Who here budgets an allowance for yourself and dh?

[Cindy in C-ville]

Bill and I are thinking of doing this so that we have a set amount each month that we can use, give away, or save at our own discretion. Anyone else do this? How does it work for you?

[Desert Strawberry]

yes, we do. It works well for us. That way, the money that we set aside is ours and neither of us has to feel guilty about spending on ourselves, and neither of us can question what the other spends on. I tend to be rather stingy, and have been known to go without even essential items (at the moment, I have 2 skirts and 5 dresses-2 of which I have purchased in the past few weeks for $6 each). When the money is set aside and earmarked specificly for me to use on me, I find it much easier to splurge on things like eyeliner. I'm less likely to flip out on my DH when he drops $50 on a video game. It's budgetted, he's saved up for it, it's ok.

[Amy Jo]

We have a few times (long ago, while we had steady employment). We had a small amount - usually $10-20. It was nice though, to have a little free money. And I think it helped us budget the family stuff too, since we had splurge money. I'd do it again if I had the chance.

[Live2Ride]

We used to and it worked ok, but now we agree that we talk to each other first before purchases over $20. It has worked better this way.

[Momma2Many66]

Yes, we do because we are following the Dave Ramsey program and give ourselves each some 'blow money".

 

My husband and I each get 10 dollars a week, I use mine to buy used books at The Goodwill, yard sales and library used book sales.

 

My husband uses his for whatever, usually cigars, ice tea, stuff he likes to have during the week.

 

We've been doing this for the last 3 years that we have been following the program and it works out well for us and keeps us within our budget guidelines.

[Veritaserum]

We do. We set up more free checking accounts at our bank and transfer money into discretionary spending accounts for me, dh, the kids/school, grocery, and a catch-all category for things like eating out or buying stuff for the house. It works very well because I can see money piling up for something I want. :)

[K&Rs Mom]

We've done this for years. That way neither of us feels guilty about an occasional lunch out or small impulse buy. It was $10/wk each, but now that the kids are bigger I get more because if I get lunch out so do they, plus I mostly use mine for things like the farmer's market that are for all of us.

[cathmom]

I'm thinking of implementing this but haven't yet.

[Melissa in Australia]

we don't, but we don't do a budget either.

Both my Dh and I are savers. We both take pride in how much we can save, so we spend as little as possible and put the rest into savings every week. works for us.

[MamaCoop04]

" I'm less likely to flip out on my DH when he drops $50 on a video game. " (I don't know how to do the whole quote thing)

 

It's so good to know that it's not just my husband that still plays video games!! lol Sorry, off topic, but comforting, none the less.

 

Oh, and yes, we both get a certain amount to spend on whatever we like without the other fussing. I get an extra amount b/c it's usually me that takes the kids out to the store or for lunch or whatever, and they have that money for them so I don't have to spend mine. We each get $20 each paycheck as well as the kids ( not each of the kids, but the get $20 to split-ice cream, lunch, etc)

Edited July 28, 2011 by MamaCoop04

[tntgoodwin]

We budget $25 each every two weeks as blow money. Works well for us.

[UnsinkableKristen]

Yep, we each get $20/wk for whatever we want. Sometimes one of us will use it to order pizza for ourselves after the kids go to bed, sometimes I use mine to buy a nice candle, DH usually uses his to buy dip - LOL.

 

It's nice to know I can just stop at Starbucks and pick up a little treat, and know that I'm not nickling and diming our regular budget away. We've done this for the past 5ish years and it still works great - we never argue about money at all. :001_smile:

[Night Elf]

We do. It keeps us from going into the checking account too much. We use our allowance for things we want, but also for eating out. If we run out of cash, we look at the balance of our account along with expenses we know are coming up to see if we can take anything else out. Most of the time, however, we spend only what is in our pockets.

[Amy in NH]

Well, we used to each get $10/week, but the increased cost of gas (and everything else that has resulted from it) ate that up months ago. It's nice if you have the money...

[Tiberia]

We get $40 each per month for blow money. Everything else is in categories in the budget. Blow money is for spontaneous junk food or ice cream stops, books we don't need, etc. I usually save mine and let it build up to buy something big (ipod, sports equipment); hubby usually spends his on fast food.

[Samiam]

We started the DR envelope plan a few months ago and started the "blow money" thing.

 

Here's the thing, DH smokes. I hate, hate, hate it. I hate that he is choosing cancer. I truly hate that it is a HUGE HUGE HUGE waste of money. He says he wants to quit, but yet never does (that's a whole different tangent)

 

In the past, since I was the main one handling money, I would gripe and complain and insist that he cut back, and at one point had him down to two packs a week. More recently, with his job, and that is a "man environment" and they all smoke,etc, he is back up to one pack a day. HATE THAT!

 

So when we sat down to do our budget, he says he needs $50 a pay period (every two weeks) for smokes. Gag!

 

But I said, well if you get that to spend on smokes, then I should get the same to spend on whatever. That is his blow money. Sad for him that he doesn't have it to spend on other things (ie he would love video games, iTunes $$, etc). So he agreed. So we both get $50 every two weeks.

 

That sounds like alot. It is alot. I would have NEVER taken that much myself, but on the other hand, it was a point, if he can spend that much on nothing but cancer, then I should have that option too.

 

This month we are $$$ tight. DH had a week off work, unpaid, and due to us being out of town, family in town, etc I have not been able to work as much either (I work from home, set my schedule, but if not home, can't work, ya know!). DH still had to have his $$ for smokes:glare:, but I choose to forsake my blow money for the benefit of the budget. I will probably continue to forsake it for another month or so until we are back on track.

 

My goal is to actually put most of my blow money away, and save it up. Not sure what for, but for something, anything ,or just emergency,whatever. Seems a shameful waste of $$ just for blowing , ya know.

[Tree House Academy]

We do. :) We used to budget with gas included in that amount...now we have gas in a different section all its own. We set aside $175 each paycheck (bi-weekly) for each of us (i.e. I get $175 and he gets $175). Total for the month of $350 per person. It is nice to have that little extra for the fun stuff! It is nice not to have to write down every charge for a bucket of golf balls dh hits at the driving range or every spa visit or candle I buy. :) We don't use our money for eating out as a family, though we do use it to eat out during the day when dh is at work and we are not all together. My dh is an engineer and he is a major micromanager of money - we have a "fund" for everything imaginable...clothes, kids birthdays, taxes, gas, grocery, mid-month grocery, clothing, gas, all bills, Christmas, eating out (family), even my mom visiting! You name it...he has a budget for it. If I didn't have my own cash to spend as I wish, I might go nuts!

Edited July 28, 2011 by Tree House Academy

[LittleIzumi]

We used to, when we had the $ to spare. It worked pretty well. I would spend most of mine on the kids & dh would spend ahead for next month sometimes, but generally it worked out very well.

[QueenCat]

Sort of.... we each get a certain amount of cash each week. It is for things like eating breakfast or lunch out, bowling w/kids, cheap activities, and we are not accountable to each other on how we spend it. It is not for clothing, dining as a family, gas, groceries, etc as those are separately budgeted.

[Lily_Grace]

We do and I love it. Everybody in our house is important enough to be in the budget, so everyone has their own bit carved out for them. It's not all the same amount, though. I set it up so that dh got twice as much allowance than I because he's got more expenses: sport fees, office lunches, etc. All that personal stuff comes out of there. My fees and extracurriculars are less expensive.

 

I also keep a separate savings account and have been encouraging dh to do the same, or at least get a separate checking account. Right now whatever isn't spent is rolled into extra payments on bills. All well and good, but then we have a month at the beginning of baseball season where all the expenses for that hit - uniforms, balls, replacement equipment, team fees.. Over the year it's more than enough to cover it but it doesn't get saved so then we scrounge that month. If he had a separate account to stick the money in it would build up until he needed it.

[AndyJoy]

We get $20 each per week. Dh spends his on Diet Coke, lunch out, wood & tools. He's good about saving his up for bigger items. I mostly spend mine on Starbucks, non-essential clothes items, books, and extra outings with ds. I've been saving up lately so I can have some money to blow at Disneyland for my birthday this fall. I used to also have $10 per week to spend on ds, but we decided to use that money for his gymnastics class instead.

[Heather in Neverland]

We don't have separate allowances but we do have set amounts for entertainment and charitable giving for each month for the family as a whole.

[Renee in NC]

We do. That way dh gets what he wants/needs and I don't get irritated at what he thinks is a need!:tongue_smilie:

[Cindy in C-ville]

Blow money! I love it. We, well, HAVE, DR materials, but haven't read them all yet... Need to just do it!

 

So, in some of the posts I saw that some of you have different accounts set up for different areas of your budget. Am I reading this right? Do you have a *real* account for different areas or are these categories in your budget. I am thinking of setting up a separate checking accounts for household management and school expenses.

[DawnM]

Yes, we have a set amount we can each have to spend without question....although we always end up telling each other what we have spent.

 

Most of DH's blow money fund goes to golfing and golf equipment.

 

Dawn

[Lily_Grace]

Blow money! I love it. We, well, HAVE, DR materials, but haven't read them all yet... Need to just do it!

 

So, in some of the posts I saw that some of you have different accounts set up for different areas of your budget. Am I reading this right? Do you have a *real* account for different areas or are these categories in your budget. I am thinking of setting up a separate checking accounts for household management and school expenses.

 

We just have different categories in our budget. Our slush funds go into our savings, but I keep track of how much is in each with our Excel spreadsheet. I used to use an old checkbook register as a ledger, one page for each fund.

 

Right now the only family one we keep separate is our vacation fund. We've found that we tend to overspend if we don't keep it apart from everything else. It has its own savings account that we drop a little into every month.

[TheReader]

We do, at my request. Since dh works and is the only money maker in our home, I asked for an allowance (he rarely, if ever, spends on himself so he doesn't actually have one; he does discuss any purchase with me before he makes it though).

 

It's just easier for me to know "this much is available" when I see something I'd like to buy. And dh is good about letting me go over into the next month if I just really need to for some reason (ex. this month we had a visitor from the US,unexpectedly, so there were things I needed to buy right now that I hadn't budgeted for; no problem, I got an advance basically on next month's $).

 

We keep up with ours in Quicken, so no cash actually changes hands anyway.

[TheReader]

Blow money! I love it. We, well, HAVE, DR materials, but haven't read them all yet... Need to just do it!

 

So, in some of the posts I saw that some of you have different accounts set up for different areas of your budget. Am I reading this right? Do you have a *real* account for different areas or are these categories in your budget. I am thinking of setting up a separate checking accounts for household management and school expenses.

 

For us we have different fake accounts in Quicken, but it is all in one real account in the bank.

 

When dh "gives" us our allowance, he enters it as a transfer from QH Checking into H Account or the boys' accounts (in quicken only). Then when I spend something, I enter it as a transfer from my account to QH Checking (which is what will actually pay the bill when it comes in).

 

We use our bank cards as credit cards here, pay the full balance every month (we get perks if we use them as credit instead of debit), so this method works well for us.

 

In Quicken we have QH Checking, QH Savings, US Bills (where we put money for the bills we have in the US), H account, each boy has an account, etc. We split out some categories of the budget, too, but not many. Things like education/school fund and vacation, since those are things we set money aside for all year and spend once. The stuff that gets spent monthly just comes from the general checking account.

 

But, like I said, these are all just fake divisions, on paper only. All of it is really one great big account at our bank -- way too difficult to have multiple bank accounts here.

[RahRah]

Since DH gets paid once a month (12 checks, not 13) and I do all the finances, we've always done 'pocket money' as part of the budget - DH gets paid, gives me his check, I deposit it, take out cash for each of us and that's what we each have to do whatever with throughout the month....the rest is in the bank and used to pay bills, invest, move to savings, etc. This works well for us since neither of us will dip into the bank account as the month moves along and I'm paying out from it. Some things do come out of the bank account (via the debit cards), like gas in the cars, but that's budgeted in, so I expect a certain amount to be spent - but with each taking pocket money when DH is paid, I don't have to worry about surprises hitting the bank account that I'm managing everything from.

[LuvToRead]

We do this. DH gets a little bit more than me, but he always pays when we are together. The cash is just for the little incidentals. I don't want to write out a check for $5 at the thrift store, so it's nice to get the cash on hand. I usually squirrel mine away, and then break it out for yard sales or back to school sales. Sometimes I put money in my paypal account to feed my used curriculum addiction.:)

 

I have a friend who totally doesn't get this. She thinks it's cash for groceries and gas, and other basic necessities. She can't seem to understand it's just for those little extra things that we don't need. Nobody needs an ice cream cone, but it's nice to get one when it's really hot.

[QuirkyKapers]

We each get a weekly amount that we can spend on whatever we want. It works well for us.

[Renee in NC]

Blow money! I love it. We, well, HAVE, DR materials, but haven't read them all yet... Need to just do it!

 

So, in some of the posts I saw that some of you have different accounts set up for different areas of your budget. Am I reading this right? Do you have a *real* account for different areas or are these categories in your budget. I am thinking of setting up a separate checking accounts for household management and school expenses.

 

One account, but tracked separately in an Excel Spreadsheet. This is my version of "cash envelopes." However, the cash envelope system works better for controlling spending, so we may be going back to that.:tongue_smilie:

[Veritaserum]

Blow money! I love it. We, well, HAVE, DR materials, but haven't read them all yet... Need to just do it!

 

So, in some of the posts I saw that some of you have different accounts set up for different areas of your budget. Am I reading this right? Do you have a *real* account for different areas or are these categories in your budget. I am thinking of setting up a separate checking accounts for household management and school expenses.

 

We have separate checking accounts that each have photo debit cards so we know which account is which. I love this way of doing it. Previously we tracked with computer software, but it was a pain to go in and mark transactions as this budget category or that one. With the checking accounts/debit cards, I see exactly how much money I have and the transactions come directly out of the designated account. We transfer money from our main checking account into the other accounts at the beginning of each month. We also move money into our savings account. The main account pays for utilities, medical expenses, gas, and other things that aren't optional.

[Julie in Austin]

We do. It is a small amount, but I think it is a good idea for reasons others have mentioned--I like not feeling guilty when I get myself a little indulgence and not getting mad at dh for doing the same!

[hsmom42]

We've done this for years and love it. Back in my mom's day, it was called "pin money." Sometimes I'll use it for books or magazines. Other times I'll save it for a vacation to have extra spending money. It's wonderful to have some extra money to spend without feeling any guilt over what I'm buying.

[Heather in Neverland]

Since everyone uses mostly cash here, and since we get paid once a month, we use the envelope system.

[justamouse]

We do. I think it's just a part of living with a budget. It's not like there's a tree to pluck, yanno? So you have a budget of what goes where and that's a part of it.

[eternalknot]

Well, my husband pays all of our living expenses out of his paycheck. (We have had two separate households for several years, and he supports both.) He still has plenty leftover, and uses the remainder as his personal allowance. I work outside of the home, and my entire paycheck is my personal allowance since he covers all of our living expenses. The only "bill" or expense that is purely mine is educational stuff - whether it's field trips, curricula, or tuition (if I sent the kids to tutoring or private school).

 

Both paychecks go into different accounts at the same bank; we're both technically on each other's account, but in practice we tend to keep our finances separate. He can see where I'm spending, and I can see what he's buying ... we just don't, really. I don't want to know that he spent $700 on a new site for his gun. He doesn't want to know how much I spend on the kids' extracurriculars. It works for us, our personalities, and our very different financial habits. We're both really pleased with the arr. in that it gives us the best of both worlds: individual spending freedom with built-in accountability, should we want to exercise that.

[Mommee & Baba]

I'm thinking of implementing this but haven't yet.

 

:iagree:

 

Right now we know how much our bills are each month. Then if there is something we want or need we just figure it into what's left over each month. I'd prefer to have an "allowance" for both of us and use the left over as extra toward debt OR go into savings. Just not sure where or how to implement this into our lifestyle yet.

Edited July 28, 2011 by mamaofblessings

[kmp]

Yes, we do because we are following the Dave Ramsey program and give ourselves each some 'blow money".

 

 

We have "blow money" too.