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

getmore4less

This thread has gone well of the point.
We should rename this the high horse board

A budget is a plan for what you want to spend your money on, it needs to be for at least a year and try to incorporate longer term things at least 5 years ahead longer if possible.

For many the SOA is the simplified view of this, but use the budgeting functions in MSMoney(free) you can get a much better picture of what the plan is and also see any cashflow issues(often confused with budgeting).

The more you can breakdown the catagories the more you can adjust the trade offs for the discretionary spending

Normalizing on year(total for a catagory for the year) is a good way to asses the relative cost of things and help with the making those choices when there is not enough for everything

At the end of the day it is you money to spend/save and you decide your priorities, sky, mobiles, holidays, savings, better food, going out, drinking etc.

Once you have the plan then track to make sure you keep to the budget.

Using the last years spends is often a good starting point, so the first picture is sort of reality, and then you can move towards what you really want.

The trick is to challenge everything,
can I remove this?
can I reduce this?
is there an alternative that would do the job?

One stratagy is to strip out all discretionary spending and then ask yourself what do I want from this spare cash that gives me best value for money for a quality life.

pelirocco

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! :-)

what are you going to do after June , when I guess you wont have that money spare?

Kayalana99

jacques_chirac wrote: »

Poor OP, she posted for opinions on budgeting and instead got lectured by the sanctimonious. As a non drinker you could drive me to drink!

Well it could of been worse...! I know how these forums can go sometimes.

I will voice concern again as its def food for thought especially about the vodka to cans does make you think of how much in terms of spirits he's drinking.

Thanks all for help, I've got some stuff to catch up on anyway, don't want my kids growing up thinking its normal to drink as well.

EDIT: I didn't refresh before I posted this so I missed replying to anyone elses after Jacq post...but I really have to go sorry ;-)

hazyjo

Not still nagging (honest lol!) but if it's 'proper ales' etc he's drinking, a lot of those are way over 5%. I think most have a unit guide on them now (or at least enough info for you to work it out). Do your own little working-out as to how many units he's getting through in a week. You must see the bottles/cans.

My ex hubby put himself in hospital twice with 'atrial fibrilation' as a result of excess alcohol. He would also drink every night - somewhere between 35-100 units a week.

I know it can seem 'normal' to unwind with a couple of cans, a glass/bottle of wine, whatever. I would LOVE to have a few vodkas or a bottle of vino every night and sometimes have to restrain myself (and not buy it in the first place unless I have company!). I'm someone who could very easily tip over into that at-risk category, but I force myself to have dinner before making any decisions to open wine or anything, then I find I don't want it any more. A nice cuppa and/or a frozen lolly fills any void. I had a bottle of wine at the weekend (over 2 nights) and 2 small bottles of beer. Won't drink all week now until next weekend.

Sorry, I know we're off topic - but I think sometimes things happen for a reason. Maybe you asking about dosh could prevent you going through what I went through with my husband. Nothing fun about sobbing and bordering panic attacks when your hubby's lying in a hospital bed with an erratic heartbeat hitting over 200bpm with them telling you it may be a heart attack or it may lead to a clot, therefore a stroke (and they threatened to use the shock things on his chest to restart his heart if it wasn't down by morning).

I'll shut up now lol - sorry! Please don't anyone tell me off!

Jx

paulineb_2

hazyjo wrote: »

Not still nagging (honest lol!) but if it's 'proper ales' etc he's drinking, a lot of those are way over 5%. I think most have a unit guide on them now (or at least enough info for you to work it out). Do your own little working-out as to how many units he's getting through in a week. You must see the bottles/cans.

My ex hubby put himself in hospital twice with 'atrial fibrilation' as a result of excess alcohol. He would also drink every night - somewhere between 35-100 units a week.

I know it can seem 'normal' to unwind with a couple of cans, a glass/bottle of wine, whatever. I would LOVE to have a few vodkas or a bottle of vino every night and sometimes have to restrain myself (and not buy it in the first place unless I have company!). I'm someone who could very easily tip over into that at-risk category, but I force myself to have dinner before making any decisions to open wine or anything, then I find I don't want it any more. A nice cuppa and/or a frozen lolly fills any void. I had a bottle of wine at the weekend (over 2 nights) and 2 small bottles of beer. Won't drink all week now until next weekend.

Sorry, I know we're off topic - but I think sometimes things happen for a reason. Maybe you asking about dosh could prevent you going through what I went through with my husband. Nothing fun about sobbing and bordering panic attacks when your hubby's lying in a hospital bed with an erratic heartbeat hitting over 200bpm with them telling you it may be a heart attack or it may lead to a clot, therefore a stroke (and they threatened to use the shock things on his chest to restart his heart if it wasn't down by morning).

I'll shut up now lol - sorry! Please don't anyone tell me off!

Jx

Maybe we could have a sanctimonious-ometer:rotfl:

Im obviously well at the top so I wouldnt worry about being told off

Form an orderly queue behind me ladies and gents

Person_one

Domayne wrote: »

My dad has always been a heavy drinker - my mum too til she got chronic pancreitis, my dad has quite a lot of health problems but refuses to give up the drink and has at least 5-6 cans a night, its a hobby for him as well. I really don't see a problem with it though if it makes him happy, he's not nasty, argumentative or violent - gotta die somehow and you might as well die happy!
My best friend spends £50 A DAY on weed - 18k a year!
As for your first question, I give myself £70 a week 'pocket money' some weeks it lasts and I have change, some weeks it feels like nothing :rotfl:
Not sure how some people survive on £50 a month :O

Please trust me on this, the deaths you die because of excessive alcohol over many years are NOT happy, in any way. They are usually miserable, painful, drawn out and alone.

paulineb_2

Domayne wrote: »

My dad has always been a heavy drinker - my mum too til she got chronic pancreitis, my dad has quite a lot of health problems but refuses to give up the drink and has at least 5-6 cans a night, its a hobby for him as well. I really don't see a problem with it though if it makes him happy, he's not nasty, argumentative or violent - gotta die somehow and you might as well die happy!
My best friend spends £50 A DAY on weed - 18k a year!
As for your first question, I give myself £70 a week 'pocket money' some weeks it lasts and I have change, some weeks it feels like nothing :rotfl:
Not sure how some people survive on £50 a month :O

Because they have to maybe?

Domayne

Person_one - I didn't mean he'll be happy while he's dying...rather he was happy in his own way while he was alive. Im not advocating alcoholism - I don't drink much myself and tbh, my mum was a terrible drunk when she used to drink, and I also realise alcohol has caused problems for a lot of people but not everyone who likes a few beers in the evenings can be tarred with the same brush - yes my dad drinks alot, always has, has bad health but he's also one of the nicest people you will ever meet, isn't violent or abusive and tries to always have a laugh and see the best in everyone, one thing he'll never do is die alone.

Paulineb - I mean...how to make £50 stretch a month...I wouldn't know HOW too...sorry if my comments seemed insensitive in any way, I didn't mean them to come across that way

paulineb_2

I didnt find them insensitive at all. But speaking as someone who earns about a fifth of what I used to, if 50 quid or less is what you have at the end of the month, thats what you have, you manage. Some people probably spend in a month what I spend on a year on clothes for example, in fact I bet some people spend in a week what I spend in a year on clothes.

When my income was greater, I spent more, now I cant afford to. Also depends what peoples priorities are, socialising can eat into peoples disposable income big time.

One thing I wouldnt be without is a gym membership, a lot of people could take or leave that.

Domayne

I guess that's true, as my pay has gone up - so have my outgoings and I wish I could say that it mostly went on clothes, socialising and having fun etc but for years I've been addicted to games which I've wasted 1000's on. I have stopped spending on games since november and joining this site but that £70 a week still usually goes nowhere...its spent on frivolous crap throughout the week and seems to disappear into a black hole lol