How much do you spend per month on items you may not necessarily need/fun?

I don’t keep track. If I want something, I typically buy it. A few months ago I spent between $750-1k on bourbon.

Widely nuanced. Do you really “need” a lariat 4x4 to drive to your CPA office and duck hunt 3 times a year? If the note is $600 a month and a civic note is $200, does that mean your “not necessary” expense is the $400 extra?

I don’t think my spending in “monthly” per se. I go months where I probably only spend $100 on nice to have widgets. This weekend alone, I bought a new rod and reel ($450) and a suit ($1000). Sooo...those two definitely qualify as nice to have rather than absolute musts.

We go out to eat a lot so that’s probably our most frequent expense that we consider entertainment yet could be cut.

Now that travel can happen again, I’ll spend $5-8K annually on trips. I typically take two international trips a year plus another 5 or so domestic trips. Travel is the big one that I prioritize.

I generally don’t spend a lot on widgets on a monthly basis but when I buy something it is typically pricey.

Depends what broke on my boat this month. This time it’s a trolling motor.

For us it depends. I feel during the summer we do a lot of things that are just considered "fun". I have WVU season tickets and I golf 2-3 a week during the summer, I guess that would be considered not needed, but its what I like to do. I agree with the poster above, once the retirement and college accounts are funded it is all fair game.

I don't track is closely, but basically if I or my wife want something we buy it. If I had to guess it works out to $1,000-1,500 a month. Most of that is wine for me and clothes for my wife.

We both earn a high income and save about right at 30% gross to retirement. As long as we meet that goal everything else is fair game.

I will say the same thing I said in the mortgage thread...

I think trying to find a concensus or rule of thumb when it comes to expenses is dangerous.

Statisticly, most people are terrible with money and will be spending much more on such things than they should. Also, there will always be people with more money than you who can spend more on what they please.

The most important thing is to ensure that you are maximizing your savings, particularly any tax advantaged accounts. Once you do that, you shouldn't have to worry too much about budgeting because the rest is lagniappe.

quote:

---

Can either be a specific dollar amount or a % of overall monthly income. Trying to figure out what the consensus is

---

Unpopular opinion here - but once my financial ducks are in a row, I spend as much as I want.

By financial ducks in a row, I mean the following:
-no high interest debt (greater than 3%)
-Retirement contributions met
-Sufficient cash nest egg

Some of those things differ by person. For me, retirement contributions means maxing out mine and the wife’s IRA. I have a pension with the state that I contribute 10% of my salary to and the wife contributes 5% with a 10% employer match in her 401k.

And for us - sufficient cash nest egg is $5k. It’s a little on the low end but in the event of emergencies, we have a taxable brokerage account that can also be accessed to pull funds from.

After all that, my view point is life is short. I feel comfortable with our retirement contributions and our “oh frick” emergency fund. Sure we could invest more, and sometimes I do that. But I’m not going to kill myself and strip myself of fun/nice things to make sure every extra dollar goes to investments. Enjoy the life you have now, so long as you’re still being responsible to ensure your future wealth. You can do both

TLDR - Once I’ve checked all the boxes on what I consider to cover all our current living needs and future wealth needs, any extra dollar is considered disposable. Sometimes it will be invested but if I want a nice trip or a luxury item that isn’t a need, I won’t sweat using those dollars to purchase that.

My primary "fun" expenditure is definitely food/drinks/entertainment which I probably spend $500/month on. Aside from that I think I spend about $100 a month on records. I'm able to max my employer match for both my 401k and HSA, then max my Roth and contribute to a brokerage so I'm pretty happy with the balance I've struck.

Lol. Some people just don't know how to enjoy what they got. One day someone else will enjoy all that stuff they never did. It should really be about being financially healthy then who cares. Could you be more frugal sure but what's point of the stress of a 6 figure job if you don't get some of the perks

My gf and I budget $10,000 per year each for vacations. We haven’t spent that much the past year because of covid but hopefully the international restrictions will get lifted soon. I also order about $2,000 of scotch and beer from Scotland and Belgium annually.