Today, Mr Credit Card from www.askmrcreditcard.com is going to talk about the fun things in his budget. He has also compiled his thoughts on the best credit cards offers available today if you looking for one. Hope you enjoy this post
Your budget serves many purposes. The most obvious one is to plan how much you intend to spend your money on different things. Budgeting is such a useful tool to know where your money goes and helps you decide where to put your limited resources to good use. However, very often, budgeting feels like to drag especially if you are looking to reduce debt or squeezing every cent to make ends meet. But as the title of this blog suggest, budgeting can be fun too! So in this post, I would like to touch on some of the fun things that I budget and plan for in our household's budget.
Saving For Vacation - This one is a biggie for us. We take a couple of family vacations every year. And we try to see different places each year. Our budgets for vacation vary every year depending on the circumstances. Normally, we have to save for airline tickets and hotel bills plus the usual meals and attractions if we intend to do the "Disney type stuff". Since vacations can be "relatively big ticket items", we do a few things to try to save money. For example we earn airline miles with our airline credit card. We book any airline tickets months in advance. We are also constantly searching for deals (which I guess is the fun part).
Budgeting for kids extra cirricular activities - We have three kids. All play baseball (softball for the girl). All play soccer. So there is always costs like new gears (cos they outgrow what they wore last year) and equipment. Our daughter also takes ballet lessons which she loves and two of our kids take piano lessons.
Sports Tickets - This year, we are going to get some season tickets for the Phillies and our new soccer team, the Philadelphia Union. I find that taking my kids to games is a really good bonding sessions. The kids really enjoy it too. I have found that getting season tickets is cheaper than just buying them before the game.
Gifts for Mrs Credit Card - Birthday, Anniversary, Christmas - Too be honest, buying gifts for Mrs Credit Card can be fun but stressful (hey, you know what I mean). I find that anniversary and birthday presents are most stressful. But yet at the same time, Mrs Credit Card does not like surprises. So she normally tells me what she wants. And we actually end up debating if it is a good buy and then put it in the budget!
Gadget purchases - I find that every year, I always buy some form of gadgets. Four years ago, I got Mrs Credit Card an iPod for her birthday (this one was a total surprise). Then the year after that, I got her an iPhone. Then last year, I got myself an iPhone. This year, we got the business a laptop. And we've got a couple of computer the last couple of years for the business as well.
The fun part of budgeting for these is that we actually do research on the stuff we intend to buy. That means spending time surfing the net for information (or you could call that time wasting). This year, we are thinking of getting a TV for the bedroom (perhaps 3D Plasma!!). I know most folks say it is a bad idea, but Mrs Credit Card and myself really like to veg out in front of the TV after putting the kids to bed.
House Renovations - This is not an annual thing. But for anyone that has bought an older home, or even a new home that was not really done up properly, you will know that there always seems to be a project to work on. Whether it is painting the walls, installing a new bathtub, changing curtains, or simply landscaping the garden, it costs money - and sometimes lots of it. But budgeting for these things can be fun too. After all, most of us take great pride in our homes. This year, we will not have any projects on the house. But the previous years, we had a deck installed and had our driveway repaved and extended.
What Are the Fun Stuff In Your Budget? - So there you have it - some stuff in my budget. What are some the stuff you have fun planning in your budget? Though I do spend quite a bit on these things, they are things I enjoy doing or in my opinion are worth spending on (ok - perhaps the house renovation is something I do not really enjoy!)
Posts
2 days ago
Go Phillies!!! I was born and raised in Philly, but I live in CT now.
ReplyDeleteRight now, my wife and I just have our fun money every month as well as $50 month for entertainment. A couple examples of entertainment expenses were to take my daughter to a indoor water park and next weekend we're taking her to a show. No vacation fund set-up yet. Our plan is to use any bonuses I might get in the future for vacations. Right now, we're saving extra money for a bigger house next year.
As I've said before, we budget in the fun stuff all the time. Like Mr. Credit Card, we have accounts for fun money, vacations, and house renovations. We also budget in our housekeeper and our lawn guy. I'm a big believer of saving for your future while having a happy life now too.
ReplyDeleteooh - yes, forgot the lawn guy!
ReplyDeleteOh how I love the topic of budgeting. These are all great things to budget for. One thing to always remember. If it takes money to make a purchase than it better be a category listed on your budget, otherwise you shouldn't purchase it. You can always add a category it needed :-)
ReplyDeleteJeff, that's a good point.
ReplyDeleteIf we don't have a category for something, we usually have to either start adding it to our regular budget (like lawn care when we bought our house) or take it out of our fun money (like one-time fun expenses that were unexpected).
LOL, I find it funny that we all have a lawn guy. I guess it's the most unwanted task everyone's got.
ReplyDeleteWe have our fun money, tuition for our daughter's gymnastics class I'm saving up for, eating out, vacation, clothing, and netflix.
We're going to a local water park for a weekend this summer, mainly for my older daughter. The funds will come from our vacation account. I've already purchased the hotel via priceline.
I almost forgot that we have a gift account that I pull from to buy gifts for friends and family on birthdays and holidays. The husband and I like to contribute to our nieces and nephews' college funds, too.
Hey folks
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing. it is so refreshing to see and hear everyone talk about things like how you are planning for your vacation and saving for it. Too often all we read elsewhere is to save, don't spend, extreme frugality..this is a pleasant change..
I'm also willing to bet we all send "some" of our clothes to the laundry rather than ironing ourselves?
Okay, here's a confession. I've never used an iron. I also haven't ever used a dry cleaning service either (other than to hem a jacket I loved for my short arms). I purposely buy materials that don't wrinkle easily and that are washable. If they do get a few wrinkles, I throw them in the dryer for a few minutes and voila.
ReplyDeleteSo no, I don't send out my clothes, but I do love my biweekly housekeeper and I pay to have food delivered once in a while even though all the restaurants are within 5 minutes of my house.
I have to go to a dry cleaner once a week. I wear a suit every day for work. So I guess that falls into the same boat as long care. Thankfully I don't have to worry about lawn care, condo association takes care of that for me.
ReplyDeleteMikeS, yeah, I'd have to get suits dry cleaned too.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, I can wear slacks and nice blouses to work, so I can be picky on the materials. Small benefits to an otherwise not-great job...
I throw most of my dry clean stuff in the washer anyways. My husband does the same. If you wash on super delicate with low spin, it usually works out ok.
ReplyDeleteJulie, sounds exactly like what we'd do. :-)
ReplyDelete