Entertainment Budget

[Mulligan]

Way to go! That's a great philosophy. You can't take it with you.

So far this year, my total monthly entertainment expenditures have been a little under $308/month, and eating out every day accounts for all or nearly all of it.

I consider eating out as part of my entertainment budget, but when I do fortunately it reduces the expenditures out of my food budget. Makes me think of the old saying something like " when I was young I would eat before my entertainment, now eating is my entertainment!"

 

[W2R]

I consider eating out as part of my entertainment budget, but when I do fortunately it reduces the expenditures out of my food budget. Makes me think of the old saying something like " when I was young I would eat before my entertainment, now eating is my entertainment!"

Yes, eating at restaurants does reduce the grocery bill quite a bit! So, it really isn't as much of a dent in my expenses at all, to tell the truth.

Eating is great entertainment at my age. Especially since I go to these restaurants with my dear friend. He is a great conversationalist, and New Orleans food is out of this world.

 

[Meadbh]

I don't have a budget specifically for entertainment. Let's take this weekend. I paid $250 to participate in a golf tournament, but that gets me two rounds of golf with a cart and great teammates, a meet and greet, a steak dinner with wine and entertainment, and it's for a great cause that's relevant to my work. So in one way, it could be considered a work expense, though Revenue Canada wouldn't see it that way.

If you count books I download on my Kindle, cable TV, internet (required for work), occasional concerts, theatre tickets, movies, it would be all over the place depending on interest and opportunity. I often go to a concert or other event if I am in a city where it's happening, and that is by definition sporadic.

I like to keep life simple. My budget for everything personal for the remainder of 2011 is what's left in my current accounts, prorated for every month. On January 1 2012 I can give myself a corporate dividend. Personal funds are tight right now so there were two events recently that I wanted to attend that I didn't. My budget is global, not categorized.

 

[Nords]

I have no idea what we spend.

Made me look. I record it but I don't analyze it any more.

So far this year we've spent $2019, or about $250/month, but the purchases were lumpy.

The big expenses? A $475 lightly used 10'0" epoxy longboard, a barely used $80 Nook e-reader, a $325 2nd dan black belt test (where I was sorely used), and about $1000 for Haleakala backpacking gear & in-crater cabin rentals.

We also blew nearly $8 on surf wax. Money well spent.

Dining out is a separate budget category. So far that's been $789 (~$100/mo) for extravagances like Thursday night Costco pizza & frozen yogurts ($13.25/couple), Taco Bell, Thai Kitchen, Zippy's chili, and Italian food at Bravo's. Including the weekly pizza, it looks like we eat out 2-3x/week. We used to set a much better example when we were raising our daughter (taekwondo nights, Kumon nights, school homework) but as empty nesters we've considerably loosened up the purse strings.

 

[Walt34]

Does tool purchases at Harbor Freight classify as entertainment expenses?

Generally, yes. But if you're buying the tools for a job you'd rather farm out but can't/won't afford to, then it goes under "home maintenance". The distinction is whether you want to or have to.

We don't really have an "entertainment budget" as such. We have set budget amounts for the normal month-to-month stuff (DW is very good at forecasting what the heating bill will be for example) but for entertainment that's kind of "Well, there's money not allocated to anything specific, what should we do with it?" So sometimes we'll spend it, other times we'll just save it and think about what to do with it later.

Sometimes that decision is made for us, like the $1,400 repair/maintenance bill we just got for DW's car. There went my carbon fiber camera tripod and macro lens.

 

[Moemg]

If you count books I download on my Kindle,.

Since our library upgraded it's e collection my spending on books has dropped to almost nothing . Plus for Nook owners Barnes & Noble have been having some good .99 specials . I just finished Michael Connelly ' s "Black Echo " that was .99.

 

[Ally]

If we count going out to eat twice weekly, our weekly budget is between $100 and $130, depending on if we go to a special event or movie, etc. There are weeks where we spend less than $25, but those aren't common.

 

[oma]

I'm making up for lost time - new retiree here and I lived overseas for a great amount of my professional life and couldn't do/see a lot of what I'm spending my entertainment dollars on: sports & concerts.

I spend a lot of money on both - NFL season tickets (very good seats w/ parking this season), probably 20 Tampa Bay Rays games (cheap seats), the Florida Orchestra season tickets (cheap seats), season tickets to broadway (cheap seats) plays coming to Tampa, the National Geographic lecture series, PGA tour events that hit the area in March/April. The list goes on and on. I do see this coming to an end as the novelty wears off. Then there's the golf green fees (I look for cheap rates on golfnow.com).

But right now, I figure I spend $5-10k on "entertainment". Pretty ridiculous, I know. I'm sure it'll taper down to golf and an occasional baseball game a couple of times a season.

 

[Nords]

Then there's the golf green fees (I look for cheap rates on golfnow.com).
I'm sure it'll taper down to golf and an occasional baseball game a couple of times a season.

One of our legendary posters, Jarhead, used to work pretty hard on his golf game. He felt that an hour on the course had to be backed by at least 1-2 hours on the driving range and chipping green.

The improvement in his "game" (really his passion and hard work) gave him many opportunities to defray his golfing expenses through local tournaments and overoptimistic young whippersnappers.

 

[Amethyst]

I don't consider eating out to be entertainment, unless there's a show, or at least a Japanese restaurant where they throw your food up in the air while cooking it. Why is it entertainment simply because someone else cooks and serves your food?

Would it count as entertainment if you went to a friend's house and they served you dinner?

OTOH - unkind onlookers might find entertainment in the occasional spills and disasters in my kitchen....skillet caught on fire once...

Amethyst

 

[Mulligan]

I don't consider eating out to be entertainment, unless there's a show, or at least a Japanese restaurant where they throw your food up in the air while cooking it. Why is it entertainment simply because someone else cooks and serves your food?

Would it count as entertainment if you went to a friend's house and they served you dinner?

OTOH - unkind onlookers might find entertainment in the occasional spills and disasters in my kitchen....skillet caught on fire once...

Amethyst

I understand where your coming from, Amethyst. Eating out could come from your food budget instead. However, in response to your scenario of going over to friends house for dinner, I would count that as the best type of entertainment....free! But that just maybe the cheapness in me.

 

[Nords]

I don't consider eating out to be entertainment, unless there's a show, or at least a Japanese restaurant where they throw your food up in the air while cooking it. Why is it entertainment simply because someone else cooks and serves your food?

I find that the more budget categories I have, the more easily I can track my spending.

A number of entrepreneurs are developing electronic-receipt websites: you swipe your customer-loyalty card at the grocery checkout or give the waiter your e-mail address along with your credit card, and later you can view your receipt online or via e-mail. It's not just a JPEG, it's downloadable data. Instead of carrying a price book everywhere and recording data by hand, in a few more years you'll be able to dump it straight into Quicken or a spreadsheet to see exactly how much you're paying for grapes, and what your different grocers are charging.

 

[Moemg]

I don't consider eating out to be entertainment, unless there's a show, or at least a Japanese restaurant where they throw your food up in the air while cooking it. Why is it entertainment simply because someone else cooks and serves your food?


Amethyst

You are right . I guess I could lump it with my food budget but I am just trying to figure out how eating out , movies , occasional sporting or cultural events ,etc. affect my bottom line . We routinely go to our neighborhood seafood place and some of the people there make for great entertainment .

 

[Sue J]

We don't have an "entertainment" category in our budget, but I do set aside $100/month in cash for eating out, it's usually a Friday takeout dinner. I guess you could consider our DirecTV as entertainment. At $88/month it's one of our larger bills. Since we upgraded to HD and got a new DVR I've really been enjoying it.

 

[W2R]

We don't have an "entertainment" category in our budget, but I do set aside $100/month in cash for eating out, it's usually a Friday takeout dinner. I guess you could consider our DirecTV as entertainment. At $88/month it's one of our larger bills. Since we upgraded to HD and got a new DVR I've really been enjoying it.

I don't have an "entertainment" category either. I do pay in cash at restaurants, so I got my figure for eating out by subtracting other known cash expenses from my ATM withdrawals.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

We really don't budget anything. Budgets are like goals, "often set-seldom achieved". Just doing a rough calculation, we spend $2700/yr for cable TV, internet and phone. Never go to movies. DW has Blue Ray streaming (included in cable, etc). Eating out, roughly $3200 per year. Never any place expensive, just frequently, maybe three times a week. We go out to breakfast a lot and drop maybe $15 per. I've cut way down on golf. From about $5500/yr to $2000. Only play once a week anymore.

Speaking of eating out, I've got to tell you something. If we could, we would eat out every meal. DW does all the cooking and I do all the cleaning up. I'm getting sick of it and she is sick of cooking. She watches all these cooking shows on TV, watches a lot of home shopping about pots and pans, buys things frequently and then bitches about cooking. Is this typical of women? I told her to have a garage sale, sell all the pots and pans and dishes and we could eat out every night for a year. After that she would be sick of eating out and we could start all over again with the pots and pans. Anybody agree with this thinking?

 

[GregLee]

DW does all the cooking and I do all the cleaning up. I'm getting sick of it and she is sick of cooking. She watches all these cooking shows on TV, watches a lot of home shopping about pots and pans, buys things frequently and then bitches about cooking. Is this typical of women?

I'm a lot like that. Don't like eating out, don't like cooking or cleaning up, but love cooking shows and buying kitchen stuff. My wife and I have worked things out, over the years. We don't go out, but neither of us ever has to cook except for fun. We have a supply of fresh vegetables, cheese, frozen stuff, and if no one happens to have cooked anything, that's what we eat. It's each person for himself. I fix salads nearly every day, but there's not much clean up for that. We have a convection toaster oven for heating up take-and-bake pizzas or various frozen things -- it has non-stick surfaces and needs just a few seconds to clean after use. I've learned to enjoy the cooking shows without actually cooking the stuff myself.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I'm a lot like that. Don't like eating out, don't like cooking or cleaning up, but love cooking shows and buying kitchen stuff. My wife and I have worked things out, over the years. We don't go out, but neither of us ever has to cook except for fun. We have a supply of fresh vegetables, cheese, frozen stuff, and if no one happens to have cooked anything, that's what we eat. It's each person for himself. I fix salads nearly every day, but there's not much clean up for that. We have a convection toaster oven for heating up take-and-bake pizzas or various frozen things -- it has non-stick surfaces and needs just a few seconds to clean after use. I've learned to enjoy the cooking shows without actually cooking the stuff myself.

I agree with the cooking shows. I love to watch them make everything seem so simple. Like Rachael Ray. "I think I'll just whip out a batch of chicken parmasean and some ziti. It'll only take a minute. A little EVOO, etc, etc".

I've got to think about that "fend for yourself" system. DW wants to eat earlier and earlier every day. She feeds the dogs and then me. I'm having dinner about 3 PM these days. Isn't that lunch time?

 

[bbbamI]

Speaking of eating out, I've got to tell you something. If we could, we would eat out every meal. DW does all the cooking and I do all the cleaning up. I'm getting sick of it and she is sick of cooking. She watches all these cooking shows on TV, watches a lot of home shopping about pots and pans, buys things frequently and then bitches about cooking. Is this typical of women? I told her to have a garage sale, sell all the pots and pans and dishes and we could eat out every night for a year. After that she would be sick of eating out and we could start all over again with the pots and pans. Anybody agree with this thinking?

This made me laugh out loud!

Ahhhh...I know about being sick of cooking as I do most of it. Since DH is retired, he cooks maybe once a week. I buy quite a few Marie Callender's frozen dinners. I think they are very tasty....just add some bread and/or salad, and there ya go.

I couldn't stand to eat out every day. Once or twice a week is enough for me.

 

[GregLee]

I've got to think about that "fend for yourself" system. DW wants to eat earlier and earlier every day. She feeds the dogs and then me. I'm having dinner about 3 PM these days. Isn't that lunch time?

Life is so much more pleasant with fewer rules and fewer duties. My wife and I eat together only when we're hungry at the same time and when food has somehow become available for both of us simultaneously. Is 3pm dinner time? I don't care. I can eat dinner any time I want.

 

[Nemo2]

Entertainment Budget?

I tell my wife a couple jokes once in a while......for free.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Life is so much more pleasant with fewer rules and fewer duties. My wife and I eat together only when we're hungry at the same time and when food has somehow become available for both of us simultaneously. Is 3pm dinner time? I don't care. I can eat dinner any time I want.

Tell me how to make food appear for both of us. Simultaneously!

I'm editing! How did this thread go from an entertainment question/poll, to an eating thread? Maybe I started something with the pots and pans thing. Sorry.

 

[ERD50]

What does everyone have for an entertainment budget ?

... I just want to make sure that I am not being too thrifty or too extravagant .

I'm confused. What difference does it make what others spend? Shouldn't you spend what fits your desires and is within your budget? If the average number here came out less than yours, does that mean you should cut back? Or spend more if the average was higher? I fail to see the relationship.

Entertainment may be far more important to some than others. What do you want? To me, this seems like taking a poll to find out if people prefer chocolate over vanilla ice cream before you order dessert. So what - choose whatever flavor you prefer.

It might make an interesting data point just for curiosities sake, but to make a change based on it? I don't get it.

-ERD50

 

[Moemg]

It might make an interesting data point just for curiosities sake, but to make a change based on it? I don't get it.

-ERD50

No sure I would make a change maybe rein it in a little if my number was much higher than everybody else's.You are right I should have added a poll .

 

[happy2bretired]

I budgeted more this year for entertainment, but, haven't spent very much so far. I have a hard time finding entertainment that I enjoy. So far, I've just spent a few dollars on books for my Kindle and some coffee while out and about. I really am interested in all your responses since I'm trying to figure out exactly what I want in entertainment. Seems like most of the outings that I find here involve listening, like classes and lectures...that just doesn't work very well when you can't hear well.