The Budget Man, I think you bring up a very good point. I have learned about myself that I too need a bit of entertainment in my life. And that's why I haven't sold my portable game system, nor have I stopped going out to eat altogether.
If I may offer the counterpoint, how does one go about deciding what is entertainment and how much should be spent on it? Would you say that such a thing is highly subjective? Isn't it possible that someone could budget unreasonably high and end up hurting themselves? How about the sense of entitlement? Couldn't get carried away as well?
I suppose what I am trying to say is that, well first of all, I do agree with you. However, I think there should be some kind of balance in there, and that entertainment should be "earned", not necessarily "bestow upon" as a budgeted item.
For example, while I do not have a budget specifically for entertainment, it does not mean that I have no means towards obtaining entertainment. If that's case, then I think my budget would have failed a while back as well.
Instead, I would take it out of my over-inflated food budget. The reason why I do this is because I admit I like to eat out sometimes. And that's expensive... and I admit the dining experience is a form of entertainment to me.
However, if I want something else badly enough, I'll have to give up eating out... and settle with X number of nights cooking at home. And that's how I "earn" wants so to speak. More importantly, by operating this way, it in no way affects any essential items on my budget.
Now, I'm not saying everyone should operate as I do. However, I will say that this method works well enough for me to not need an entertainment budget.
