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We eat out once a week on the weekends... I stopped buying coffee at cafes (we make batches of it at home now).

Ours varies month to month, but I'd say we average $75 each. Its definitely helped our overall budget!

I give myself $10/week, so $40/month for fun money! That works really well for me!

No. We don't really track little purchases like that. I also never use cash unless I absolutely have to. We put everything on our credit card for the points and then pay it off in full each month.

Since I'm not working any more, I have allotted myself $20 a week to spend without DH. So if LO and I go to the mall I might spend it on lunch, a headband for LO, Starbucks, etc. Or dinner w/girlfriends. Or books to read. Or I can carry over what I don't spend and save up for bigger stuff. I take it out in cash and it has worked pretty well for the past couple of months.

@regberadaisy: another option you can do is buy cards for things like Starbucks. When it's gone it's gone, but it's still kind of the same problem though.

We call it our allowance. I use mine for Starbucks, lunches and dinners with friends, books, etc.

I really need to start doing this. DH and I keep most our money separate (we pay 50/50 of bills into a joint account each month but keep the excess in our own accounts. I think I will start doing $25 per week ($100 per month) - this will give me two meals at work ($5 each) as well as $15 for other coffees/drinks/misc stuff.

This is something I've been wondering about since I am trying to figure out a budget for myself. Ideally I should be saving as much money as possible. I'll probably stick to around $100/ month.

Not really a set amount but we buy things for ourselves here and there. Some months we can't afford anything fun.

I am VERY stingey with our budget. Besides bills, our $ goes to $60 gas weekly, $100 groceries weekly, and $40 each to "spend." However it's not just fun. DH actually gets $50 because he has to buy lunch at work right now. If I want to order pizza, or buy lunch, etc, it comes out of my weekly $40. If I want a shirt, or shoes, or underwear, or ANYTHING, it's my spend. The only exception are larger purchases for the house, etc, which we save up for separately. It's not just $40 a week for fun, it's for all the stuff that isn't a bill or grocery store or gas. And if I go over at the grocery it comes out of my spend. If DH buys more than $10 of food at work a week, the rest comes out of his, etc. We also have a VERY detailed budget spreadsheet (let me know if you want to see it!) and since DH is hourly our weekly paychecks vary. If we don't have enough to cover bills the first place it comes out of are our spends. So if we were $40 short for a bill one week we'd each only get $20 to spend (plus his $10 for food.) Luckily it hasn't happened yet!

Yes, we both budget a set amount of "fun" money each month. We don't take it all out at once, nor worry about spending a little more, but it's there as a guide

We do the same as Mrs. High Heels. We take a bit higher amount 'd like to get that number down to what she has.

It's been ridiculous the last month. The spending out of control! So we are starting to do $100 every paycheck starting next pay period.

We allot $100 "extra" a month. It's a padding if we don't budget enough for gas/food/bills- usually though we budget correctly so it gets used for extras like the unexpected trip to target, coffee, day trips (like the zoo), etc...but instead of fun money it's usually used as oops money haha! Meaning we ran out of gas or went to target cause we needed lightbulbs/gift for someone/toothpaste etc...

I'm digging up old threads because we are revamping our budget. Right now we are doing $150 bi weekly each for fun money. I probably spent that anyways on stuff i wanted, and DH will go months without spending anything.. then he spends $700 on something! SO now we each have our own account and if we want a $700 item, that's fine.. but we have to save first. Hopefully this works and cuts out extra spending we were doing!

@Mrs. Champagne: this is what I am doing right jnow but being insanely stingy about it. I have a 'bag fund' account because DH doesn't understand spending on expensive bags. I am saving $20 per pay period and next spring will buy a nice bag with no drama for a change hahaha.

We pretty much buy what we want when we want it. I would definitely not put off coffee with a friend to save money. To me, that's an investment in a relationship which is way more important to my happiness and overall quality of life than $5. I would say no to more extravagant things if I was trying to save though - like suggesting coffee instead of dinner/drinks/movie.