As I’ve said before, my main reason for being frugal is so that I can afford to work part time and spend more time with the kids.
But (there’s always a but)…. It’s also really important to me that, as a family, we have lots of fun together and even though I know there are plenty of things we can do together that don’t cost a penny, there are also lots of things we like to do together that do cost money.
We allow a set amount of money each month in our budget for fun things, which could include anything from going to the pictures or bowling (doesn’t happen often as it costs so much these days), trips to the soft play, going out for tea or even just for little treats when we do something free (like last weeks cakes and hot chocolate at the free North Yorkshire Moors Vistor Centre).
I used to keep track of how much we had left from the fun budget each month in my head but I always ended up losing track so now we get the money out of the bank on pay day each month and keep it in the ‘fun jug’ which I keep on the kitchen windowsill.
I keep an eBay box in the garage that I keep things in that the kids have grown out of / got sick of / never played with anyway. I usually lack the motivation to eBay them but if we have a month where there isn’t much left over in our budget, I make an effort to list everything that’s in the box to make money for the fun budget. I also have a ‘shopping from our cupboards‘ meal planning week which involves only cooking meals with ingredients that we already have in to free up some money from the shopping budget to put towards the fun budget.
Do you budget for fun or is it just me 
It's certainly not just you – we have a "fun budget" too. In fact, we have all manner of different savings accounts that money gets filtered into at the start of each month – for household stuff, Christmas, car costs, holiday, and the all important "fun stuff"! It makes such a difference knowing that the money is sitting there waiting to do the fun things we all want to do, doesn't it!
I love knowing it's there
I keep considering having different bank accounts for things – I think that would work well for us, I just need to get around to doing it lol
I think this is a fab idea Cass and will work this in to my nexct budget
plan!
Thanks very much x
I love the jugs use
It's perfect for it – just have to remember not to use it as a vase for flowers without taking the money out lol
Our xtras fund comes from all sorts of places…
I went through our old dvd/ games cd box recently and found oodles of old games we dont use (i was an avid collector of sims games as a teen)…. i put them on play.com which, is where i originally bought them. all 26 games should get us £150+. A healthy addition to the fund.
We put £££ into an online saver every week towards the bills…. everything except the TV channels/ phone calls is a set amount…. on the 31st of the month we send the money over to the main account. Whats left on the 3rd after all the bills have come out goes to the xtra fund. This March that should give us £60.
We also do the usual pennies bottle, tescos club card points (we dont shop at tesco but MrC shops for his mam there), and pay a little extra into our water bill… which at the end of the year (decemberish time) the region of £70.
Even with the money theres very little to do in the area… have to be more creative… but then again thats half the fun
Some great ideas there for making some extra money – thanks very much x
A great idea having an ebay box. I just have random things around the house that are intended for ebaying, and then it seems like too great an effort.
Shopping from our cupboard (larder/freezer in my case) seriously needs to happen to free up some space. The only issue is my fussy OH who won't eat half the things I have in them.
I have a fussy OH too and a fussy 6y/o – I'm working on them lol