Crap. $83 till next Monday

[Anonymous]

I find it odd that husband buys his own lunch, and wife and kids are on a budget. Husband needs to pack a lunch, save money, and funnel it to his kids instead of his ego.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it odd that husband buys his own lunch, and wife and kids are on a budget. Husband needs to pack a lunch, save money, and funnel it to his kids instead of his ego.

I think she is saying that the house food budget got out of whack this week and that her husband's lunch money comes out of a different part of the budget so it doesnt factor into the house food budget which is streached this week. I don't think youshould give advice about her family's budgeting system since you know nothing about them and how the figure it out

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP! This is OP.

Yes, my husband gets an "allowance" to spend as he likes and he likes to spend it on (a) cds and (b) lunches out. When that money runs out, he can't go out to lunch anymore until the next pay period. Yes, he could save money (and buy more CDs!) by brown bagging it, but he likes eating out at lunch each day.

I get a similar "allowance" for whatever I want to spend it on (books, lunches out with friends, whatever), and then we also have a household budget for food, kids clothes and activities and activities, furniture, lightbulbs, and stuff like toiletries and cleaning supplies. This is all my decision how to spend. (woo hoo!) It doesn't include savings like for car repair, vacation, Christmas, etc.

I just spent WAY too much on God knows what from the household account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks PP! This is OP.

Yes, my husband gets an "allowance" to spend as he likes and he likes to spend it on (a) cds and (b) lunches out. When that money runs out, he can't go out to lunch anymore until the next pay period. Yes, he could save money (and buy more CDs!) by brown bagging it, but he likes eating out at lunch each day.

I get a similar "allowance" for whatever I want to spend it on (books, lunches out with friends, whatever), and then we also have a household budget for food, kids clothes and activities and activities, furniture, lightbulbs, and stuff like toiletries and cleaning supplies. This is all my decision how to spend. (woo hoo!) It doesn't include savings like for car repair, vacation, Christmas, etc.

I just spent WAY too much on God knows what from the household account.

OMG!!! Who buys cd's anymore??? OP, your post was misleading. It really sounded like you were broke, had no money and had to get through the week on $83 which wasnt the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks PP! This is OP.

Yes, my husband gets an "allowance" to spend as he likes and he likes to spend it on (a) cds and (b) lunches out. When that money runs out, he can't go out to lunch anymore until the next pay period. Yes, he could save money (and buy more CDs!) by brown bagging it, but he likes eating out at lunch each day.

I get a similar "allowance" for whatever I want to spend it on (books, lunches out with friends, whatever), and then we also have a household budget for food, kids clothes and activities and activities, furniture, lightbulbs, and stuff like toiletries and cleaning supplies. This is all my decision how to spend. (woo hoo!) It doesn't include savings like for car repair, vacation, Christmas, etc.

I just spent WAY too much on God knows what from the household account.

OMG!!! Who buys cd's anymore??? OP, your post was misleading. It really sounded like you were broke, had no money and had to get through the week on $83 which wasnt the case.

Agreed. I thought she wasn't going to be able to feed her kids, and that's one reason I recommended some less-than-healthy foods. However, I still admire her resolve to budget this tightly.

[Anonymous]

While I am glad you were able to stay in budget and make great, inexpensive meals, wouldn't it have been wiser to take mom or dad's spending money away and move it to the DINNER budget. Food, cd's lunches out... I'm going with FEEDING THE KIDS.

[Anonymous]

Oh, geez. I'm so sorry DCUM! I needed to stay in my budget. I'm sorry if it was misleading. I said, "Crap, I have $83 to spend on food in the next week, please give me some ideas."

I didn't mean to imply we were starving or anything, just needed some ideas on frugal meals. Which I got, so thanks again!


As for who buys CDs anymore -- geez, again -- I don't know what my husband does with his paltry "just for me" allowance. It seemed to me at least up to a few years ago he was getting a heck of a lot of CDs in the mail (and I didn't say anything, because it was his allowance to waste on whatever he wanted) but you are right, come to think of it, he doesn't buy them anymore -- the point being, he spends his "no questions asked" allowance however the heck he wants; and I do the same. We aren't talking a lot of money, here.