What's your monthly entertainment budget?

[mrsklamc]

We're just thinking about what we want this line item in our budget to be....

 

[PHXscuba]

I think you'll have to be more specific ... does it cover dinners out? babysitters? family entertainment or just "dates"? City or a small town?

When we first started that category covered babysitters, movie/show tickets, dinners if it was just the 2 of us (not feeding the kids).

PHXscuba

 

[DawnM]

These are the categories we have under entertainment:

His blow fund- (spent mostly on golf)
Her blow fund- (spent mostly on social events with friends)
Eating out- (all eating out)
Netflix
Movie rentals (this is entertainment only)

Vacation Funds are completely separate

 

[WheelCEO]

ive been spending around $1000

 

[Deealee]

ive been spending around $1000

My family of 4 is a little over this. It includes eating out, memberships to museums.the zoo, etc and babysitting costs.

 

[flateacher]

Our family of 4 spends around $500 a month on entertainment. This includes eating out, movies or anything else we go and do, concerts etc. Including babysitters. (As you can see we don't eat out too much - if we do it is as a family at a semi fast food place - Moes anyone?)

We have annual passes to a zoo and aquarium that are not counted in the total. But they are about $100 each for the family for the year.

As others have said our vacation fund is separate.

Oh - I also used some of this $$ this week for a hair cut - sometimes it also covers groceries I forgot to pick up!

 

[DawnM]

How would we see that?

Dawn

Our family of 4 spends around $500 a month on entertainment. This includes eating out, movies or anything else we go and do, concerts etc. Including babysitters. (As you can see we don't eat out too much - if we do it is as a family at a semi fast food place - Moes anyone?)

We have annual passes to a zoo and aquarium that are not counted in the total. But they are about $100 each for the family for the year.

As others have said our vacation fund is separate.

Oh - I also used some of this $$ this week for a hair cut - sometimes it also covers groceries I forgot to pick up!

 

[rnorwo1]

Currently I budget $100 for entertainment, which includes movies, bowling, itunes, books, apps, etc. We do not live in a town that has a lot of resources, but I try to do things as free/cheaply as possible. Last night we went bowling with coupons and two games and shoe rentals cost a total of $12.50 for family of 5. We rarely come close to spending $100, usually around $50. My kids are still young, so we go to the zoo and museum a lot on our memberships ($35/year for zoo, $70 for museum.) We do have a good, free park system here, so that's usually how we entertain ourselves.

Our eating out budget is separate, it's about $150. This month we haven't spent anything yet, and we rarely go out to nice restaurants (just too difficult with toddlers), so I'm sure we'll be well under that also.

We should have our 8 month emergency fund fully funded in two months, then I'll increase the entertainment budget a bit so that we each get some "blow" money. Looking forward to that!

 

[mrsklamc]

I was kind of intentionally leaving it open-ended; curious what others include and what they spend...Eating out is separate for us; So far this month I have spent $12 on a groupon to renew a local magazine and $14 to see a friend's daughter ride her horse at the state fair.

We don't go to movies or pay to rent them....It's very rare that we buy books, usually get them from the library. Just trying to think it through...Thanks!

 

[bumbershoot]

How would we see that?

Dawn

By their low, to them, entertainment budget.




We have $100 for entertainment each month. Food, movies...100 bucks! I *need* to up that budget for summertime, though, because it gets tight when fairs and things like that come up.

Once we started going to Disney we stopped the zoo memberships etc. Even a membership-visit to a zoo started costing money, with gas if we go to the Seattle one, food, etc. Or just paying for a bird-feed stick to feed the budgies. That money was taking away from our trips, so they stopped.

 

[ancestry]

For our family of six it is less than $100 per month -- Netflix and satellite tv. Of course this doesnt include vacations which is a different line item

 

[DawnM]

But how would I know how much of that she spends on food?

Dawn

By their low, to them, entertainment budget.




We have $100 for entertainment each month. Food, movies...100 bucks! I *need* to up that budget for summertime, though, because it gets tight when fairs and things like that come up.

Once we started going to Disney we stopped the zoo memberships etc. Even a membership-visit to a zoo started costing money, with gas if we go to the Seattle one, food, etc. Or just paying for a bird-feed stick to feed the budgies. That money was taking away from our trips, so they stopped.

 

[disneychrista]

I don't count eating out as "entertainment" as it is included in our food budget. If you included TV ($90) & Internet ($40) we probably spent not more than $150.