December 2007 Weddings
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
budget question
how much do you allow for groceries? eating out? clothes? recreation?
Re: budget question
I dont like to spend more than $50 a week on groceries.
Eating out, we rarely do (only when we have a gc, or a treat).
Clothes, I bought some new tops/sweaters last month that totaled $75. I rarely buy clothes, bc I dont need them in my eyes. I dont really have anywhere I need to go.
Recreation- we go see a movie maybe once a month if we are lucky (and we go on the discount day). $20 total for the month. Now that the summer is coming, we might go to a baseball game, but we buy cheaper seats and you can bring in your own water/soda.
This probably doesnt help you though, you have 2 kids so it would be a lot more for you guys. Bev is big into budgeting (and uses Dave Ramsey's plan). She might be able to give you insight on that.
Our monthly food budget is 300.00 that is for groceries and eating out. We also bring our lunches to work everyday. I think we allow ourselves to go out to eat about 2 times a month. I cook at home every night.
Clothes- we get 100.00 a month that we can use for whatever we want and that is what we use. Also we can stockpile our 100.00 so if you want something expensive you can save the 100.00 until you get enough to buy whatever you want.
Recreation- we do not have a line in the budget for this. A lot of what we do is going to either football game or baseball games and since my dad works for the athletic department we get free tickets to all those. We do not have museums or amusement parks near us so we are not tempted to go there. And I do try to find cheap fun for us when we do not have a game or something to go to like we have a lake behind our house and DH will go out there fishing and I will read a book and I pack us a lunch and spend the whole day out there.
Also instead of going to the movies we started recording movies that we would like to see and sit down and watch those for our movie night. I pop popcorn. Also we rent alot of redbox movies and have "theme" nights for the movies.
Groceries- $250 (this includes paper towels, cleaning supplies, dog food, etc) we eat at home pretty much every night and bring our lunch to work every day
Entertainment- $150 (this includes eating out, any 'fun' activity, and any time we buy beer or wine at the grocery store)
Clothes/Haircuts- $100 (we hardly ever use this up.)
Grocers - $250 - includes household supplies, cleaning supplies, soap, shampoo...etc
Entertainment - $100 - includes eating out, netflix, AAA baseball for the summer...etc
Clothes - $50 - which i rarely spend, DH wears a uniform for work, so it's rare that i buy him clothes and I haven't gone clothes shopping in forever. But I do need some new shoes!
Groceries: $100-125 every 2 weeks. I bring my lunch everyday and I try to cook each night. It helps to make a menu of what you plan on cooking each night (I sometimes switch things around but I try to stick with the menu) and I make a grocery list. This helps with the grocery budget (includes non-food items..paper towels, TP, etc).
Eating out: $100 every 2 weeks. We usually only eat out Friday night, Saturday lunch, Sunday lunch and maybe Sunday dinner
Recreation: We don't really go to games or anything anymore, so we really don't do much recreation.
Entertainment: We rarely go to the movies and usually just watch a movie on TV or the DVR.
Clothes: I rarely buy new clothes and if I do have to buy clothes I just try to see where it will fit in the budget.
Spending money: $40 every 2 weeks. If I go out to lunch I use this money, buy craft stuff, cosmetics, etc
Our monthly grocery budget is $400, but that includes eating out, and is not just limited to groceries; it also includes toiletries.
I try to plan out a weekly menu and I usually base it off of what's in season or on sale at the time.
We don't have a budget for recreation or clothing. We do budget $100/month in a "misc fund," and that's what we use if we need something or want to go out and do something out of the ordinary. If we don't use it all one month, we keep it and let it accumulate (also adding overages from other bills to this fund; like when the gas bill is lower than usual, etc).
ohh I like these ideas. Thanks! I can use going out to eat as motivation to save on my groceries. lol
we have lots more categories in our budget. when every dollar needs to be accounted for, it's good to have everything listed out.
we also have budgets for gas, medical stuff (copays, prescriptions, tylenol, murphy's vet visits. haha...etc.), auto (repairs, oil changes), home improvement (paint, decor stuff, grass fertilizer, etc), gifts.
we get $100 spending money each month. that's really the only thing we roll over and save up with. if we're ever under in a category, we figure it's that much better. that's our little 'get ahead' for the month and we figure we'll go over in some categories at some point in the year.
Anything that's left over gets put in savings.
I'd definitely recommend quicken. it's a wonderful tool to be able to glance at the end of the month, quarter and year to see how you did...areas you did great in and where you went over and need to improve.
we spend about $70-100/week on groceries. when dh is deployed or on temporary duty, i spend, ohhhh, $25 every 2 weeks or so
eating out - we go out max 2x/week. we both pack our lunches during the week and eat in during the week. we'll go out once or twice during the weekend and there's really no budget - we get what/go where we want b/c we dont go out that often
clothes - no budget on that b/c i rarely go shopping here on guam!!! it's really sporadic when we get clothes but i HATE paying full price on clothes.
recreation - for fun, we hang out with friends and do free activities. we scuba dive once every 2 or 3 months, so though it can be pricy, it's not that bad.
in the end, the only thing we REALLY budget for is groceries b/c that's something we ALWAYS have to get!