How much is your allowance?

[Valerie in WA]

I'm talking about money that you can spend on anything you want without being accountable to anyone.

We're in a position of having more than enough money to be able to make choices about how we spend it. I want to get out of debt quickly, but not be completely deprived, either.

Currently, I have $40 a month that is mine. I can go out to eat with a friend, buy crafting materials, or whatever I want to do with it. I do also allow $40 a month for 'family entertainment' and we usually spend that having a dinner out as a family. This area of our finances are somewhat separate, but I believe that dh spends 2 to 4 times what I spend. So before I approach him, I'd like to see how much others spend.

TIA!

[Emerald_Mommy]

You probably don't want to go by my numbers. Philip & I each get $10 a month to spend without discussing the purchase with the other person. We don't get it during birthday months (where we'll end up with birthday money) or December. Our budget is tight but neither of us is a spender so we don't really care. We have generous family that give us a lot of birthday money and that money is "mine", too. I can make mine stretch all year but Philip spends his a bit quicker.

[YankeeMom]

We don't do allowances. For adults or kids. If we need it, we buy it. If we want it, we talk about it & decide on a case by case basis.

[AmyBoz]

Rob and I don't have "allowances." When we deposit stuff in the bank, we take a little out and divide it up between us so that we each have money in our wallets but we still tell/ask each other before we buy anything. There is no hers/his in our marriage, even with money. Any money that we might receive from our parents for birthdays is obviously non-discretional. We're in this together, so we're accountable to each other 100% of the time. Luckily, neither of us are shoppers, so once we divvy, that money pretty much stays in our wallets for at least a month.

[sanderson76]

I just decided today and DH agreed that he is somewhat happy with $20 a week for an allowance. I don't spend that as I never go out to eat or rarely buy any extra, but I felt it to be fair and he did a little bit

SO we are going to try that for now.

[SHOPGIRL]

Nope, we don't do allowances. We both work full-time and keep the bulk of our money in separate account. Both of us have retirement accounts, he dabbles in the stock market,so if there is something we need we just buy it. If it is a big purchase, we'll talk about it first. Neither of us get permission from the other to purchase items. Most of our extra money is being used to pay down debt right now so there's not a lot of extra money to spend carelessly.

Years ago we had an account that we shared, and I found it to be a pain to balance it. It may have been different if we didn't use a debit card.

If I wasn't working full-time then we'd probably have to have a different system. I just never want to ask my dh for permission to go out and something.

[forestdale]

DH doesn't have an allowance, I have $10 a week (my choice, not his), but having said that, DH rarely buys anything for himself. He might ocassionally buy a piece of carrot cake and a coffee from the restaurant near our store.

I'm now at the stage where I rarely spend my $10. I buy one magazine a month - $6.95, I never drink soda nor buy coffee from a store. When I need new clothes, (I have enough shoes for forever) makeup or a haircut, I pay for that using my debit card. I don't see those things as indulgences because I really only buy what I need now. This is a huge change for me and I still shake my head sometimes when I think of all the money I wasted in the past.

[pammy]

Dh and I both get $40 every two weeks. Works very well for both of us.

Dh smokes (though I nag him mercilessly, lol) so usually his goes for that, along with his can't-live-without Dr. Pepper.

I have two sis's that live in the same town and all three of our schedules are flexible enough to be able to go out to eat occasionally together. I like having spendind money of my own that I don't have to explain away, or ask permission.

We both get the same amount and agree it's fair. When times were lean a few years back we were both getting $20 each every two weeks. Just whatever, within reason, the budget will allow.

Good Luck!

[Early Bird]

Allowances have prevented many arguments in our 20 years of marriage.

Seven years ago, DH saved up his allowance and bought a vintage pinball machine.

My first thought was, "Why would ANYONE want one of these!?!"

But I didn't say a word. And he doesn't say a word when I go wild at the craft store.

BTW, I LIKE the pinball machine now! And we have added 2 more to our rec room.

***********************

We buy our clothes out of our allowance; the rest is whatever we want.

We each get $90/month.

[Nada.Leona]

lol We can't afford allowances. We barely break even as it is. I went ahead and bought some fabric and a journal as a gift for someone, and now we don't have enough to pay our bills this month and have to wait til next week to pay our phone and electric bill.

[Mojjo]

We won't have enough for allowances until after we buy a house...we are too focused on that to have "discretionary" spending.

However, I can see us doing it eventually and then it will be an equal amount, that's the only way I would be comfortable with it. And $40 every two weeks (we get paid every two weeks) sounds about right for now.

On a side note, I would probably being saving most of mine to do something nice for our anniversary...and so would dh ... lol

[sunshine]

Mine is $20/week, dh's is $10/week (because I work outside the home, and he doesn't - he decided that I had more incidental things come up, like furneral flowers for a coworker, baby shower gifts, and so forth)