How strict are you?

**Russ** · 11-02-2009, 02:10 PM

Most everyone here has a budget but not everyone has a spouse "completely" on board with the saving, the budget and get out of debt idea.

With your allowance and fun money your significant other gets, what do you do when they go over their amount?

by $20?
by $40?
by a lot more

On rare occassion?
Almost every month?
Somewhere in beteween?

Do they get sick of you...complaining? Nagging? whatever....

**IntlMom** · 11-02-2009, 02:29 PM

oops.....we don;t have an allowance in our house. We are just both frugal by nature, so we are both careful with our cash. I know it doesn;t work for everyone - but it's how we work it here.

**sabrelvssammy** · 11-02-2009, 02:31 PM

my dh is scared of me....lol.....

the key is to make sure that they have a 'large' enough allowance that they don't feel deprived and although that in itself can be a 'budget buster' the alternative is them being in a bad mood all the time coz they don't want to be on this train....and then 'busting' the budget repeatedly and then having that cause 'riffs' over and over....

dh's allowance is way more than i would like and we could use that towards paying the bills faster but in the long run it is a 'pacifier' that is worth every penny.....

**Greebo** · 11-02-2009, 02:38 PM

Ceashels is very, very tolerant of my little moments.

**MTS04** · 11-02-2009, 02:50 PM

I nag,

get a little flippy

and then apologize

. It doesn't happen to often and I have to remind myself to look at it in the grand scheme of things.

**monkeywrangler71** · 11-02-2009, 02:55 PM

I mention it, but usually it's my fault by not having anything for his lunch.

**nuisance26** · 11-02-2009, 02:59 PM

~DH regularly goes over by $25-$50. We usually take it from his next month's allowance or I donate some of mine to him. And on the occasions in which we buy little things for the kids or go out to eat I pull out my allowance and make him feel guilty that I have to treat. I've even gone so far as to buy my own special occasion presents and make him feel guilty that he didn't have enough money to get me anything.

I've got all kinds of ways to make him feel guilty.
It's effective.~

**ansley** · 11-02-2009, 03:02 PM

I don't know yet but the DC having to do without the 4 walls has got to stop. I don't care if he feels deprived or not.

Yes, he hates for me to say anything about his spending.

FWIW, I don't get blow money to pick up the slack.

**annymoll** · 11-02-2009, 03:26 PM

We both have personal accounts, so he spends his and I spend mine.We do not go over. We have a joint account for household bills, then we have both personal savings and joint savings. Everything is delegated.We don't fuss alot about bills, but I do nag about his diet and exercise habits. I am sure he would pay me a $20 or a $50 a week to nip it, and I could save that money.

**Ceashels** · 11-02-2009, 03:46 PM

I do realize that the new budgeted lifestyle was a big change in thought and practice for Greebo. He does make the lion's share of the money in this household and as long as the bills got paid first i could tolerate the extra spending. I even tolerate the "luxury" items that i would typically do without but he does enjoy comfort and i'm not willing to say no to them for all of the work that he does for both of us.

When he or i go over we have learned to take it from another part of the budget. Something else must pay the price.

I have used my stashed "blow' money for things and it helped pay for our meals on or weekend get away. Both of us pull out our money when we go over budget in our dining out envelope.

It is working well for us and as we tighten our belts a little more... we learn from the new experiences.

**Inkstain82** · 11-02-2009, 04:06 PM

Not very. It's just too much stress to try to keep that close of track.

Our budget overestimates all expenses and underestimates all our income by a little bit. That way, if we blow it a little, we still come in better than the budget says we should. If we don't, we come in a lot better.

**mauimagic** · 11-02-2009, 06:13 PM

We don't have 'fun' money set aside - since there really isn't any extra now. If something comes up, we shift the funds around. Our entertainment time is spent running the AYSO soccer for West Maui - and that is free and fun!!

**sunshine** · 11-02-2009, 06:33 PM

Dh doesn't go over his spending very often. . . . the only place there is any "wiggle room" is the grocery budget. . . so we eat bread and water for 2 weeks when he goes over (ok, not really, but close - cause we already have a tight grocery budget as well)

**Backtoreality** · 11-02-2009, 07:13 PM

Hubby is great at not spending money. Better than I, so he gets X amount of money each week and rarely spends a dime!! Seriously, he is a master at this stuff (grew up in a household of 11 kids!!!). I know his "mad money" envelope is currently sitting at a grand!!

I told him I'm expecting a grand Christmas gift! LOL

We have a joint account - I pay the bills. We have a good savings, a retirement fund, emergency fund. Both have a personal account, "mad money" stash. It's a far cry from a few years ago. This place really rocks at teaching and learnin' ya!!

**Luv2BeFrugal** · 11-03-2009, 02:05 AM

Dh and I stick to our 'fun money' and keep the details in an excel sheet so we know where we stand. We've agreed that we can 'go over' if there's something super-special, etc...but it ALWAYS comes out of the next month's fun money (this rarely happens, but it's part of our 'agreement').