Author Topic: How much "play" money do you allow?  (Read 13718 times)

cancelthesky

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How much "play" money do you allow?
« on: January 13, 2015, 08:42:03 PM »
Greetings mustachians,

I was recently introduced to this website and I love the concepts. I've been doing research and am hoping to convert to a life of mustachian as much as practically possible.

Recently I've fallen into a very consumerist lifestyle, racking up my credit card (while still paying some of it off monthly) but increasing my debt over time. Since then I've curbed my spending dramatically, hiding my credit card and pumping money onto it to pay it off. I'm hoping it will be fully paid off before March 1st.

This being said, I'm curious how much you other mustachians allow yourselves to spend on "play" in a given month. As "play" I mean social activities, hobbies, going out to eat (not very mustachian is it?), other items you deem "necessary". Personally I believe there's a fine line between enjoying your youth (I'm 26) and planning your early retirement wisely. Feel free to post % of your monthly income that you allot to "play" or if you aren't shy give detailed numbers

Emilyngh

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2015, 08:59:01 PM »
Greetings mustachians,

I was recently introduced to this website and I love the concepts. I've been doing research and am hoping to convert to a life of mustachian as much as practically possible.

Recently I've fallen into a very consumerist lifestyle, racking up my credit card (while still paying some of it off monthly) but increasing my debt over time. Since then I've curbed my spending dramatically, hiding my credit card and pumping money onto it to pay it off. I'm hoping it will be fully paid off before March 1st.

This being said, I'm curious how much you other mustachians allow yourselves to spend on "play" in a given month. As "play" I mean social activities, hobbies, going out to eat (not very mustachian is it?), other items you deem "necessary". Personally I believe there's a fine line between enjoying your youth (I'm 26) and planning your early retirement wisely. Feel free to post % of your monthly income that you allot to "play" or if you aren't shy give detailed numbers

$75 a month for DH and $75 a mo for me.   This covers:  any eating out (either individually, as a couple, or for our family of four), coffee or other treats, movies, entertainment, non-essential or fun clothing or shoes for ourselves (outside of that which we get for gifts/with giftcards or a few necessary practical items we buy from the general budget each year), makeup or beauty supplies, hair cuts if we ever choose not to do it ourself, any other little fun purchases, or saving up for large purchases for silly things we want.

We find this to be more than enough in that we usually don't each spend it all and it accumulates in our accounts.

RWD

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2015, 09:11:51 PM »
We don't have a predetermined allotment. We just do whatever seems reasonable. Looking at my accounting it looks like we spent around $1000 on "play" last year. I don't deem these expenses as "necessary".

TerriM

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2015, 09:13:42 PM »
Emilyngh, you are amazing.

Ours is embarrassingly higher, though with 3 kids.  It's about 12% of take-home (not counting bonuses) total for everyone in the family (split mostly 45%/45% us and 10% kids through allowances).  This doesn't count travel, but travel is more mandatory since we're almost always visiting family.  It includes eating out, gadgets, toys for the kids, and anything we don't want to argue about (I bought a set of pots, for example to replace our about to be peeling teflon ones so as not to argue about whether it was ok to replace them, my husband used his fund to buy an unlocked cell phone, though not the service).

the number is also less than half of our rent if that's at all a useful metric.

Learner

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2015, 09:28:32 PM »
My wife and I get $50 each, although I seldom use mine now.  A few years ago I had been saving half of it to go towards a small boat at my parent's place (got an 11.5 ft aluminum boat for $300).

caliq

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2015, 09:44:05 PM »
$30/month -- video games/entertainment (not always spent)
$40/month -- eating out (1 or 2 times a month)

Shared between DH and I; we're still paying off debts, though not in a real emergency situation.  I also don't think a $0 'fun' budget is sustainable and often leads to sliding back into debt -- everything in moderation!

surfhb

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2015, 11:38:06 PM »
Greetings mustachians,

This being said, I'm curious how much you other mustachians allow yourselves to spend on "play" in a given month. As "play" I mean social activities, hobbies, going out to eat (not very mustachian is it?), other items you deem "necessary".

For all those things listed I probably budget a good $300 a month.    This includes vacation as well

zinethstache

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2015, 11:56:26 PM »
I use side gig earnings to fund my discrectionary spending. likewise if my side gig needs something special and it finds itself low on funds I work with DH to make a yeay or nay call. These circumstances come up during a special sale for supplies or equipment. DH spends $32/month on gaming, sometimes less. Travel is $3.5k per year but we often steal from it for projects around the house and then vacation at home. We are not big clothing shoppers, I like to shop for our favorite brands on eBay esp. The make an offer deals. We eat out little and never go to coffee shops. Electronics seem to be our weakness. When we valve, and we always do I, insist we make it up somewhere else. Our savings rate is around 50%.

Nickyd£g

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2015, 06:10:44 AM »
I give myself £40 ($60) a month and usually spend that on a monthly brunch with the girls, drinks at a monthly quiz night and a dinner in my favourite tapas restaurant (with a deal).  Occasionally I will buy a book - though I mostly use my library - or a gift for a friend if it's their birthday out of it.

It amounts to 2% of my take home pay.

MayDay

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #9 on: January 14, 2015, 06:23:54 AM »
Officially we have 100 for eating out, and 50 each for spending money.  The kids get 50 total in allowance each month.  In reality we try to spend under 50 but closer to 0 on restaurants, and we try to use just gift money on ourselves. 

That doesn't include kids activities like swim lessons, and we have a separate holiday budget that works out to around 50 a month including Christmas and birthdays. 

kpd905

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #10 on: January 14, 2015, 06:29:52 AM »
I get around $200 of Amazon credit per month from Swagbucks and Perk TV, so I mostly use that as play money.  So far it's gone to buying about $1000 of camping/backpacking gear.

Catomi

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #11 on: January 14, 2015, 06:30:27 AM »
DH and I each get $60/month. That covers edible treats (anything not part of the meal plan; desserts, extra fancy beer/wine/tea), hobbies, books/games, eating out individually, etc. It does not include eating out or takeout as a couple/family, but that happens maybe 1x/month somewhere cheap. I spend most of mine but keep a cushion. DH was talking about investing his because he's saved so much.

We used to budget $100/month for entertainment (eating out, movies, etc). That was pre-kids. Since the kids arrived, we don't really do that any more.

Frugal Consumerist

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #12 on: January 14, 2015, 06:32:36 AM »
Wow! You all are very impressive (and shows how low I am on the mustachian scale). My wife and I are doing a combined budget for the first time, since we just got married. This is our first month, and at the beginning, we allowed ourselves $750 each, but only a few days in, we realized that was a little nutty, so we cut it down to $500 each. I'm guessing that will get chopped down further. I've been tracking my fun spending and halfway through the month I'm at $160, so maybe $300 for next month. We don't have any debt, so we aren't in a hair on fire situation. We live in a high COL area, which is partly the cause, and we also do spend on frivolities that bring us joy. Just wanted to chime in on the higher end of the continuum, though it may bring some face-punches.

Lia-Aimee

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #13 on: January 14, 2015, 07:47:03 AM »
I do it differently than a lot of people in that I don't like detailed categories.  My "spend" (non-invest) amount for a month is $1000.  After housing, phone, charity, and work transportation (have to take a cab to the airport for work 4x a month; the compensation for this comes along with my regular paycheque) I'm left with about $450.  This is spent on necessary things, like groceries and bus fare; it is also spent on short-term frivolty (new blouse when I don't need one) and some is put away for frivolty down the road (Christmas gifts, flights to visit the family.)  I must say that lumping in groceries with "fun money" helps you become very creative at keeping your food costs low.

Apples

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #14 on: January 14, 2015, 08:04:58 AM »
MY DH and I each get $150 for hobbies/social/clothes and we have an additional $100 for weekend activities we do together.  We also have $150 for travel.  We're not the most mustachian people, obviously, but those numbers work for us.

tracylayton

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #15 on: January 14, 2015, 08:06:12 AM »
I budget $100/mo for golf and $100/mo for eating out. I can usually book two deeply discounted tee times per week on my golf budget. I do mystery shopping about 6 to 8 times per month, and my meals are reimbursed so those visits are free.

Señora Savings

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #16 on: January 14, 2015, 08:25:44 AM »
I'm actually pretty similar to you, Lia-Aimee.  Currently I aim to spend about $760 a month (no kids, my expenses only).  Last night I bought some $5 veggie sausages and that's $5 I won't be spending on harp music or a nice skein of silk embroidery floss.  I think that this helps me evaluate "necessities" more reasonably.  I share a car with my boyfriend and probably save about $50 a month on that.  Doing that for a year I could get plane tickets to visit my sister.

I think that my parents got me started thinking this way.  Growing up my weekly allowance was the cost of 5 school lunches.  I could buy lunch at school or make a PB&J sandwich.  I never bought lunch at school, nor did my sisters.

Eric

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #17 on: January 14, 2015, 10:28:15 AM »
This being said, I'm curious how much you other mustachians allow yourselves to spend on "play" in a given month. As "play" I mean social activities, hobbies, going out to eat (not very mustachian is it?), other items you deem "necessary".

I have an unlimited budget for play, or anything else for that matter.  However, I spend very little as I have few desires that cost money.  Those are mostly museum tickets or concert tickets, but luckily for concerts I prefer smaller shows at clubs/bars, so even those aren't too expensive.  Otherwise, hiking, biking, beaching (probably a word, right?), or most all other outdoor activity costs very little to nothing.

MustachianAccountant

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #18 on: January 14, 2015, 10:49:15 AM »

I have an unlimited budget for play, or anything else for that matter.  However, I spend very little as I have few desires that cost money.  Those are mostly museum tickets or concert tickets, but luckily for concerts I prefer smaller shows at clubs/bars, so even those aren't too expensive.  Otherwise, hiking, biking, beaching (probably a word, right?), or most all other outdoor activity costs very little to nothing.

And this, boys and girls, is how it's done.
Bring your desires under control and your spending will follow.
Anything else is treating the symptoms, not the cause.

nobody123

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #19 on: January 14, 2015, 03:44:28 PM »
From my paycheck, my wife and I each get $100 per month "allowance" that we can spend on anything, no questions asked, and unused amounts stay in the bank for future use.  We also put aside $50 for "family fun" (movies, restaurant trip, etc.).  My SAH wife does side jobs occasionally, and we use a small percentage of those proceeds to add to the budget for those three categories, with the majority of her income going to long term goals that roughly match how my paycheck is allocated.  We have a budgeted amount for vacations, clothes, subscriptions, etc., so this is just for pure "play" reasons.

I come from a fairly conservative financial background and have been a pretty strict budgeter for most of my adult life, but allowing ourselves to potentially spend $100 / month on whatever the heck we want is a mental thing for us.  First, if my wife and I disagree about some purchase that one of us thinks should come out of one of our "normal" budget categories, that person can use their personal funds to just get it if they feel that strongly about it.  Second, we have a guilt-free way of doing spontaneous stuff like grabbing Starbucks while out running errands, buying the kids a small treat when they do something to earn it, or buying a round of drinks for coworkers.  In general, I usually end up spending around all of mine every month, while my wife saves up most of hers for 3 or 4 bigger purchases per year.  It works for us, YMMV.

thedayisbrave

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #20 on: January 14, 2015, 03:59:24 PM »
$100 on eating out
$50 miscellaneous
$20 entertainment

The eating out is key to my happiness - I usually do so with friends so it's a social activity.  I don't drink so it's all food.  I know this is what makes me happy, so I allow myself to do so - but I try to keep it at $100 as best I can.

The $50/$20 are absolute maximums.  I find that I hardly ever get close to maxing them.

Cassie

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #21 on: January 14, 2015, 04:42:42 PM »
Now that we are semi-retired we are allowing ourselves to spend more $ on activities we want. So we spend between $300-400/month for just fun. This does not include gifts, vacations or clothes.  WE weren't this spendy earlier in our lives but this is what we planned for. 

YoungInvestor

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #22 on: January 14, 2015, 04:53:59 PM »
Roughly 300-400/month on a bit more than 3k net earnings (after ALL deductions at work, which include pension). If you include eating out, I'm easily over 1000 (but then my food budget would be under a hundred).

It's a lot, but then, I'm in my early 20s with no kids or wife/girlfriend, so it's not like I'm not saving enough as it is.

GeneralJinjur

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #23 on: January 14, 2015, 05:22:22 PM »
My budget is $100/month for Family Fun, though I usually spend much less. This can be used for swimming at the rec center, an annual museum pass, camping fees, trampoline park, a trip to the cheap theater (might happen twice a year), craft supplies, ice skating, dinner out or whatever strikes our fancy.  The kids know we have some room in the budget for pricey fun, but they don't ask for it much. 

Nudelkopf

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #24 on: January 14, 2015, 08:34:49 PM »
Single, 23yo... $240/month. Welp.

JLee

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #25 on: January 15, 2015, 08:07:16 AM »
I get around $200 of Amazon credit per month from Swagbucks and Perk TV, so I mostly use that as play money.  So far it's gone to buying about $1000 of camping/backpacking gear.
Wow. How much time does it take to build up that much credit?

snshijuptr

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #26 on: January 15, 2015, 08:14:48 AM »
$100 for restaurants
$100 for cash (some of that is fun money)
$30 for each member of the family
$50 for travel

so less than $113 per person per month including saving for travel.

jugglingcontinents

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #27 on: January 15, 2015, 08:54:57 AM »
Just got married and combined our finances so this is only month 2 of having "play money". We've allocated 350 pp to cover eating out with friends, gifts, 'fun' purchases, etc. But so far, it looks like this is wayyyy too much... We each spent around 100 so far.

But instead of scaling down immediately, I think we should track this for a few months and then evaluate if we need to reduce the play money amount further. Reasons:
1. I still like the idea of having a significant amount of "me" money with no one looking over my shoulder. This is fully my issue - my partner's never shown any controlling tendencies
2. Might want to save a couple of months of play money up for bigger expenses. For example, I'm traveling to Africa next month with my parents, but without my partner.
3. If it turns out that we never spend more than 100 per month, then we can always save/invest the excess. We'd have lost a couple of months of interest.

Context:
We have no debt, and save over 40% of our take-home pay.

Jags4186

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #28 on: January 15, 2015, 09:08:56 AM »
I'm engaged but we haven't combined. I budget:

$125 for eating out (usually 2 nice dinners out a month for the two of us)
$25 for alcohol
$75 for "entertainment" (any 'stuff' we do that costs money, movie and whatnot)
$75 for "shopping" (anything I buy so if I need a new pair of pants it comes out of this. If I want a video game it comes out of this. I also save from this to buy big ticket items)
$200 towards "travel" which I save up for vacation.

So $500/month of things that can be jettisoned if necessary.

greaper007

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #29 on: January 15, 2015, 09:37:20 AM »
I think everyone is going to be different.    IMHO, the approach to take is to first sit down and figure out a budget based on your expenses, debt and long term planning.    What do you want to achieve, and when do you want to achieve it?   

That's going to give you a much better idea of what you're working with rather than coming up with some arbitrary number from people on the internet.

That's the easy part, the next part is going to be lifestyle review.    Really look at where that money is going.   I'd imagine there are a lot of flippant purchases like food and coffee.    Within those purchases you're also probably going to find that you frequently upsold yourself.    Cocktails instead of draft beer, mocha instead of black coffee...

So, now that you have a number you need to figure out a way to live an enjoyable life and still stick to that number.    This isn't as bad as it sounds.   First you need to embrace the 80/20 rule.   In any given circumstance, 20% of the effort results in 80% of the results.  To go the next 20% to get 100% of the results you have to put in an additional 80% of effort.

What does that mean?   That means from now on you're going to figure out how to lifehack experiences.  Always buy the cheapest thing on the menu, and don't be afraid to get creative.    My mom would order a side of beans and tortillas at Mexican restaurants, that cost like $3 and chips are free, and it still allowed her to have an experience.    Get a glass of hot water at the coffee place and bring your own tea bag.    Pre-party at home before you go out and then just sip a cheap beer the rest of the night.   I'd probably just eat some edibles, $2 worth of pot chocolate will keep you high for hours.    Or even better, bring a flask and just order juice or soda.

Are you going to seem like a little bit of a dirtbag?   Yeah, so what.   You're taking control of your life and committing gorilla warfare against our ridiculous consumerist culture.    Then again, you could probably keep all of this on the DL and no one would be the wiser.

SuperSaver

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #30 on: January 15, 2015, 05:28:53 PM »
Hmm about $130 a month of my take home pay goes to my personal ("fun money"/all mine) account. About $120/month gets deposited into my fiances personal fun money account. The money tends to accumulate in our accounts and go towards big purchases a couple times a year.

The money covers 2 categories: 1) things we do independent of one another and 2) gifts.

1) This means meals/drinks out that are not dates( lunch with friends, breakfast with coworkers, dinner with family), movies, alcohol, hair cuts, makeup, jewelry, tanning, clothes, personal electronics, books, etc. Anything that is for only one of us comes out of it. All of our fixed expenses are joint so they don't come out of our fun money accounts.

And 2) Gifts for all holidays, birthdays, anniversaries or just because come out of our fun money. This also includes dates if we've already gone over our joint restaurant or entertainment budgets.

Joint fun money is figured monthly and doesn't roll over: $150 restaurants,$25 alcohol/ hosting, $15 Netflix and crunchyroll (anime subscription) & $50 entertainment.


This is how we do things but, everyone is different. Starting with equal percentages of pay does help make it seem fair for us. If I work extra then my fun money increases.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2015, 05:31:16 PM by SuperSaver »

cancelthesky

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #31 on: January 15, 2015, 08:34:15 PM »
This is all great insight everyone, thanks

kpd905

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #32 on: January 16, 2015, 06:16:13 AM »
I get around $200 of Amazon credit per month from Swagbucks and Perk TV, so I mostly use that as play money.  So far it's gone to buying about $1000 of camping/backpacking gear.
Wow. How much time does it take to build up that much credit?

For Perk, not much time.  I have five phones that I bought for $5 each (Motorola Event), and they each earn about $1 per day running Perk TV.  Unfortunately, the app has a pop up that says "Are you still watching?" every few hours and you have to click yes.  Still pretty easy to keep them all running.

Swagbucks has a few Android apps that I run, but I also got a bunch of referrals from the r/beermoney Referral contest.  So I get about $2/day without touching it.

frugalfedmom

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #33 on: January 16, 2015, 10:29:02 AM »
For those that're married, how do you all handle the "play" money? Opening separate bank accounts (so you have 1 joint and 1 for each spouse)? Or do you use a monthly cash withdrawal?

We usually just use one credit card for all our purchases, which we pay off each month, but I think it's definitely easier to go overbudget when you're using a credit card. Also harder to "separate" out the expenses.

greaper007

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #34 on: January 16, 2015, 10:38:22 AM »
For those that're married, how do you all handle the "play" money? Opening separate bank accounts (so you have 1 joint and 1 for each spouse)? Or do you use a monthly cash withdrawal?

We usually just use one credit card for all our purchases, which we pay off each month, but I think it's definitely easier to go overbudget when you're using a credit card. Also harder to "separate" out the expenses.

As long as neither one of us is going crazy we don't really think about it.   Beyond that, we almost always do outings together or as a family.    I don't really get the guys or girls night out stuff.    I'm not super manly and she's not super feminine.   I'd rather spend my free time with my wife than bored at a football game or golf course.

caliq

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #35 on: January 16, 2015, 10:40:08 AM »
For those that're married, how do you all handle the "play" money? Opening separate bank accounts (so you have 1 joint and 1 for each spouse)? Or do you use a monthly cash withdrawal?

We usually just use one credit card for all our purchases, which we pay off each month, but I think it's definitely easier to go overbudget when you're using a credit card. Also harder to "separate" out the expenses.


We have a million accounts with a local bank because they have no fees and great perks (refund all ATM fees charged by other banks' ATMs for example):

Bill Paying checking (everything on auto-pay with a ~$100 buffer as we don't have variable bills)
Fun checking (video games mostly, can't be cash as we buy online.  a movie ticket would come from here too.  We put in a specific amount each month and let it build up)
Household checking (food, gas, etc.  Eating out is part of our overall food budget so that comes from here.  Extra at the end of this month goes towards debt)
Pet checking (food, vet bills, etc.  we contribute a set amount every month and the excess builds up to cover vaccinations/emergencies)
Annual bills savings (car insurance, sewer, car taxes; we contribute a set amount monthly & transfer over to bill paying checking when the time comes)
Emergency savings (hidden from main account management page, so it "doesn't exist")

All the accounts are joint so I can manage them from one online banking portal.  DH is not at all financially involved so it's just easier for me to have everything clearly divided based on its purpose.  I don't think I could ever have everything in one pot and not be super anxious about my autopaid bills.  Also DH is disabled and can't drive so we do pretty much everything together and don't really have 'surprise' gifts and such.  It's not for everyone but works for us :)
« Last Edit: January 16, 2015, 10:45:25 AM by caliq »

iamlindoro

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #36 on: January 16, 2015, 10:42:41 AM »
I guess if I were living a really, really frugal lifestyle (note that I don't say mustachian because I don't personally believe that mustachianism is necessarily as austere as some folks do) I would take every spare penny and put it into investments.  Instead, the exact amount needed to stay on track to retire by my target date comes out first thing-- it is *the* granddaddy payment:  non-negotiable, before all other payments.  Everything left over is living expenses and entertainment/travel/etc. 

Some months I'm particularly motivated and use the "slop" to further fund investments, some months it goes to fun stuff.  If the sole focus of my life was retirement I might be able to take off a year or maybe even two by limiting my play money, but I feel like I occupy a comfortable middle ground where we will retire way early, but never feel like we had deprived ourselves of anything that we truly value (travel being the foremost).

J'onn J'onzz

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #37 on: January 16, 2015, 10:43:25 AM »
I get around $200 of Amazon credit per month from Swagbucks and Perk TV, so I mostly use that as play money.  So far it's gone to buying about $1000 of camping/backpacking gear.
Wow. How much time does it take to build up that much credit?

For Perk, not much time.  I have five phones that I bought for $5 each (Motorola Event), and they each earn about $1 per day running Perk TV.  Unfortunately, the app has a pop up that says "Are you still watching?" every few hours and you have to click yes.  Still pretty easy to keep them all running.

Swagbucks has a few Android apps that I run, but I also got a bunch of referrals from the r/beermoney Referral contest.  So I get about $2/day without touching it.

Do you have a referral code for Perk TV? My wife wants to sign up and will use yours if you will post it.


southern granny

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #38 on: January 16, 2015, 04:24:46 PM »
$500 a month.  I keep $125 a week from our paychecks.  That pays for eating out, movies or other entertainment, minor stops at the grocery for just an item or two, taking grandkids for meals or ice cream and all other little expenses.  I know its excessive, but I probably will leave it at that.

minority_finance_mo

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #39 on: January 16, 2015, 04:46:33 PM »
I get around $200 of Amazon credit per month from Swagbucks and Perk TV.

Do you have any tips for Swagbucks? I find the process of earning points on searches really slow... Something like $5/week of regular browsing.

kpd905

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #40 on: January 16, 2015, 07:05:33 PM »

Do you have a referral code for Perk TV? My wife wants to sign up and will use yours if you will post it.

Just download the app and join.  They don't offer much for referrals, so I don't even know what my link is.


Do you have any tips for Swagbucks? I find the process of earning points on searches really slow... Something like $5/week of regular browsing.

I don't use the search function at all.  All of my money is made from the phone apps and referrals.  The limits on the android apps change pretty often, but if you favorite the shortest video in each one, you minimize the time to reach the limit.  For about a month, the combined limit of all the videos was around $3.70 per day.  Now I think it might be around $1.50 or so total.

The referrals I got from applying for the Referral Contest on /r/beermoney.  They make your referral link the go-to link in their FAQ for a week.  I ended up getting over 200 referrals in that week, and I'll make 10% of their earnings forever.


StartingEarly

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #41 on: January 16, 2015, 10:53:18 PM »
I "allow" $500 a month, I probably spend on average a few hundred though.

DollarBill

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #42 on: January 16, 2015, 11:34:16 PM »
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/how-much-entertainment-money-needed-to-fire-poll/
Kind of having the same thing going in similar thread.

I have about $800 a month just for one person. BUT I also include everything that is not included in my bare bones living expense. I call it Checking/Fun/Other fund.

These are the funds I have set up:
House paid off and no other debts
- Taxes and insurance (House, vehicle, insurance for both, revolving budget)
- Bills (all utilities, food, gas for vehicle, revolving budget)
- Travel ($100 a month but would like to be more, revolving budget)
- Emergency ($150 a month, revolving budget. I use it for unexpected repair or purchase)
- Checking/Fun/other (Fun and everything else like: re-did my flower bed, new passport, 2 new tires, bought hitch for car, x-mas, clothes, electronic replacement, travel if it fits in the budget if not it comes from the travel fund, same for the emergency fund)

 For my - Checking/Fun/other fund I plan $800 a month...but normally only spend about $700. I would like to bump it up to $1000 a month.

KMMK

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #43 on: January 17, 2015, 10:02:40 AM »
For those that're married, how do you all handle the "play" money? Opening separate bank accounts (so you have 1 joint and 1 for each spouse)? Or do you use a monthly cash withdrawal?

We usually just use one credit card for all our purchases, which we pay off each month, but I think it's definitely easier to go overbudget when you're using a credit card. Also harder to "separate" out the expenses.


We don't have a joint account. It's all separate and it's all play money. We can spend whatever we want but don't have a lot we want to buy, so it doesn't matter. I track all our spending and if one of us pays for the others individual spending I just balance it out with my fancy spreadsheet and we give each other a cheque once in a while.

clarkfan1979

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #44 on: January 17, 2015, 10:17:26 AM »
As a couple we probably spend an extra $300/month. About $200 is from coffee shops and restaurants and the other $100 is movies, ball games and rec sports. In an emergency situation, we could delete these expenses pretty easily.


nobody123

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #45 on: January 17, 2015, 03:36:22 PM »
For those that're married, how do you all handle the "play" money? Opening separate bank accounts (so you have 1 joint and 1 for each spouse)? Or do you use a monthly cash withdrawal?

We usually just use one credit card for all our purchases, which we pay off each month, but I think it's definitely easier to go overbudget when you're using a credit card. Also harder to "separate" out the expenses.

We charge as much of our spending as possible and pay it off every month for the rewards (usually $20 - $40 per month).  Every two weeks, we true up the CC statements with our budget, which we keep in Excel.  At one point, she thought that it might be better for her to handle her fun money in cash because she was afraid of overspending, but then she didn't like not being able to remember all of the small purchases that made it disappear.  Neither she nor I have ever had any interest in keeping separate checking accounts after we got married.  If we didn't trust each other enough to share our finances, why on earth would we get married to begin with.

arebelspy

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Re: How much "play" money do you allow?
« Reply #46 on: January 20, 2015, 11:26:45 AM »
This being said, I'm curious how much you other mustachians allow yourselves to spend on "play" in a given month. As "play" I mean social activities, hobbies, going out to eat (not very mustachian is it?), other items you deem "necessary".

I have an unlimited budget for play, or anything else for that matter.  However, I spend very little as I have few desires that cost money.

+1. 

Whatever I want, I buy.  Some months it's a few thousand.  Many months it's zero.

For those that're married, how do you all handle the "play" money? Opening separate bank accounts (so you have 1 joint and 1 for each spouse)? Or do you use a monthly cash withdrawal?

We share money.  Whatever she wants, she buys.  She doesn't want much either.  We typically purchase on CCs and pay off in full at the end of the month whatever we spend.
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