Discretionary spending

[aprilsails]

I used to track this closely but haven't had to for a while. I need to get back to it since I've taken on some debt as part of my partnership purchase, and the rates suck right now.

Generally speaking we have regular contributions to retirement, education, and major house renovation savings which are divvied out automatically. After that we spend on our joint credit card and split it for groceries, kids and household costs, etc. At the end of the month I sweep anything above the minimum required chequing balance in my account into a HISA that I use as my slush fund for vacation or big personal purchases, or lump sum savings goals (retirement catch up and the partnership purchase).

[expectantsteelerfan]

There was a time when ours was as low as $100 a month for a few years. That was also when I was subbing more regularly 1 day/week though with MIL watching the kids in the morning for free, so that was an extra ~$100/week, although that usually ended up getting used for surprise fees for kid activities.
Dh makes a lot more now, so we no longer track/budget like we used to and I tend to only sub 1 or 2 days a month when dh is home in the morning to make sure the kids are up.