Do you combine ALL of your spending money for each spouse into your weekly spending fun money, or do you separate out things like clothes and hobbies into separate categories?
For example, how do you budget for:
clothes for each of you
hobbies specific to one spouse
eating out at the drive through when just one of you is with the kids just because you were too lazy to make lunches at home (not because you just had no choice)
an ipad cover you want
do you put all of this into one big spending category for each of you and then increase each of your "fun" money accordingly?
We are on a tight budget. I stay home with the kids while my husband works ... The problem we seem to have is my husband said he only wants $60 into his own checking account per month to spend as he sees fit. He spends it on eating out, or his rc hobby (which can get costly) ...
I notice when my husband takes the kids out on the one day I work, to run errands, or many times its a last minute beach trip ... even though I suggest packing sandwiches/water/other food and eating before they leave. (I will even make the sandwiches in advance) ... He will still swipe the card for SOMETHING like pizza or bottles of water ... Then will say "Oh the kids were still hungry and they asked for pizza" (when in reality I think he just wants to eat out himself and doesn't have any money left or doesnt want to use his).
This will happen for things like parts for his rc car, or a shirt he wants (even though he has drawers FILLED with clothes) ...
The problem is we only take home about $4600 a month, we are trying to put what we can in retirement and I don't know where the happy medium is. On the one hand if we don't budget for a certain amount of fun money, we tend to swipe the card and assume we are not spending as much as we are. but if we overbudget I fear we are throwing away money we could be stashing away. It seemed easier to budget when I was single, but it's so hard with a spouse who just doesn't "get it" in the same way
I end up feeling annoyed, and I don't want to, he works hard. But since he doesn't pay attention to the budget like I do, he has that mentality of "oh it's just $2" but that sort of sloppy decision making is what ends up being $50 over a months time.
I feel like if he upped his spending money for ALL of these things and stuck it into his bank account, he would be more likely to make sandwiches at home and prepare more, when he taps the family account he doesn't seem to "feel" it as much.
I am sorry if this just sounds like a silly thing to ask about but do you just plop (for example) $100 bucks into your own bank accounts and then thats your money for ALL entertainment and clothes for the month that you dont participate in together? and then have a separate budget for special family outings that you tap into when you're out as a family?