How much is enough 'spending money' for a month?

Prothet_of_Doom

Easy. Do 1 month with a spending diary, and receipts, and account for every single penny. I suspect that it includes all sorts of rubbish.
We don't have 'pocket money' but actually having £30 in your wallet that has to last 7 days would be a good way of managing the 'miscellaneous niff naff'

£400/month was my mortgage BTW, so £200 a month each is high.

Georgiegirl256

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Literally £200 on anything we want - phones and stuff all included in bills no commitments.(Bar clothes, days out that would be extras) I agree to me its more then I need to spend but my partner probably spends £100-150ish on booze and then he buys snacks at work constantly...

I'm not judging him I am just saying he would struggle and I wondered if I was being harsh to limit him to £200 with him working.... but it sounds like most agree thats a decent amount?

£100-£150 a month on beer! :eek: Wow, not meaning to be judgemental here, but that is ALOT! Is that beer that he buys to have at home or does it include night outs too?

Personally I think £200 is more than adequate, but if he's spending that much on booze a month, then I guess it really doesn't leave much for other bits and pieces, such as if he needs some new clothes for example.

victory

£200 per month, £50 a week to spend on booze or snacks seems very high, booze can be bought a lot cheaper from the supermarket if he really needs to drink that much and snacks to take to work also, it does seem a lot and if your saving chances are changing in June it is always best to prepare way ahead now and save as much as you can now for the shortfall..

paulineb_2

I dont have anywhere near £200 a month to spend after bills are paid. Im a low earner. I think 50 pounds a week after bills are paid each is plenty. To be honest I think perhaps you may be spending for the sake of it. You dont need to be spending 200 quid a month each. Some months you might and other months you wont.

I also agree, £100-150 a month on booze is a hell of a lot. Depending on where hes spending it yes it could be £5 a pint and that could be 30 pints a month or more if you are in a cheaper area. But its much cheaper to have a drink at home and having a couple of alcohol free days would help his pocket as well as his health.

Im speaking as someone who has just given up alcohol, I got to the stage where I thought I might as well be pouring cash down the sink. Theres nothing wrong with having the occasional beer or any other drink of choice, but if someone is drinking quite a lot in money terms, there are always ways to cut that down.

Kayalana99

Oh I'm going to add fuel to the fire but your all asking...

He doesn't go down the pub, he generally drinks around 4-5 cans a night as norm, it doesn't feel like he is over doing it because he doesn't get drunk he just likes drinking it as a drink I guess!

I do allow him to usually put £5 worth beer in trolley but he picks up a few ales not cans. Thing is if he has a crate of beer from the shops he will drink it quicker - he mainly brings home a four pack with him and has that on the night ... I doubt it would be more cost efficient to buy it in crates as he would have more then the four.

I don't know how he does it, he does take a packed lunch spends £2-3 quid on breakfast at the local van round from work...goes down the shop and buys extras and yet he is stick thin despite all the drinking and snacking !!

Anyway... I think most think £200 is fair(if not excessive) so I'll stick with that and see how we go just wondered if I was being abit unfair.. I might try just giving myself £100 and save the extra anyway.

Thanks everyone for helping! :-)

Gillyx

£3 a day on breakfast? I probably spend not much more than that on breakfast for the whole family for the week :eek: FWIW I'm a SAHM and my partner is on a decent wage I'd say.

If you have a mortgage, £3 a day, 5 days a week is £780 a year, which could be used to overpay that, which in the long run would give you a lot more free cash being mortgage free and all.

That being said if you're happy with what he's spending, then carry on as you are. I would potentially look at long term goals, rather than short term though

For example if you both cut your spending to £100 a month, you'd save £2400 a year, which would be a pretty good holiday for you all

Person_one

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Oh I'm going to add fuel to the fire but your all asking...

He doesn't go down the pub, he generally drinks around 4-5 cans a night as norm, it doesn't feel like he is over doing it because he doesn't get drunk he just likes drinking it as a drink I guess!

Ok, that's too much.

This is the quick screening tool they use in A&E departments to try and identify problem drinking before it gets too far out of hand, might be worth showing it to your OH?

Kayalana99

Gillyx wrote: »

That being said if you're happy with what he's spending, then carry on as you are. I would potentially look at long term goals, rather than short term though

I accepted when we met that he is a short term person and I'm a long term person in this sense.

I don't stress what he does really if he was spending money we didn't have it would be a different situation but I love him to bits and I'd rather him be happy. (End day I'm not his mother! She moans at him enough for it )

paulineb_2

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Oh I'm going to add fuel to the fire but your all asking...

He doesn't go down the pub, he generally drinks around 4-5 cans a night as norm, it doesn't feel like he is over doing it because he doesn't get drunk he just likes drinking it as a drink I guess!

I do allow him to usually put £5 worth beer in trolley but he picks up a few ales not cans. Thing is if he has a crate of beer from the shops he will drink it quicker - he mainly brings home a four pack with him and has that on the night ... I doubt it would be more cost efficient to buy it in crates as he would have more then the four.

I don't know how he does it, he does take a packed lunch spends £2-3 quid on breakfast at the local van round from work...goes down the shop and buys extras and yet he is stick thin despite all the drinking and snacking !!

Anyway... I think most think £200 is fair(if not excessive) so I'll stick with that and see how we go just wondered if I was being abit unfair.. I might try just giving myself £100 and save the extra anyway.

Thanks everyone for helping! :-)

Im not going to lecture and its easy done when people get into a habit, but hes drinking too much unless those lagers/beers are reduced alcohol. 4-5 cans a night could equal 15 units of alcohol a night, at least 12, multiply that by 7 and you are looking at over 80 alcohol units a week.

Thats 4 times the recommended amount he should be drinking, long term its not going to be good for his health.

Not getting drunk isnt an indicator that hes not overdoing it, it suggests that hes got an increased tolerance to the alcohol hes drinking. Hes definitely overdoing it even if he thinks otherwise.

Gillyx

Kayalana99 wrote: »

I accepted when we met that he is a short term person and I'm a long term person in this sense.

I don't stress what he does really if he was spending money we didn't have it would be a different situation but I love him to bits and I'd rather him be happy. (End day I'm not his mother! She moans at him enough for it )

That's fine atm, my son doesn't cost a lot (he's 2) I don't know what age yours are, I'm guessing young with mentioning maternity leave.

They do get older and cost more, school trips, kit for school (if they take music or art) All of that costs, so will you then be sacrificing your extra so he can still carry on spending his cash on alcohol and breakfasts? It's fine while you have the money but will you always have that spare, and if he does get used to it, would he be able to curb it? That's what would concern me.

R.e the drinking, is he doing it to escape? Does he dislike his job or are there other stresses in his life? It's very easy as tolerance levels go up, for people to start drinking more and more. I speak from experience.