Hellobee Boards Topic: How often do you do "bigger" activities?

Hellobee Boards Topic: How often do you do "bigger" activities? https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Tue, 07 Apr 2026 04:04:46 +0000 gingerbebe on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754530 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 11:33:09 +0000 gingerbebe 2754530@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I would just add a $100 line item to your budget for "fun experiences" and then re-evaluate in 6 months to see if its an appropriate number. For us, we don't budget separately for unexpected things, even if it ends up being like $100 for the day, but we keep a $2000 cushion in our checking account for any unexpected overages across the board and tighten back up to replenish it the following month(s). However, I may pull from multiple sources in our budget to cover a random day out before hitting the cushion. For example, for an apple picking day, we have to drive 1.5 hours each way (so gas), then we spend money on lunch, cider donuts, apple cider, all the rides, fudge, pies, apples, and then possibly eat out again on the way home depending on timing. So that day easily is going to cost our family of four $100. I would probably take half of the money from our food budget (at the moment we combine eating out and groceries), not eat out or order take-out for the following week or two (we usually eat out once a week), and then cover the rest with my pocket money. If it were even more than that (say an overnight at a hotel was involved), we would probably take the $200 in hotel costs from our overage pad and then pay it back the following month. looch on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754526 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 11:20:09 +0000 looch 2754526@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @Mamaof2: We don't have to, and most times we don't. It's just in this case, the arena is 1.5 hours away from our house and I don't know why we really needed to stay, lol. We could have driven home, my son would have fallen asleep for sure. Mamaof2 on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754523 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 11:16:24 +0000 Mamaof2 2754523@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @looch: do you have to stay in a hotel? We do lots of things but always come home after even if its a long day! looch on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754521 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 11:14:46 +0000 looch 2754521@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @babypugs: Haha, true! I think part of the fun of parenting is seeing kids develop interests. I think that's what part of my "issue" is. The free stuff is all great, but I much prefer going somewhere that my son suggests. I'll never forget when we were on vacation and he suggested that we see Blue Man Group because he had watched clips in music class and he said he was interested in learning more about it. babypugs on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754514 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 10:56:49 +0000 babypugs 2754514@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @looch: Ah, I might have an advantage there--I have two girls, a 3 yo and 5 month old. The 3 yo still gets excited about everything and obviously the 5 month old can't voice any objections. ;) My husband doesn't take the initiative to find activities, so that pretty much cancels out any veto power he might have, ha! I am sure it will get much more challenging/expensive as they get older (but, less money into daycare means a bigger budget!). looch on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754509 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 10:48:13 +0000 looch 2754509@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @babypugs: I am curious though, do your kids have an opinion? My husband and son are extremely opinionated and it makes things challenging! babypugs on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754508 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 10:46:58 +0000 babypugs 2754508@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @looch: I follow a bunch of local mom and city blogs (Twitter helps!) and regularly Google "things to do this weekend in...". It takes a little bit of effort but you might be surprised at what you can find! looch on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754505 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 10:43:10 +0000 looch 2754505@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @babypugs: Yes, I do need to do a better job at finding free activities. babypugs on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754503 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 10:39:55 +0000 babypugs 2754503@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @looch: We do budget for our "bigger" activities, although they are much smaller. A bigger thing for us would be, say, a morning at the farmer's market ($30-40). We try to keep it at $80-$100 a month. There are a ton of amazing free or low-budget activities available locally, so I don't feel like I'm depriving the family of fun by not budgeting more. looch on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754502 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 10:39:30 +0000 looch 2754502@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @808love: We do have a line item for gifts, this doesn't seem to fit in there for me. @mediagirl: The issue is that my husband doesn't plan in advance. I mentioned this to him months ago, and he just kind of ignored it. Then the Wednesday before the event, my son expressed some sadness about an event that he couldn't attend at school and I felt bad. @Mae: I think you're right...but either way, we don't budget well for these things. I am always shocked at ticket prices for events, particularly ones at arenas where you have all the taxes and transfer fees! The tickets themselves aren't hugely expensive (we got them for like $50 each), but adding in the hotel for the overnight stay (without using points) and meals is what makes it over the top. I think as kids get older, they get more expensive. Now, I don't indulge my son with stuff that often, but I am big on experiences. I tend to spend more that way, I have noticed. Mae on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754493 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 10:27:53 +0000 Mae 2754493@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I feel like your'e sort of talking about two different things. We do bigger things in terms of effort/unusualness (zoo, holiday lights, pumpkin picking, apple picking). But none of that is expensive. We basically never do things that cost $500. But also my daughter is only 3. Maybe when she's older. mediagirl on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754458 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 09:00:55 +0000 mediagirl 2754458@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We hardly ever do big events like that. If we do, we plan in advance. The only time we typically do things last minute is if we find a good groupon or coupon for them. If we want to do something like Disney on Ice, we just take from savings. 808love on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2754428 Mon, 03 Jul 2017 07:46:21 +0000 808love 2754428@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @looch: JUst saw this now. I do a monthly line in my budget for events/gifts. I use it when we are going to some party with an expensive gift, eating out at restaurants (recently reserved for celebrations to honor family members) or going someplace awesome that requires admission. CHristmas gifts, vacations and souvenirs are NOT included in this. looch on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2749102 Mon, 19 Jun 2017 09:47:32 +0000 looch 2749102@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @lawbee11: @snowjewelz: I think that's what I will do, a combination of budgeting for an activity "per quarter" and then fun money for those smaller events. snowjewelz on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2749068 Mon, 19 Jun 2017 09:00:05 +0000 snowjewelz 2749068@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I use YNAB too and I have a line called "fun money". So on a month where we'd suddenly do a more costly activity, it's usually covered from leftovers from other months. But that to me isn't an activtiy; that's a vacation lol! lawbee11 on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2749063 Mon, 19 Jun 2017 08:44:08 +0000 lawbee11 2749063@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I budget every two weeks with YNAB rather than monthly which probably makes it easier for me to anticipate random stuff like that. I also have an "unexpected expenses" line and that helps cover the sort of stuff you mention. looch on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2749057 Mon, 19 Jun 2017 08:36:55 +0000 looch 2749057@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @HappyBaker: We don't, we use an old fashioned excel spreadsheet for our forecasting. I think I could make a line item for "activities" outside of memberships, and just roll it forward if we don't use it in the actuals. I think part of the problem is that we're not consistent in what we do and I don't do much planning. As an example, we've been to two events this year, neither of which we allocated for in the budget. We also don't plan in advance when we go to the fairs or even apple picking in the fall...maybe I should put those things in? HappyBaker on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2749052 Mon, 19 Jun 2017 08:28:50 +0000 HappyBaker 2749052@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Do you use YNAB? I feel like you do for some reason but could be wrong! What I do is have an extra category called "Oops" that I keep $500 in. It covers those random / spur of the moment events and activities, and then once it goes below $500 I add to it the next time we get paid to try to get it back up to $500. It helps because it doesn't feel like I'm stealing from elsewhere to cover those things! looch on "How often do you do "bigger" activities?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-often-do-you-do-bigger-activities#post-2749046 Mon, 19 Jun 2017 08:21:47 +0000 looch 2749046@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Lately, we've been doing things last minute and it's affecting our budgeting activities. As an example, we made a decision last minute to attend a Monster Jam event. After the tickets, the food, the hotel, it came to around $500 for the weekend. We decided on Wednesday to attend on Saturday and it wasn't included in the month's budgeting activities at all. Do you budget for these kinds of things in advance? I feel like we don't do a ton of things, maybe once a quarter and I should be adding it to the budget forecast, but I am not sure how. It's also the season of weekend fundraising carnivals and fairs, a ton of things happening, most of them require some kind of payment, whether it be admissions or pay per use rides. Then I look at the seasonal stuff, like the annual Pumpkin Blaze, the holiday events, etc. I can't keep it all straight! What do you do?