Weekly spending | Imamother

Log in / Sign Up

List of Forums + New Post Recipe Box Usergroups Following My Posts Bookmarks

Private Messages Advanced Search Rules New User Guide FAQ Advertise Contact Us

Forum -> Household Management -> Finances

Weekly spending

View latest: 24h 48h 72h

amother

Seashell

Thu, Aug 02 2018, 8:50 am

This is probably posted many times, but I can't seem to find any. Maybe I searched for the wrong word. Anywho, what is your approximate weekly spending? This doesn't include bills, like electric, water, rent, etc.. It includes clothing that might be needed, out to eat, food, toiletries, etc.. Also, how many people are in your household and approximate ages?

We b'h have 8 people in our household and that includes a few teenagers/young adults and they're all home all day, the teens and older. The way it works by us, is my husband gives me a certain amount of money per week. We don't use credit cards. He doesn't specifically budget me and I know if I don't have enough for something one week, I wait for the next week. If I know I will need more, he'll give me more, no problem. This is not a shalom bayis issue whatsoever.

Let me preface that I don't live in the US or Israel, but I will change the money to US dollars.

I was wondering if he's been giving me too little because lately I don't seem to have enough or I'm overdoing it. I mostly keep a cheshbon about what I'm spending on per week, but I still don't know where the money goes. I don't know if I'm nuts or it really is too little.

How much I pay these people aren't important, but I have a cleaning lady twice a week, a personal trainer 3 times a week (it's very cheap here and it used to be 4, but I wanted to cut back because of the money), and then regular household expenses. My dh usually gives me less than $350 and this week he gave me a little over $600. This week, I had to pay my cleaning lady for last week, I went for a waxing and pedicure and my dd, a manicure, my dd and I got a haircut and coloring, two of my kids got a haircut and I went to a nutritionist. Besides the other regular expenses, I think that was mostly all the extra. I barely bought food and I don't need to buy chicken and meat, but I did buy toiletries. I didn't pay the trainer yet and I didn't go shopping for shabbos yet, but I have very little to buy anyway. I have hardly anything left. Does that make any sense or everything here is really expensive or can the money just be disintegrating?

This is not a question of what I can cut back on or how to budget. I b'h don't need to cut back and I know how to budget, but it doesn't seem to add up. Things have been going up in price here, I do know that, but is my "allowance" considered normal, too little, or a lot?

In addition, I don't have a car and walk everywhere usually.

amother

Hotpink

Thu, Aug 02 2018, 8:57 am

given we don't know where you live and how much things cost where you live - its impossible to answer that. If you are doing what your normally do - but prices are going up - thats the answer, isn't it?

if you don't need to cut-back - do what you do - and if your 'allowance' isn't cutting it, ask for a 'raise'.

amother

Seashell

Thu, Aug 02 2018, 8:59 am

amother wrote:

I know that, but I was asking what others do. One of the reasons we moved was because of the cost of living, so I would like to compare.

amother

Hotpink

Thu, Aug 02 2018, 9:09 am

amother wrote:

I know that, but I was asking what others do. One of the reasons we moved was because of the cost of living, so I would like to compare.

okay.

well I don't spend that much - but I don't have 8 children to care for/entertain.

amother

Seashell

Thu, Aug 02 2018, 9:20 am

amother wrote:

okay.

well I don't spend that much - but I don't have 8 children to care for/entertain.

I'm not specifically asking you, but I can multiply or divide and approximate.

And re the bolded, neither do I. 8 people Wink

, 6 children.

Rachel Shira

Thu, Aug 02 2018, 9:30 am

There are a few things going on that seem strange to me.
One is that you don’t know how much money to expect each week. How are you supposed to pay for fixed expenses, whether luxuries or necessities, if there might be a $300 “allowance” discrepancy from one week to the next?
Two is that you said that the amounts you pay these people don’t matter. Of course they do, so you can make sure you have enough money to pay them.
Do you have a budget for food, toiletries, and other household necessities and are you budgeting extra specifically for the hair appointments and manicures? It seems a little backwards to me that you had those appointments and now are saying you barely have anything left over for Shabbos food.
If you search for “budget” you might get more results, it’s definitely been discussed.

amother

Hotpink

Thu, Aug 02 2018, 9:49 am

amother wrote:

I'm not specifically asking you, but I can multiply or divide and approximate.

And re the bolded, neither do I. 8 people Wink

, 6 children.

My mistake.

I know you aren't specifically asking me - though your are asking generally - my point was family budgets, especially for the 'walking around stuff' really vary.

amother

Chocolate

Thu, Aug 02 2018, 12:09 pm

Op, what exactly are u asking?

U said u dont need to budget but u are wondering why all of a sudden u dont have enough money. You said that all the weekly allowance is almost gone. Where did it all go??

So, my answer to u is that if someone just spends without keeping a log of what u are spending especially for beauty services like hair coloring mani pedi....then guess what? In the end everything added up to all ur alllowance. This is why some celebrities with a lot of money went broke.

U said u know how to budget which im sure u do but since u dont need to, u are not keeping a log of everything so just adding up hair coloring $50 mani pedi $25 plus for your dd another $25 is already $100. Then, haircuts for 3 ppl can be arund $100 with tips. Then, nutitionist arnd $200.

Thats already $400(estimated) . Then u paid the cleaning lady for twice a week so $120. Thats $520 already plus the toiletries around $60 which is total of $580 that u spent. So, yes, I estimated, but everything adds up before u know it money is gone. This has nothing to do with prices going up. You are spending so the money is gone.

I cant spend $600 weekly on nonessential items as u described bec that would be an extra $2600 a month on extras which is a lot. So, in my opinion ur dh is giving u a reasonable amount. But my opinion doesnt matter bec ur budget and views are different than mine.

amother

Cerulean

Thu, Aug 02 2018, 12:33 pm

Some beginner advice:

Work backwards, using the envelope system.

You know that certain things like Shabbos food and basic household supplies are musts. Look at what you usually spend for them, and set aside that much of the budget in an envelope.

Don't spend more than whatever is remaining. If you don't have enough for coloring or mani-pedi this week, don't do it until next week.

TwinsMommy

Fri, Aug 03 2018, 7:42 pm

if it helps--- there's a lot of us here on imamother who never do coloring, mani-pedi, nutritionist, cleaning ladies, vacations, etc. Aside from bills, our family pretty much just spends on food. OCCASIONAL clothing (but a lot of hand me downs too). Bills are already more than our income and we don't qualify for food stamps, etc, so there we are.

Amarante

Sat, Aug 04 2018, 10:35 pm

I don't understand your question.

While you don't have to say what you pay for certain services, you certainly need to add up the cost for these services to determine what you need to pay for them and therefore how much money you need for the week.

As for items like food, that can be a bit trickier because it can vary so much from week to week depending on what the week's food needs will be and if you need to stock up on toiletries, paper products etc.

And then there are items for the household that aren't necessarily part of the budget - like a lamp or a roasting pan. But surely you would know you need to buy something like this that week and just add in the cost.

And depending on your lifestyle, you can spend quite a bit of money without thinking too much about it - Starbucks, frozen yogurt, impulse purchases like a lipstick or whatever can add up. Not that you shouldn't spend the money on these if you have it but you should be aware that you are spending money on it so that you don't arrive at the end of the week apparently clueless as to how much money you need to cover your normal expenses.

amother

Pewter

Sat, Aug 04 2018, 11:56 pm

You need to learn some basic budgeting: read this

http://adimesaved.com/budgetin.....stem/

Then sit down with your husband and decide how much money you need each week.
I'm assuming you can easily afford way more money or else you will have to cut out ALL the things you mentioned in your op.

anuta

Sun, Aug 05 2018, 8:01 am

In a relatively expensive are in us, my grocery and toiletry, toilet paper, cleaning supplies budget is $350 per week. We don't regularly eat out. We don't do Mani pedi and I cut my boys hair myself. The only one who I pay for professional haircut is my teen daughter, maybe 3 times a year. We don't have cleaning help.
We are 3 adults and 5 kids, two of them teens.

amother

Seashell

Sun, Aug 05 2018, 10:20 am

anuta wrote:

Thank you. This was helpful to compare to. It seems like it makes sense that it's not enough money.

The reason why I didn't say how much I pay for certain things because I'm not asking if it's enough, I know how to add. I was asking if it comes out so much cheaper here. I wouldn't do all those extra things if I lived elsewhere, but bh I can here.

Personal trainer- about $15 an hour
Cleaning lady- $5 an hour
Items are expensive, but services are not.

Rachel Shira

Sun, Aug 05 2018, 11:00 am

amother wrote:

First of all, lucky you that you have such cheap services. That's really amazing.
But the amount still matters, because even though you have extremely cheap cleaning help and personal training, you still (per your first post) "have hardly anything left" after these expenses, before you buy your Shabbos food. So it doesn't matter if your cleaning help costs two pennies an hour. If there's not the money for it, there's not the money for it.
Can you sit down with your husband and make a budget together? Having a grasp on your overall finances might help clarify how much money is really available and how to plan for each of your expenses.

Page 1 of 1