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Another F&B budget related question...
If you're comfortable sharing, where does your F&B budget fall in the spectrum? After putting money in savings and retirement? Before? Do you use what's left over after everything? Or budget for it specifically along with things like food and gas and stuff? And does your F&B budget include things like purses and shoes that you don't reaaallly need, but know you're going to eventually want? I'm kind of struggling, because I know clothes are a necessity, however not the clothes that I like to buy, and buy more frequently than I should 
We have plenty of money to pay our bills and put into retirement, get a weekly "allowance" and what's left over goes into a general savings account. I want to re-do our budget to allocate things more specifically and am just curious to see what others do. We don't have a specific savings goal, just everything extra goes in to it. I think my problem is actually dedicating a budget to clothes and reducing what goes into savings, even if we're saving plenty. Currently I use my weekly allowance money for shopping, but it's not consistent since I use that money for other random things as well.
Re: Another F&B budget related question...
It comes out of the regular budget, there is a line item for shopping and another one for beauty. Beauty also includes haircuts, nails, waxing, etc. We both also get "fun" money and most of mine goes to shopping. I also have a part time job at a clothing boutique and that is fun money for me that is mostly spent back into the store on clothes.
However we are also still funding savings and retirement and if those weren't fully funded I wouldn't spend so much on these categories.
We each have a certain amount we can spend on whatever we want... If we don't spend it then it rolls over to the next month. I don't count hair cuts or regular drug store items towards that, but any high end products come from our monthly money. I usually use my "birthday money" for a new bag every year.
I picked the amount based on what we could afford and what seemed reasonable while still fully funding retirement and putting a good chuck into savings every month. I could probably go up a little, but I'm trying to stick to my monthly amount and remember that I don't have to buy everything right this minute.
We have a very detailed budget....
Retirement, health care, savings come out first. There is then a line item for every category. More important categories were decided upon first, and extra stuff was based on what was left over (clothing, eating out, beauty, fun money, vacation, etc).
Included in those, we have one for clothes/shoes, one for beauty/personal care, and one for personal fun money each. Normal needed clothes and shoes for either of us come out of the clothing budget. Anything purchased just for fun (like my purses, or my husband's 100 pairs of shoes athletic shoes), are fun money.
Hair cuts/color, normal skincare or make-up all come out of beauty, but anything extra, just because I want to try it, is my personal money. I didn't think that I should have to spend my personal money on make-up, just because I'm a woman and my husband doesn't. So, just like clothing, anything frivolous or extra is my personal money.
Personal money can then be spent however we want. It makes me feel much better about dropping a few hundred on extra make-up or a purse, because it's mine to do whatever I want with. Same goes for my husband's ridiculous amounts of money spent on shoes and athletic gear.
It's really all based on the honor system, and we each decide what is "needed" and what is "extra." I definitely make sure we are meeting other financial goals before dedicating any extra money to "just-for-fun wants."
I use whatever is leftover after I buy groceries and things for the house like dish soap, detergent and the like and gas. I don't have a set amount for each of these catergories. I wish we had a more detailed budget.