Budgeting for personal entertainment

[kunoichi]

I am wondering how much you guys budget each month for personal entertainment. That is going out to the movies, renting movies, plays, sporting events and the like. I am on a debt reduction budget so I generally don't spend more than $40-50 a month. I just went to a movie and tickets were $8 each, ouch!

[LuxLiving]

I budget $2.00 a month. That's one matinee movie a month sans popcorn!

[Broken Arrow]

I don't have a budget for that.

If I want it, then I'd have to take it out of the food budget (which I admit is relatively big).

In other words, I'm trying to "encourage" myself to spend less on food by using other enjoyments as an incentive. On the other hand, I also enjoy eating out sometimes, and I count that as a form of entertainment. So, it makes sense for me to lump them together anyway.

[ren]

Well, I don't quite budget for that, but I allow myself $30 a week of 'funny money' for eating out, going to concerts, that sort of thing.

[rduell]

I don't have that in the budget either, simply because there isn't enough money to include it.

[shepav]

We have budgeted ourselves $20 each for whatever money, and then $40 for entertainment money. So basically $80/month. We're trying not to spend that though - we're hoping to see how much we can save from that every month!

[kunoichi]

Thanks for the great replies here. I am leaning toward cutting that out of the budget all together for now. That extra money could have some other uses right now. For whatever reason, that is a foreign concept to most of the people I speak with.

[MonkeyMama]

My budget would be $0, but dh's is $20 for netflix. $60 if you include cable. He uses a lot of his allowance for DVDs. But movies are his life and he doesn't spend money on much else. I am trying to get him to a buy some clothes for winter and he rather have some DVDs - LOL - whatever.

We rarely go to a movie but maybe a few times a year we will got to a matinee. I can't even remember the last time we did though. For the most part we don't have entertainment outside of our home in the budget. As you see we spend plenty with rentals and cable and such.

[kealina]

we don't have a budget amount per se as it depends on what happens... birthdays, coupons, special deals, vouchers, etc all affect the amt we spend every month... but since i've been tracking our expenses i will say that the most we've spent is $25 and the least $2 in a month and that generally we lean closer to $5-10 every month...

[Ima saver]

We don't go to movies or watch tv very much. Our big form of entertainment is eating out or going to parties. (which are free) I budget about $100 a week for eating out, but I spend very little on groceries.

[poundwise]

Presently less than $10 a month for entertainment.

[Broken Arrow]

Originally Posted by kunoichi

Thanks for the great replies here. I am leaning toward cutting that out of the budget all together for now. That extra money could have some other uses right now. For whatever reason, that is a foreign concept to most of the people I speak with.

What I did when I set up a budget is that I took everything that I wanted to fund, and sorted them in the order of priority. I made sure that every expense listed was as low as I can make it. Then, depending on how much I my net take home is, that's the cut off line for what can be funded and what can not. At least, it puts things into perspective for me anyway.

[beeblebrox]

I really don't budget it out much, but I get discounted movie tickets which makes our movie going experiences a little cheaper.

[The Budget Man]

I think that having money available for personal entertainment is very important. I keep money available in the Day-To-Day section of my budget where I have the most flexibility.

One of the major causes of budgets failing is people pretending that they don't have personal expenses... rubbish, we all do.

If you watch what happens to people who are "helped" by some of those do good organisations that teach people to be overstrict with their budget.

The story goes like this...

The person or family is in a difficult position so they go for help. Over a period of months the people climb out of their difficulties, all the while hating their budget.

Then the day comes when they're back on top. Within weeks thair situation is worse than when they started. They've hated their budget so much that they throw it out the window the moment they can.

So when we are helping someone climb out of trouble they need to budget in a way that will suit them. Ignoring entertainment and other social expenses just sets people up for failure.

Enjoy Your Money
The Budget Man

www.PersonalityBudgeting.com
Where you discover how to budget in a way that you will be happy to continue with!

[Diolla]

When we were cutting our budget I gave up Netflix and DS gave up Gamefly ($29 a month, ouch) so I budget $20 a month for renting movies and games. Compared to the $49 a month we were spending it seems like a good compromise.

[sakigt]

My $360 a month includes food, entertainment and needs that pop up (clothes, personal products, etc)

If I spend more on one, Ive got to cut back on something else.

[Aleta]

I totally agree with Budget Man that you have to include something for your entertainment. That is something that you and your SO will have to agree on. We started out with $10. a month and later down time moved it up to $40. The great thing about this is that it makes you look for the free concerts available, etc. Sometimes there are grand openings that can be very nice. I believe that climbing out of debt is like a diet. If you diet too much and don't give yourself something once in a while that is satisfying, you will fail at the diet. Same thing for the debt reduction. It is extremely difficult and especially in the beginning and tempers can flare because everyone is competing for their wants. So, you start out with a smaller amount and build it up.

[fairy74]

We're at about $50 per month, 12 per month for netflix and then whatever else we feel like (within budget) went to the new James Bond movie last week (hadn't been to theater in a bout 1.5 years) bought tickets, small drink and popcorn and it was over $30, good movie but pricey!!!

[Bookie]

I do not budget for personal entertainment as budget line item.

.

[pearlieq]

Entertainment comes out of spending money. DH and I budget $220/week for spending money--$60 each as personal pocket money and $100/week for eating out/entertainment together.

I also wish we spent more of it on entertainment than restaurant meals. I think we'd enjoy it more. Of course, if we were ever in financial straits it would be the first thing to go. But for now it's our way of balancing meeting our financial goals while also living our lives for today.