Spending Money?

Pepperoni

Hi All,

My Husband & I share our income. We pay all our bills, have allowances for food / petrol and anything else we know is coming up in the month (family birthdays, haircuts, etc). We are also putting money away to pay off our debts.

I'm just wondering what is a reasonable amount of 'spending money' each. I'm thinking for once the debt is cleared. We have always had a pot of money each that we can spend selflessly - on clothes, nights-out, anything we fancy for ourselves. Its what works for us because it allows us to treat ourselves without feeling guilty etc.

What amount do you think is reasonable for a month? I was thinking £125 each.

As a second point of this thread - how do you work your spending money? I'm interested in hearing other ways that might work better for us.

DUTR

Pepperoni wrote: »

Hi All,

My Husband & I share our income. We pay all our bills, have allowances for food / petrol and anything else we know is coming up in the month (family birthdays, haircuts, etc). We are also putting money away to pay off our debts.

I'm just wondering what is a reasonable amount of 'spending money' each. I'm thinking for once the debt is cleared. We have always had a pot of money each that we can spend selflessly - on clothes, nights-out, anything we fancy for ourselves. Its what works for us because it allows us to treat ourselves without feeling guilty etc.

What amount do you think is reasonable for a month? I was thinking £125 each.

As a second point of this thread - how do you work your spending money? I'm interested in hearing other ways that might work better for us.

Logically, that would depend on what you both bring in between yourselves, £125 will be a little for some and lots for others, but at least it's good not to live right up to the limit of the household income.

74jax

Pepperoni wrote: »

I'm just wondering what is a reasonable amount of 'spending money' each. I'm thinking for once the debt is cleared. We have always had a pot of money each that we can spend selflessly - on clothes, nights-out, anything we fancy for ourselves. Its what works for us because it allows us to treat ourselves without feeling guilty etc.

What amount do you think is reasonable for a month? I was thinking £125 each.

As a second point of this thread - how do you work your spending money? I'm interested in hearing other ways that might work better for us.

I think it depends entirely on the couple. One month I might spend a few hundred, the next month a significant amount more and then another month under £100. It would depend what I had planned for the month, I wouldn't think 'oooo I've got xyz amount, I can spend it'.

OH spends way more than me, he has a really expensive hobby and so the majority of his money goes on that.

We work it by the bills are paid and whats left is ours, we don't have a joint account though (other than bills) but that's a whole other thread :rotfl:

Buzzybee90

How much do you collectively earn?

That's obviously got a direct correlation to how much you can spare, guilt free.

What we do is put a figure in our deposit account, £250 in a bill account then pay rent and food - what's left is ours to spend.

Georgiegirl256

We don't have a set amount, we just buy stuff as and when we need it, we don't have a limit each month, we know what's in the account and spend within our means.

Any smaller purchases such as clothes, make up, blurays, Xbox games, bits and bobs for the house, we just buy without consulting one another, but any big purchases, we usually run it past each other first.

As others have said, it all depends on how much you both earn.

trailingspouse

Agree with georgiegirl. We don't have an 'allowance' as such (that sounds too much like the pocket money my parents used to give me!!). But we both know the state of our finances, and we trust each other. We have a joint account, and also a separate Vantage account each, but that's just so we can earn the interest. It's all 'our' money really. We also both have our own credit cards, with the other one as a named cardholder.

As we're both directors of our own company, we're in the interesting position of earning exactly the same amount. To the penny.

For purchases over about £100 - £150 we'll consult, but if it's something we've talked about buying and one of us happens to see it at a good price, we'd just go for it.

Because of the way we are paid, our finances can be a bit 'feast or famine', and it takes a degree of self-control to hang on to what looks like a large amount of money and remember that it has to last 3 or more months!!

FBaby

I would hate having a joint account with no limit to our disposable income out of it. On one hand I know that I would feel guilty each time I took money out to buy something none essential, on the other, I can imagine feeling a bit resentful if my OH were to go and spend quite a bit one month on something totally for his own benefit and there was nothing left for me to enjoy a day out with a friend I might have planned. I also wouldn't want financial discussion to dominate our discussion, as in, I'll buy this month, is that ok with you, you hadn't planned anything big etc...

What works for us is to have decided on what our bills are each month and then deduct what each should pay towards it so that in the end of the month, we have similar disposable income left. That's for us to do what we want and not accountable to the other. We do have a joint account for holiday money and we both put something in, but not always the same amount each month.

We don't hide anything about our personal account, we roughly know what we each have in the money we save from our disposable income and have no issue with one paying for the other if one month one is a bit low etc... We just both prefer to be in control of our disposable income.

Gloomendoom

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

We don't have a set amount, we just buy stuff as and when we need it, we don't have a limit each month, we know what's in the account and spend within our means.

That's how it works for us too.

OP If you do decide on £125 (or whatever), treat it as a limit and not a target.

lollypopswater

We manage slightly differently.

Each month I plug in salaries and bills into my spreadsheet, it then earmarks 700 each in spending money and tells me what can go in savings - normally 1600 or so.

For me the 700 is too much so I save some and spend some. For hubby it's normally not enough due to expensive holidays....

Personally I would need more than 125, to cut and dye my hair is around 85 every 4-6 weeks and then there is make up, skin are, clothes, nights out etc etc...

When I go off on maternity I suspect spending money may need to go down but hubby and I will need to work that out.

Gavin83

We pay money into a joint account for joint bills and then keep the rest ourselves for spending money. Luckily we both earn a similar amount, I'd imagine if one of us earned a lot more we'd contribute a little more to the pot.

neverdespairgirl

I don't think there is an objective "reasonable" amount, OP. It depends on your lifestyle, income, other costs, all the rest of it.

I think restricting personal spending while you have debt is entirely sensible, and should be a priority, as should building up a cushion in savings once you are debt-free.

As with some other posters, OH and I don't have a set amount we spend, and we don't have a regular income, either, as we're both self-employed. We have a joint idea of what's reasonable to spend on ourselves, and discuss larger purchases or things for the house, or our son, etc.