Entertainment Budget

[jkern]

I'm curious if I'm cheaper than most. What is your typical monthly entertainment budget per person for day to day fun including dining out. Mine is about $300. I'm not including golf, skiing or other activities like that.

 

[RetireAge50]

Seems about right. For our family of 4 somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500 disappears every month.


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[Meadbh]

My monthly budget is CDN$200 but I have overspent it because my social circle is expanding. I anticipate that annualized entertainment expenses for 2014 will be ~CDN$217 per month.

Entertainment, in my budget, includes eating out, concerts, events, theatre, shows, ebooks, paper books, app purchases. When eating out and events occur on vacation, they go in the Vacation category. Phone and internet have their own category (no cable). I have a separate category for Sports because I wanted to know the cost of playing golf (not much because I don't play very often).

 

[Cobra9777]

Same here. We budget $600/mo for two people. That includes restaurants, movies, and the occasional concert or sporting event. Does not include similar activities when traveling... separate travel budget covers that.

 

[scrabbler1]

For a single person, my entertainment budget per month is maybe $70 per month. That includes my weekly square dancing (about 2x a week) and eating out with my ladyfriend once every few months. We very rarely go to movies because we nearly never see anything advertised we want to see in the theater. The last movie we saw was "42" about Jackie Robinson more than a year ago.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Our local entertainment comes largely from clubs and meetup groups, ASTC, AHA, NARM and ROAM memberships, public parks and beaches and a collection of library passes.

This library passes and reciprocal museum / garden passes gets us into most of the local museums, planetariums, zoos, Cal Shake plays, gardens, historic houses, etc. for free after paying $165 for the annual membership passes. We have several Entertainment books and go out for lunch with buy one get one free coupons so that doesn't cost much more than eating at home. Most of the local parks and beaches are free or have a nominal entrance charge. Besides all the free activity passes, the assorted library cards come with free online classes, movies, free music streaming and downloads, e-books, etc.

So I guess the short answer is not much at all except for gas but we seem to always have a lot going on. How many fun (at least to us) activities we could do for very little money has been one of our most interesting revelations since not working full time.

 

[Options]

This might be helpful:

Why Time -- Not Money -- Is the Key to Happiness

 

[rodi]

Hmm. I have a different breakout/categories in Quicken.

The following is for a family of 4.

For entertainment I include online gaming purchases (kids adding money to their steam accounts), movie tickets, internet/cable connections, the periodic streamed rental through amazon. It also includes all kids sports fees (little league, basketball) and specialized clothing for these. It also includes rented movies (redbox) and any purchased CDs or books. Finally it includes the periodic concert, outing, beers with friends.

That category was just under $400/month on average for the past 12 months.

I have a different category for dining out. We cook at home as a hobby/enjoyed activity - so dining out is a smaller category. Less than $100/month on average.

Neither category includes groceries/wine for the large dinner parties we host a few times a year... that gets lumped in with groceries... and you see a spike every year in Nov and Dec. Especially December because we usually have a dozen people for a "7 Fishes" Christmas eve dinner, and even shopping at Ranch 99 - fish adds up to real $$.

So $500/month for a family of 4 with kids engaged in multiple activities (robotics, baseball, basketball, sailing, etc) throughout the year.

 

[W2R]

I don't really have a budget, but I keep very close track of my spending. Looking at my records for 2013, I averaged $75/month on video games. We share a very small lunch out together every day, choosing someplace that doesn't break the bank, and that (food, tax, and tip) averaged $222/month.

I bought a new TV and a new laptop computer in 2013, but I guess they don't count, and neither does cable internet, right? It's hard to know what one would include in entertainment. Books? I have a Kindle and a library card so I get all I can read for free. For me entertainment is not a separate category; eating out is a subset of my food category, and I regard video gaming as my hobby and a separate category in its own right.

Like Daylatedollarshort, we find abundant free entertainment in our area. We spent zero on going out to movies, golf, skiing, concerts, drinking, sports, or other events. Mardi Gras is free and the parades go right by his house. We're 10-15 minutes from the French Quarter and it's fun to take pleasure drives around that area, or the Faubourg Marigny. Lots to do and see. Free museums, shows, and events abound. And that barely scratches the surface.

So, I guess video games and eating lunch out each day is about it; $297/month, just about the same as the OP.

 

[Mulligan]

I imagine an "entertainment budget" is a very pliable term here. I loosely budget $500 a month. This covers anything "fun". So if I am eating out, that is considered entertainment not a food budget item. It does not count for my vacations or golf membership which I steal from my income tax refund.


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[FIREd]

Our "entertainment" category in Quicken is pretty broad. It includes things like dining, movies, music, iPhone/iPad apps, video games, books, hobby supplies, national park and museum entrance fees, sporting events, and even the scented candles that DW likes. Overall we are at $241 per month and per person this year. Our biggest splurge was 2 tickets to the World Series that set us back nearly $1,000.

 

[FI by 2024]

I budget $150/mo for one. That includes eating out 1-3x per week plus 1-2 movies per month and the occasional concert/play/etc. My group will often just hang out somewhere free, so a lot of my entertainment is free or just the cost of a beer or a few slices of pizza. I budget separately for books and if I have an unusually large entertainment cost (like NYE activities) I will take it out of my misc category.


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[youbet]

We spend nothing, not a penny, on entertainment. Yet we enjoy live music, plays, movies, dining out, pro sporting events, cable TV, Internet, video games, taking the grand kids to various activities, etc., etc. We just classify it all into something else other than "entertainement."

It's not what ya do, it's what ya call it.

Enjoy!

 

[robnplunder]

70 - dish network
900 - golf (will be reduced when I ER by going from yearly membership to golfnow.com)
300 - dining
200 - spur of the moment stuff
----
1470

$10k/year for separate travel budget.

 

[nun]

$300/month/person sounds high to me.

I give myself $400/month to spend on food and entertainment, I imagine $100 of that is entertainment. I go out to a restaurant or pub once a week. In addition to that I spend $50/month on internet...I don't have cable TV, I get 25 over the air TV channels on my digital antenna and watch a lot of shows for free on the computer. You can see a lot on youtube, NPR is free on the radio and I down load a lot of podcasts, who needs to pay for content?

http://www.missionlogpodcast.com/
http://serialpodcast.org/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/iot
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4
http://www.nerdist.com/podcast_channel/watkins-family-hour-channel/
http://thrillingadventurehour.com/


.....and then there's internet forums like this one.

For fun/fitness I ride my bike and that costs very little.

I have an annual subscription to the local cinema that costs $300 and gets me in as many times as I want

Brattle Theatre | Boston's Unofficial Film School Since 1953

I also go to the theatre and will buy the $25 tickets rather than the $50 ones and I've also been going to smaller theatrical companies with low ticket prices and I've seen some great productions. Things I'll be seeing soon are:

Apollinaire Theatre Company
Events | Actors Shakespeare Project
Garfunkel & Oates - The Wilbur

 

[W2R]

We spend nothing, not a penny, on entertainment. Yet we enjoy live music, plays, movies, dining out, pro sporting events, cable TV, Internet, video games, taking the grand kids to various activities, etc., etc. We just classify it all into something else other than "entertainement."

It's not what ya do, it's what ya call it.

Enjoy!

What about buying a new TV and laptop? Accessories for them? Cell phone? iPad? Museum entry fees? Throwing parties? Potluck contributions? Sexy lingerie? Gas for pleasure drives? Day cruises? Oh my, it all gives me a headache.

 

[dmdunca44]

We budget $400 for the two of us. That includes eating out, buying alcohol, Netflix, movies, etc.



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[Meadbh]

Here's how I would categorize these items, W2R.

What about buying a new TV and laptop? Electronics
Accessories for them? Electronics, unless it was a TV stand, which would be Home
Cell phone? iPad? Electronics
Museum entry fees? Entertainment
Throwing parties? Groceries and Alcohol
Potluck contributions? Groceries
Sexy lingerie? Huh?? Nonsexy lingerie would be Clothing
Gas for pleasure drives? Auto
Day cruises? Entertainment

Oh my, it all gives me a headache.

 

[aaronc879]

I spend very little on entertainment. I have a category listed as Enter./misc. and it's allotted $50/mo. That doesn't include internet which takes up almost all of my free-time. Also doesn't include a vacation or anything I do while on vacation which gets it's own category. If I eat out by myself it goes in the food category. If I eat out with someone else it's almost always family who pay for my meal. I haven't been in a bar/club since New Years. 90% of my entertainment cost is going to a movie with my brother maybe 3 times a year and going to the cheap diner next door for some food. Maybe a total of $50 for the year. I'm sure i'd spend more if I was in the spend-down phase and could afford it but have no desire to spend more if it means having to work more.

 

[seraphim]

About $1500 - $2000 for the two of us. We travel in our camper a great deal across the country. We eat out more than we should, and since our son is a professional performer, we go to several shows a month, when we're in the area, staying at a nice hotel.


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[kagarnett]

Me being a 23 year old with a girlfriend, I have mine set at about 380 a month including dining out, movies, and the occasional guitar gear. I most of the time try to stay under that if I can though.

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[Midpack]

$300/month is low compared to DW and I, but it would depend on what you include in "entertainment" and what % of your total spending entertainment is. You might be relatively low in entertainment yet higher in another expense category, but so what. In the end, what matters most is your savings rate...

 

[Walt34]

Like many we don't really have a separate line item for entertainment. Spending on that is kind of "lumpy" in that it can be a lot one month and then practically zero for four or so months. For example next month about 12 of us are taking the grandnieces and their parents on the Polar Express train ride. This is way over their entertainment budget so the rest of us fogies split the cost just so we could do it. It will involve some hotel expenses and meals, but since we're only staying one night it won't be much overall. We bought the tickets last December because it sells out quickly.

 

[flyingaway]

Is dining out considered as "entertainment"?

I budget $400 per month for playing slot machines at casinos.

 

[jkern]

Things I include and don't include in the entertainment budget:

Include:

Tickets to any shows, movies, exhibits, entrance fees, etc...
Eating out, drinks at a bar, coffee out, etc...
Any use of public transportation while out for the day, ferry, cable car, taxi, etc...
Some recreational activities like bowling, fishing

Don't include:

Any overnight stay in a hotel (travel/vacation budget)
Any dining out while staying overnight (travel/vacation budget)
Expensive recreational activities like golf, skiing (golf/travel budget)
Fuel for the car (transportation budget)
Any purchase of a material item

My $300 per person budget includes $300 joint spending and $150 each with their own pocket money.