Each month, Chris and I budget $100 each to spend as “personal allowance.” This includes eating out/coffee/activities we do separately (we have a joint family allowance budget of $100 as well) and purchases are that wants and not needs. To keep ourselves accountable, we use Mint to monitor our spending. As an extra layer of accountability I am sharing what I spent my personal allowance on each month and whether I stayed within budget.
This is my fifth month of diligently tracking my spending and being transparent about it. And it feels great! Already this year we have reduced our monthly personal allowance budgets from $150 each to $100 each. And I’m sure that even $150/month is a reduction from the way we spent in previous years when we weren’t tracking as closely. It’s so easy to think, “I probably haven’t spent all my personal allowance yet…” when you aren’t keeping track.
There’s one very indulgent purchase from this month that isn’t captured on the list below. And that is $55 for a Lipsense started kit. Eek! It’s so expensive, I know! But look at how amazing Erica looks with her lasts-all-day lipstick! As I’ve updated my capsule skin care and make up routine I’ve definitely found that quality matters so I was willing to spend more. This year I’m categorizing all purchases related to skin care/make up/hair cuts as “personal care.” Then at the end of the year I’ll see what I’ve spent and if I need to adjust.
And now on to what I spent my personal allowance on last month.
What I spent in May:
$4.54 – A Piece of the World Kindle version. I normally get ALL my books through the library but this is what Erica and I were reading for our Girl Next Door Book Club and I was so far down on the library waiting list. Luckily I randomly had some Amazon credit to use so it offset the price.
$24.95 – Admission to the Desert Botanical Garden
$14.75 – an OK and overpriced lunch at The Suguaro Hotel during my solo day date. I had considered bringing more of my own snacks so I wouldn’t have to eat out and I wish I had. Lesson learned (hopefully).
$8.43 – a beer at book club. Now that I look at this it seems over priced!
$14.01 – vintage Pyrex bowl and small vintage hand drawing while antiquing. The best part about this was discovering a little note on the back of the drawing referencing “taking me in” and dated 1978. How thrilling!
$7.55 – margarita and a taco during a book club gals happy hour at Joyride. Not only was it such a fun time but you can’t beat that price (and the quality was also great).
$17.98 – pair of running/swim shorts and a dress for work at Goodwill. Technically we have a separate clothes budget but to be conservative I’m going to count this against my personal allowance.
Total spent: $92.21 out of $100 budgeted. Hooray! Back on budget!
In April $117.18 out of $100 budgeted.
In March $101.35 out of $100 budgeted
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