June Pocket Money

Each month my husband and I allot a certain amount as "pocket money". This is discretionary spending that can be for anything we want. Before June 2017, this was a very small dollar amount, and every personal coffee run, ice cream, clothing item, or haircut was placed into another category, like eating out or personal care. This turned out to be more work than it was worth, often causing us to wait to update our transactional tracking until we had time to sit down together. By this time we often had to rack our brains to remember each transaction.

So, inspired by Kelsey Wharton's blog, I decided to up the amount in our pocket money, and decrease the amount in the other categories. Now, anything we spend on ourselves that is not together or for the kids, we track in this category. So much easier! Anytime Jake makes a purchase that I can't tell what it is (what even is STEAM really?), I pop it into his pocket money and forget about it.

I thought for a hot minute about what the amount should be, but quickly decided to emulate Kelsey Wharton again after reading her May Spending post and chose $100. It's also nice round amount, so it looks nice on our budget.

I should mention that we use EveryDollar to make our monthly cash flow plan and track our expenses. We currently use the free version, but may upgrade in the future if I find it necessary. We mostly use the app (we can each be logged in on our phones at the same time), but I like to use my browser now and again for faster typing. We practice a zero-budget, but I can get into that more later. I also round up each purchase to the nearest dollar, and the remaining change automatically gets transferred to our Savings account, or put in our coin jar. Any leftover pocket money gets put on our "personal savings" spreadsheet for a bigger ticket pocket money item at a future date. Jake is working on building his own computer, and I'm getting an updated capsule wardrobe after having two babies!

For now, I've decided to post a breakdown of my pocket money spending for greater accountability and an archive to analyze in the future!


Original Budget $100
Amended Budget $110 (When we notice a category is going to be overspent, we adjust our entire budget to stay at zero. Giving each of us $10 extra in our pocket money meant I moved $20 from other places)

I didn't stay on target this month, which I attribute to inconsistent tracking and the lack of cash for this budget. I thought I was under budget when I spent that last $12, when I actually only had $2 left.

Transactions

$11- Target- Sports Bras (sale!) to replace some older ones and accommodate my increased running habit

$20- Amazon- A small Bible and a pack of Flair pens to start The Color Method during my morning devotions.

$7- Target- I honestly can't think of what this was, or find the receipt, so I'm going to assume it was some snack I didn't need!

$9- In n Out- dinner after watching Wonder Woman with the women of my family. Gifted movie passes let me "buy" their tickets without spending money on the movie itself! Also, Wonder Woman was AWESOME.

$35- Pedicure- This was with my mom and cousin, who we don't see too often, but spends a little time in town each summer.

$6- Cold Stone- It's summer, so duh.

$10- Starbucks app reload

$12- Red Robin- The meal that busted my budget. Better tracking next month!

Total Spent: $110- right on (amended) budget.
Saved for Capsule Wardrobe: $0- Boo.
Reflections/Goals: Track spending each day with notes on the purchase; don't amend the budget; stay under budget to save some for capsule wardrobe.

I'm posting this pretty late, but hopefully I can get the July post up a lot sooner into August. Wish me luck with my Capsule Wardrobe- the first installments will be purchased next month (thankfully out of the personal savings allotted for it, and not August's pocket money)!