Over the past year, I’ve occasionally used the “Ask the Readers” feature at Get Rich Slowly to poll people about their budgets and spending habits. So far, I’ve asked folks:
- How much do you spend on food?
- How much do you spend on clothes?
- How much do you spend on gifts?
- How much do you spend on health insurance?
- How much do you spend on housing?
- How much do you spend on kids?
For today’s installment of this irregular series, I turned to Twitter for topic requests. Tony Dobson (@toneboy) wants to know: How much do you spend on fun?
I like this question because it leaves the definition of “fun” up to each individual reader. So, for instance, even though I enjoy my Crossfit classes and my Spanish lessons, I’m not going to count those as fun. I’m going to count those as “self-improvement”. (We’ll talk about self-improvement during the next episode of “how much do you spend?”) To me, spending on fun is all about the movies and concerts and restaurants and recreation. It’s the stuff that we enjoy but which isn’t necessarily productive.
I was going to share my numbers but they’re, well, bizarre. I mean, one month I’ll spend less than $20 on entertainment, and the next I’ll spend more than $200. And there’s no rhyme or reason. During December, I might spend $75 to download a few seasons of TV shows from iTunes, but then not spend anything else on iTunes purchases for the rest of the year. Or I just bought tickets to see KD Lang when she comes to Portland next month. That’s $75 for a concert, but there may not be another concert expense all year.
And in April my entertainment expenses were very high, but that’s easily explainable. I’ve begun dating, and so am eating out more often and doing more things outside the apartment. (Maybe I need a new category in Quicken just for dating?)
In reality, though, my entertainment expenses are a very small part of my income, especially now that I’ve stopped collecting comic books. (I have spent $0 on comic books since last September. In fact, I’m probably going to “hire” a friend to sell most of them for me.)
So, I think this question will be fun to answer, but it may be difficult to answer. I mean, I have all my spending numbers at my fingertips and I still can’t figure out how to quantify how much I spend on fun.
What about you? How much do you spend on fun? For you, what does this mean? What kind of fun things are you buying with your bucks? Do you wish you were spending less? How do you keep costs down? Or do you even worry about that? (For me, as long as I’m spending less than 30% of my income on Wants, I don’t care where the money goes.)
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I usually spend about 100 to 120 a month on fun stuff. Anymore than that and I feel guilty!
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This is fun. Counting only things that I would consider obviously, clearly fun–travel, movies, Netflix, books, and my random Italian class–I’m at $1990 per year (well, for the last year). Bumping that up to include restaurants and alcohol, I’m at $2947. Expand it yet further to include the two courses I took at the extension school for no concrete reason and it’s suddenly $5347. And then there’s $1800 in ATM withdrawals that I have a feeling were split fairly evenly between actual fun (of the restaurant and movie variety) and discretionary purchases that I wouldn’t count (snacks and things — obviously unnecessary and one of the first things that would go if I needed to cut back, but not “fun”).
If I’ve learned anything, it’s that more of my discretionary spending should go to things I’d actually label as fun both beforehand and afterward and less should go for stuff of the “completely superfluous but not terribly exciting” variety. But isn’t that the whole lesson of everything ever? Save on what doesn’t matter so you can spend on what does.
But in my reckoning, restaurants are iffy; those are less about my entertainment and more about maintaining social bonds, which I’d rather do in other ways given my druthers.
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5-10% of my take home pay most months though that varies. If i’m saving up for something it might be below that however for me fun includes fun runs and triathlons which can be pricey but not much at all on going out. Though now that we’re saving for a house deposit and have a holiday planned spending money on fun or anything else is limited to about $150 per month which is plenty as you can have fun without spending too much money.
I think it’s important to allow yourself to spend money on things that are fun for you and everyone has different ideas of what constitutes to fun. For some it might be a wild night out drinking and dancing in a club, for someone else it could be going shopping or dining with friends, for someone else it might be going to a theme park or doing an Ironman, I suppose it all depends on the type of things you like to do. But depriving yourself of fun due to budget constraints is not always healthy. Yes, it’s important to be sensible but as long as your bills are paid on time, you’ve got food in the fridge and you’ve put a little bit away for a rainy day, spending on fun things shouldn’t make you feel guilty.
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Around $200 per month with the vast majority of that being spent on restaurants or pleasure travel. I dread the day when I have to worry about spending on this type of thing.
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I am such a planner that I tend to consider “fun” expenses to be spontaneous, “seize the moment” expenditures. Going out to dinner on a whim. Meeting friends at a show that I would have never planned for otherwise. Impromptu expenditures. They are always worth it!
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Definitely need to define what is “fun”. Australia is fun, but if we count every dollar it took to get here…well, it wouldn’t be pretty
And are zoo memberships et al educational or fun? Wildlife Park, Melbourne Zoo, Sovereign Hill…that’s maybe several hundred right there.
Had one $8 Netflix charge this year…I forgot to re-suspend it. Fun money, or oops money?
We budget $50/wk for going out to eat, but find it hard to spend half that. Odd, because this time last year we were finding it hard to stay within the budget (and we’d often dip into our misc if we wanted to go out to eat).
We each get $50/mo misc money. Spend as we want. Usually doesn’t get spent.
Another $50/mo for entertainment. Since we don’t do Netflix, cable tv, movies (though I’d like to go to an occasional movie at the theatre), there’s a decent bit saved up. Just spent $125 of it to get a better sound system (tv speakers are atrocious).
Vacations…well we spent over $1,000 for flights for later in the month, motels and car rental will likely add a few hundred more. Usually we have our big vacation in October/November/December. So…will we have another vacation at the end of the year? Probably.
We don’t have many small fun expenditures (though I’m trying to let loose just a little bit). But we do have some big things here and there, so I think we’re doing ok.
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Well,
I wasn´t spending much here just because I was working more than 60 hours per week, so there was not much time to do anyhting else.
Lately I have been going out more often, but I have not been using a lot of money. Being a woman in Mexico has some advantages and usually the men pay for all .
Thanks for remind me that now that I have changed jobs and there is more free time, I will for sure spend more .
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Eeeeek… that’s a really difficult question for me to answer! I honestly struggle to add that one up. Hmm. Let’s see. A few months back I spent ~£310 on a ceramics course, now was that fun because it essential for my university course, or was it self-improvement? Would that fall under “travel/holidays” because it was in Wales and part of a trip to see friends?
Fun is a difficult one for me to calculate. A lot of what I do for fun is free- exploring markets, hanging out with friends in the sunshine, going for a walk, going to galleries/museums in London- but incurrs other costs- buying a birthday present, beers to drink in the park, something from the gift shop. I don’t go out a lot, not only because I don’t really have space for it in my budget, but because I don’t enjoy being in loud areas with lots of people.
I’m going to answer with a tentative £15-20 a week which works out as £780-1040 a year which feels about right. I only really go out (and pay for it) for special celebrations like the end of term. Most of the time going out for a meal/glass of wine is my mum treating me with vouchers she’s got.
I think my fun expenses are set to go up though. I’m in the mood for some proper adventures. My income is going to go up too though, because uni is finishing for summer and I’ve got 2 jobs lined up. Maybe I’ll have the cash for fun but no time?
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About six months ago when I was in college if I’d have had to answer this question I might have shocked myself (and others) with exactly how much I spent on fun. Though I sang the tune very often of a poor college kid, thanks to student loans, I never actually felt poor and I never actually stopped to think about how much of my student loans were being spent on “fun” things. I’m sure the number is more than I’d like to admit.
Now, however, I’m a newly college graduate, whose loans have just gone into repayment, with a part time job. For me now, spending money on anything that isn’t my loans or absolute necessity isn’t fun. Thanks to the generosity of my parents there isn’t a single bill I have to pay so that all my energy and money can go toward paying off my loans. And after reading books by famed money managers like Dave Ramsey and Zac Bissonnette I’m quickly learning that fun doesn’t have to come with a price tag, I know this will change as I get older, but for now the answer to this question would have to be a resounding 0. I like to do things like read, exercise, hang with friends and thanks to inventions like the public library, Hulu, and college student centers, I can do just that without any cost to me.
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@J.D. Roth, you without comic books is like bread without butter. I have to ask, what happened? You used to write that you wanted a pastoral life style and that your dream was to read comic books all day long.
You seem like a different person these days. That’s not a bad thing but it’s funny that you’re getting rid of your collection
How much do I spend on fun? It varies. It depends what I’m doing but unless I’m traveling then not a whole lot. Roughly about $50-100 each month.
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I spend $100 per week on “pocket money” – just under 10% of my take home pay. (50% is saved towards a house deposit, 10% is put towards irregular exenses eg new appliances and vacation flights etc and the remaining 30% covers living expenses.) Not all pocket money is spent on fun (some of it goes towards things like haircuts) but the vast majority of it goes on beer, concert tickets,cds, kindle books, petrol for the odd camping trip (no car, but buying feul for borrowed cars/the driver), public transport (I walk to work so pulic transport is used for visiting friends and bars and is therefore entertainment.) I don’t eat out very often (a few times per month) but use the entertainment book when I do. I have a few vacations per year so would generally spend approx $2k on flights (but this can vary drastically… this number is really high because I am in Australia, so it’s lot further to fly to get anywhere!)The $100/week goes quite far, because I have no “hobbies” that cost money (my music lessons are free from a friend, and I already own my bike, so there are no re-curring hobby costs.)
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I love these Ask the Readers about their spending habits posts, but I’d like to suggest including a poll with results at the top of the comments section. It would immediately provide a clear answer to “How much do you spend?” It could as specific (I am a family of one/two/etc. and we spend approximately $x-$y/z% on ABC per month/year) or vague as you wanted, and then the comments section could be used for discussion.
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We don’t budget for anything that would normally fall into the “fun” category. It’s not as dreary as it sounds, it’s just that we so seldom eat out or go to movies that it would be pointless to budget for it. We also live massively below our means, so every week there is “excess” piling up in the account so we always have the option to do something if the mood strikes. Our basic essentials use up ~55% of our take home pay, so in theory if we stick to the spending plan ~45% should go each month to retirement savings and extra mortgage payments. Most weeks that’s exactly what happens. Each Friday I pay off that week’s cc charges (for virtually everything – phone, cell, internet, gas, groceries, insurance). Most week’s we don’t eat out, go to movies or do anything else that costs money. We go to our kids sporting events, visit with family, go for hikes/bike rides, garden, read, etc. If we do spend on some unplanned non-essential that week, there is just slightly less excess in the account that Friday to move to the retirement accounts or mortgage. We are entirely focussed on early retirement so any non-essential spending is counter productive. We have saved enough to cover from age 65 onward and are now working on how many years before that we can retire. For easy numbers we assume we’ll need $3K/mth or $100/day (not including travel which will have a separate fund). If you know that a fancy dinner out will cost you a day of early retirement you certainly give it more thought, and I also have higher expectations. After spending on something “fun” I invariably weigh whether or not it was worth the day of retirment I just gave up for it. If you know exactly there the discresionary money could be going you tend to be far more critical of anything else you are tempted to spend on.
Our one exception for fun in our normally frugal lifestyle is travelling. We tend to take a big trip every other year and a smaller one in between. With airline points (from using our cc exclusively) flights are cheap (taxes only). My DH travels for work and earns hotel and rental car points as well. Last year we did a week in New Orleans (with a cruise to Mexico), then another a week in San Francisco with a drive down the coast to Monterey. Total about $1500 for 4 with all the free flights and hotels, discounts and a cruise sale ($169ea). This year we’re planning a big trip to France for 3 weeks. Free flights again, and looking for deals on everything else, but it won’t likely be less than $5k. Yup it’s costly to travel as a family, and we estimate the trips are delaying the early retirement by about 3yrs, but that’s one trade off we’re willing to make. Doing without weekly restaurant meals, new cars, 300 channels and designer wardrobes doesn’t feel like we’re suffering because we just don’t care about that stuff.
We all have a different ways of looking at things, particularly at different ages. In my twenties saving for retirement at the expense of doing something fun tonight really didn’t register. At that age most people haven’t figured out their priorities beyond what they want to do this weekend. It’s not wrong, but it is unfortunate. I’m annoyed we didn’t see the light sooner and start socking away all the discretionary money we were wasting on crap I can’t even remember. If we’d started even in our 30s we’d be retiring now in our 40s instead of in another 8yrs 7mths (Dec 2020). Hindsight is 20/20.
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I’m surprised at all these answers! We have trouble putting enough into all the savings accounts every year and I also insist on maxing the roths as well. Thus, we get around $200 joint fun for restaurant, movies out, park fees, festivals, music, etc and $50-75 in personal for hair cuts, lunches, clothes, beauty, etc. This comes to less than 10% of net income each month. My leak area is travel, where things add up really fast.
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My main fun expense is race entries. A 5K race is usually $20-30. My relay team fee for the marathon distance was $75 this year per person. The fall marathon I signed up for is $85 (marathon prices vary greatly depending on the prestige of the race).
I’m running a couple trail races this year and they are part of a pre-packaged series, so its $10 per race. Very simple, low budget races so there is not a lot of SWAG driving up the cost.
So far this year the entry fees add up to $230, but I usually don’t do more than one big race a year whereas this year I’m running two. Part of that is to meet personal goals.
I do not travel very far for races or will carpool. Some of the races I try to do every year and some I get to every few years. If I feel like the race fee + travel time is not worth working into my budget I will skip it.
I estimate that at max I might spend another $100-150 on race entries by then end of the year.
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I budgeted about $400/year for race fees! Plus if you travel for races, that can turn into a couple hundred for a weekend right there.
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I am an Expat living over seas, which means I’m in a different boat than everyone else however this is how I do it.
I set a yearly goal (75% – 80%) of my take home pay…that is the amount I want to save. This is on top of the 20% I save into my 401(k) plan before I even see my check.
I then enter everything I spend into a spreadsheet that automatically deductes from running total of what I have left to spend in that year.
I’ve been sucessful every year…it also helps to adjust the formula in that running amount left to spend to leave a $2000 cushion. I also have started taking my dividends and adding them into the “income” column at the end of the year.
Matt
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I’m trying to get ideas, but goodness-someone needs to moderate-some answers are just too long. Time is money folks, keep them answers short and relevant.
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My only budgeted “fun” is Netflix on demand for $7.99. Since they didn’t up their Starz movie contract, I’m questioning if that’s even going to stay. We don’t have cable and movie rentals are a 10 mile drive away, so Netflix is comparitively cheaper.
I weighed the option of taking a summer vacation this year with our family of four or buying amusement/water park season passes. For under $300, we can go (and park) all summer. It’s about a 45 minute drive to the parks, but my kiddos have a blast, and it doesn’t wear me out like an out of town vacation. We’ve gone twice so far, so it’s almost paid for itself compared to full price tickets.
Our normal everyday “fun” for the kids consists of a $120 load of sand, fishing in the pond in front of our house, and jumping on the trampoline (which is kind of a money dump b/c the sun eats the netting and pads). My fun is square foot gardening and caring for our dogs, chickens, guinneas, and ducks. Apparently, I’m more of a home body as going to clubs, games, and concerts really doesn’t interest me any more. I am thinking of getting some collegiate football tickets once our youngest (now 2) is old enough to sit in a seat for four hours. That’s probably going to run about $2,000 a season with gas, food, and parking. I’ve got a long way to go before that happens though. (My son has a LOT of energy.)
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My fun is to hang out with my XBOX live friends and play tower defense type of team game probably once a week now (To be specific, Gears of War Horde mode team play). So that costs $4 a month on the Gold account ($49 annually)..
The rest of fun is nearly free such as hiking, walking, going to the parks..
But my $4 video game network cost has been viewed as a waste and extravagence by certain folks… Though I disagree. I think ppl have a general negative views on video gaming.
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Pretty much the only money I spend out of my entertainment budget is my Netflix subscription at $32/month. I also budget $25/month for dining out, but my actual spending averages less than $10/month.
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I have a “clearcheckbook” budget for 120 euro’s of fun money each month.
This is a rollover budget so if i don’t have too much fun one month i can really fun it up the next one. For me fun money includes everything that is not necessary like a soda or candy from the vending machine at work, a night of bar-hopping, dinner with my gf or parts for my oldtimer
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