spent only $50 on a Saturday night dinner and movie
Wow, only $50 on a dinner and a movie!
That's not too bad actually. To tell you the truth, this is one area we struggle a bit on...in that we're not spending enough money in the Date Night category. Have $50/wk budgeted, and we're spending nowhere near that.
I know, I know, one shouldn't need to spend money to enjoy time together, yadda yadda. I get that. But the funds are there so we won't feel guilty for the occasional babysitter so we can go watch a movie and/or have a nice meal together (or perhaps, babysitter so wife and I can go on a picnic). Week after week goes by and the Date Night category just keeps filling up more and more. I've (semi-jokingly) told my wife that we need to get someone to watch the kids for a week and go take a cruise, just to bring the balance back down some.
Anyways, in the context of the article, yes we could definitely cut our (discretionary) spending in half. As for total spending, I dunno. Yeah, we can cut out all travel and other leisure spending (entertainment budget of $50/mo, restaurant budget of $20/wk, misc budget of $50/mo for each of us, aforementioned date night budget of $50/wk which is hardly used anyways), but we'd have to reduce our living expenses quite a bit. We're already on the low end for rent, not too bad with utilities, bit over $10/mo for both mobile phones, $80/wk for groceries, not a lot left to cut. If I had to, I'd get rid of the car (maintenance costs are minimal, but it's over $400/yr to keep registered), drop the internet (about $60/mo), cut the kids' allowances ($5/wk for the 4yr old, $8/2k for the 7yr old), and...I dunno. I guess it might be doable, but it would definitely eat into quality of life.