I'm going to start figuring out an average running rate and see where it comes out over a period of a few months. I'll also try and track the times we bypassed going out. I can look back over where we spent, where we passed and determine if we are putting our entertainment budget in the right areas. I'm going to use entertaiment loosely to include all activities that are activities beyond the normal needs living. I won't count school activities, gifts to people, or activities that are gifts to people. DH's work lnches and my occasional work lunch and coffee meetings won't be counted. Work expenses, perhaps? I will include costs to host and be hosted (bringing an appetizer, bottle of wine etc.), activities I hope to do more of. I'll only count DD2's activities if she was part of the family or one to one outing with one of us. She has her own spending money for her things. I also won't count travel as that is partially a budget category and partially a targted savings goal.
March so far, our activities look like this. I've not been feeling terrific on weekends and the added snow has made us both hibernating bears, so social life has been nonexistent. But we have plans to meet friends for a green beer tonight and have some friends over for cards next weekend. Because entertainment should add value to life, I will add a wow value of 1-5, with 1 meaning, bleh activity and we would have had abelow better time staying home, and 5, worth every penny spent. Most will end up with a 3, but I'm hoping we find some clear 4's and 5's.
- (3)Chinese Take out $25 and Netflix family movie night $0
- (4)Parking pass for DD2 and me Sculpture Garden $4. It was colder and wetter than it looked, so we didn't stay as long and couldn't get to many of the sculptures without drenching our feet in ice cold puddles or this woudl have been a 5. Otherwise, a great way to spend an afternoon for just the cost to park. We had free parking though and a free museum vist at the (5) Mia museum.
- (3)Movie Theater DH and DD2 to see Black Panther $16 (this might have actually been February-can't remember now)
- (5) Take and Bake Pizza, $0 (old coupon expensed back in November), Netflix family movie night, gave a 5 as we spent nothing and had our teenager with us for two hours!
- (3) Date night dinner out, DH and I $30
Passed on Activities
- I didn't go to a girls card night, but it was the night before a 5:00 wake up call for show choir and I was chaperoning.
- We didn't join in with another family snow sledding. Neither DD2 or I was feeling it and DH was working.
- DH wanted to go out for a Fish Fry a week ago, but instead we stayed home. We most likely will meet up with extended family that we will not see Easter on Good Friday for one.
- We also passed last night on a Fish Fry as I had already planned to make spaghetti and meat balls. The group ended up not even getting inot the place they wanted and went to a place that DH does not like going for fish.
When the weather warms up, we'll have more outdoor opportunities for entertainment, which almost always jumps the point value up for me. We have months where the amount of homebody time is rare, so these quiet months are fine by me. I'm on the look out for more things DH and I can enjoy as a couple besides going out to eat and things all three of us would enjoy. Our time with our youngest is fleeting, so a nice night in with dinner and a movie is not a bad night of entertianment though. How about you? Where do you put your entertainment budget? For those of you with teens, what activities do you all enjoy together?
We don't have an official entertainment budget at all and I'm starting to think we should now that there is a tad more wiggle room in the monthly budget.
ReplyDeleteAs for what we do with our daughters...When the weather is good and they are willing, we tend to do a lot of hiking with them - which ends up being mostly free, with an occasional park fee here or there. Once in a very long while we will go to the movies with them too.....Or just chill out at home and watch movies on Prime or Netflix.
I hear you on the nice weather. Our favorite activity and got to be a bit of a routine was a Friday night walk along the river. We would run inot people we knew, sometimes stop for a drink, but usually just walked and talked. My kids all like finding the hiing and green spaces.
DeleteWe don't have an Entertainment Budget per se. I try to keep eating out/Take-out to within $200 per month(in months were we have a Bday dinner out). Once both kids move out(fingers crossed!lol)our Eating Out budget should heave a sigh of relief.
ReplyDeleteAs for trips/vacations we also don't have a budget line for that. If we want to take a trip it comes out of reg. savings the amount we can't cover with the reg. income.
I don't have any friends here in RL(after 17+ years of trying other than my 'friends" at Rite-Aid lol)so when we go tripping I try to include visits to my online friends.
No teens at home so I am no help with that, sorry. It can be impossible to have quality time with older teens as they don't want to do what you want to do(except drink beer, party and text on their phones to their friends).
Heh. My eldest DS (17) loves a no oop Rite Aid run.
DeleteI find I am not very good at nurturing/keeping up reguallrly with frinds so am trying to make a point more to do so. I'm fortunate with this one at home-she likes music, plays, movies, hiking, parks, and museums-pretty much all my geeky faves as well.
DeleteWe do not tend to go out with friends a lot, but do occasionally. More often TheHub and I go out for a quick meal before another event. We do have an entertainment budget but it is more of a per year rather than a per month thing. We buy season tickets to plays, music events, and college football games, then random tickets to other things that pique our interest.
ReplyDeleteOur travel budget is consumed by visiting our sons who live on opposite ends of the US. Maybe Son3 will eventually wind up in Europe somewhere and we can kill two birds with one stone.
I have several siblings that have a more active social life with friends than they did in highschool-DH's siblings as well. I guess we are more home boides, but do enoy catching up so am trying to make more efforts.
DeleteWe don't have an official entertainment budget, but as we are a family of introverts, that's fine. What really blows the budget is eating out. I think I told you that DH LOVES to take the kids out to eat. So, if he's picking up, say, DD after driver's Ed., or even picking up a kid after school, he'll take them out to eat at a favorite stop, sometimes rushing to the other school to get the other kids off the bus in time for them to join. It's not a comment on my cooking, they just love going out to eat.
ReplyDeleteLike Sluggy, I don't really socialize with friends. My friends are very content, like me, to be in their own homes. When I do meet with a friend, we will do things like trawl the grocery outlet and thrift shops. For the kids, the bulk of the "entertainment" is fees for choir/band, supplies for hobbies, (beekeeping, gardening, coin collecting, drawing) and Y memberships. I am even counting driver's Ed. in that category. All this money comes out of our monthly budget. So, if kid needs $400 for driver's Ed., I will cut back on something else. She's not going to get driver's ed. and a new pair of shoes, for instance.
For trips and vacations, we are similar to Sluggy. If we head to our Florida place, the money comes out of the regular living fund. Unlike Sluggy, I don't see any kids moving out any time soon, so I doubt the situation will change.
As for quality time with my family, I don't ever really force it. They seem to be around all the time no matter what--more often than not DH and I will try to head out the door, and we'll get a head appearing over the bannister asking "Where are you going, can I come, can I DRIVE?"
My kids were all a mix of socially active and like their down time when they were teens. Fortunaltey, I ahve usually been friendly with their friends parents, ahve become good friends with some, but hard to stay connected once the school years were done-no natural hanging out place. I have a few "mom" friends, a few highschool friends, and a few old work friends that I see each about 3-6 times per year. DH is the same and then we have a few couple friends. Once we and they get kid inlaws and grandchildren, I know it will b super hard to connect, but I guess that is how life changes. We really need to find some cold weather month activities though-I have probalby 10 years before we can relocate to more hospitable climates, and this winter just about did me in mentally with cabin fever/sloth hibernation.
DeleteWe don’t have an entertainment budget as such because every spare penny goes into our travel fund and we don’t tend to eat out/ take out or go out on a regular basis in between trips however we do bigger things like Somerset house film event each year and we’ve just bought tickets for a festival in July which will be my first ever festival at 59 lol Manic Street Preaches heading it up and I love them so very excited. I think the money we save on not eating out each week or having take outs etc funds these type of expenses so I don’t tend to monitor it too much. I spend very little on clothes/ makeup/ hair these days since I’m no longer working but I do spend on yoga classes and my course etc different priorities I guess. We will be hosting Easter with family coming to us so we will go out for lunch on one of the days then cook on the others so that’s pretty expensive but most of the expense will come out of the monthly grocery money. I’m not a cold weather person and since being back from Costa Rica I’m struggling with the winter weather snow again here at the mo lol so I’m planning other trips as I write this lol.
ReplyDeleteWe really need to have some oulet particuallry in the winter months other than work or our daughters school events to get us out of the hosue or get people inot our house. I would be loonier than I already am by April. I do though like your perspective of putting as much free money towards trips as possible, hence I'm looking for fun, but economical outings and meals out are not that. We ended up out with friends and five beers and a shared appetizer with tax and tip was $33. Not outrageous, but once it is warm, that $33 will stretch so much farter as we thorw some drinks and snacks in a cooler and head tot he river or lake, relax on the deck or have an outdoor fire. Until then, as I look at a snow covered deck, I feel options are more limited.
DeleteI admire your virtue. I tend not to bother looking at budget when going out. Most times after symphony we go to a local hip place for food and drink. I daresay that's 150$ PER VISIT oh the pain and embarrassment
ReplyDeleteNo virtue-just limited funds. If spending $150 on a night out doesn't mean you are doing without other priorities, no harm, no embarrassment. Since we wnat to travel more and have a third kid to put thorugh college, our first priorities, pricey meals and drinks out more often tha occasional is not smart for us, and should be low on our spending.
DeleteI don't have a husband or teens around. Lots of my friends have rudely died and left me high and dry. Due to disability, it is hard to get out where I did see and catch up with friends. If I had adequate money, there are places to go, but then the walking involved still keeps me away. I do the best I can and exbf is disabled, so neither of us can walk a lot or help the other. We do small things or a big thing like driving hours to Nashville to see the total eclipse of the sun. Of course, he paid for the gas and car, and I furnished food/sandwiches/snacks.
ReplyDeleteLinda-you always have interesting things you do like th eeclipse but also your community and church lunches. It keeps you out and about.
Delete