Spending and Incidentals

[rugbywife]

Okay, I am working through our budget for what our life will look like for the next 24 months and we are fine for now, while one of us is off, but it suddenly hit me (as I crunched the numbers) that two kids in daycare (after having none in daycare) is going to KILL our budget.  As I am looking for how we can save (there are ways, I just don't like most of them), I came to wonder what others spend on certain things...

I have my budget set up like this:

Housing/Utilities/Taxes
Cars/Insurances/Gas
Audio/Visual (phones, tv, internet)
Student Loans and Donations
Food (which really means anything I get at the grocery store or costco)
Fitness

and then there is a catch all that I call Spending and Incidentals…so this is - entertainment, gifts, dinners out, clothing, hair cuts, etc…it is a pretty big catch all because it really varies month to month.  It is pretty much what I have left over after all the above categories have been covered (pretend there is a savings category - there usually is, but there won't be for a while).

So, if this were you, what would your 'Spending and Incidentals' - for 2 adults and kids (let's say 1 or 2) - look like?

I think ours is pretty high at 800, but we were used to being DINKS and doing as we pleased, and now I just dump most baby purchases in that category. I guess I am trying to figure out how much I can reasonably save in this area. Realistically the only place we could really save is by never eating out.

[scribellesam]

Our "shopping and miscellaneous" budget category is set at $250/month, but we put eating out under "food/household" so under your budget it would be a bit higher, maybe $350. We're single-income in HCOL, though, so our budget is pretty tight anyway. It essentially cuts out any kind of unplanned fun shopping. I really miss wandering through Target and buying a random cart full of stuff I don't need!

[Velar Fricative]

$800 does not seem high for a family of 4 to me if you're including gifts, dinners out, clothes, grooming, etc. As you said, you'll spend more some months but less in other months. When I add all those categories up (I keep them all separate, and we also have a personal care/toiletries budget line), I get $700/month on average.

[oswin]

I don't know how to answer this poll, since your budget is lacking one of our biggest categories - $750/month on "House" - which includes furniture, home improvement/repairs, outdoor care, miscellaneous cleaning/organizational stuff, etc. The House category is high for us because we're relatively new to our house, so we've still got start-up costs. Going by your list of what's covered, I'd say around $700, since that's our dining+fun money+entertainment+clothing budget.

[ilikedonuts]

We budget around $1k for all that sort of stuff. Most months it could be up to $1500 though if we have stuff like birthday parties, vacations, etc.

My kids are almost 3 and almost 1. I SAH (so we do spend a decent amount on eating out. the girls and I go to lunch with friends once or twice a week added on to our family eating out).