, if that's what he chooses to spend his money on, that's up to him. Perhaps when he realises he doesn't have enough left for other things he may want he will at the very least cut down.

No-one can say how much you should have, it depends entirely on your own budget and what your household can afford, but my OH gets £200 pm.

I don't get any because I control the main bank account and budget and am sensible enough to track what I am spending, sometimes it's more than £200pm, sometimes it's less.

hazyjo

I've always found it helps to have a joint, or, if single, a separate account where all the direct debits/standing orders come out of. I know what mine totals each month, and transfer from my current account into the account where all the bills are taken from. Work out a rough estimate too for things like car expenses and pay that in too (tax, MOT, insurance, service so you can afford those when they crop up - presuming you have a car). I wouldn't use it for 'flexible amounts' like grocery shopping, only for things you can save a year ahead to help with one-off bills like for a car.

IMO, nobody has to be the one to make sure the bills are paid. Just agree monthly payments with suppliers, etc, set up a DD, and that's that. No more worrying about it, writing cheques/making calls, no more sorting out budgeting, it's just done automatically.

Once you have that expenses total, work out what's left. Add a set amount or percentage to savings or an emergency fund, and split the rest.

I don't think anyone here can tell you what to live on each week/month, just work out your totals and see what's left. Maybe you'll have hundreds, maybe you'll have £30 a week.

(I'm a horrendous spender and do tend to spend what I've got! I do take my own advice if money's particularly tight and will draw money out at the beginning of each week and make sure I live on that.)

Jx

Any

I also smoke (don't patronise me people, it is none of your business - just pre-emptying the hollier then though brigade:-) lol) and I also agree it should come out of his pocket money.

As for how much should he have... it is difficult not knowing your circumstances. Because my husband eats out a lot, goes on business meetings and private meetings alike and for drinks etc, we did it the other way round - we budgeted how much should go IN the joint pot and then dealt with out own spend out of the rest of our own money.

If I was really frugal, I could go with £100 a month pocket money for myself. But then I don't NEED to go out to drum for business, I don't need to be in situation where the only thing to grab is petrol station cup of tea and sandwich and I don't need to go for beer with so and so... I bring my lunch from home and I don't even meet a coffee shop on my way to work.. IYKWIM. My only spend is what I plan to do and hairdresser (and clothes, but if I had to I could not buy any for a year).
In short - my OH wouldn't last 2 weeks with £100.

Oh, and I spend on my ciggs about £25 a month.

lovely-cup-of-tea

Thanks all, some good points here and I'll certainly be saying that his fags have come out of whatever sum we decide on.

For my own peace of mind I run the bills spreadsheet and everything is paid by direct debit out of my account.

He has a basic bank account which he needs to change as it charges him every time he withdraws money. He only discovered this fact this week!

I'm going to sit down tonight and work out what our surplus is each month (I hope there is one!) and we can take it from there. I like the idea of us taking a quarter of that amount and sticking the remainer away for a rainy day.

Thanks again....

peachyprice

hazyjo wrote: »

IMO, nobody has to be the one to make sure the bills are paid. Just agree monthly payments with suppliers, etc, set up a DD, and that's that. No more worrying about it, writing cheques/making calls, no more sorting out budgeting, it's just done automatically.

Nice in theory, but when one of you gets paid 4 weekly instead of monthly it just doesn't work in practice.

Prothet_of_Doom

Do the NEED, NICE to Have, DON't NEED challenge.

Both do a weekly spend diary.
Next to each item at the end of the week, go through it together.
So

Bus to Work. NEED
Coffee at work NICE TO HAVE (Work on how to reduce the cost of these)
Cigarettes DO not NEED (I'm sure you have some things that you could throw in to encourage)

Add up the Needs and Nice to have and make that the Weekly pocket money 90% of the total. Now if he wants Cigarettes he has to go without lunch.
Now if I want decent coffee, I have a cafftiere on my desk, and avoid costa.

Prothet_of_Doom

peachyprice wrote: »

Nice in theory, but when one of you gets paid 4 weekly instead of monthly it just doesn't work in practice.

Over time, you need to build a buffer, that equates to 4 weeks in your account, and then in the month that you get paid after the Direct debits go out, it's like a bonus!!:beer: