This is a category or should I say categories that I budget for each  month but after lots of research don’t find much information about.  Currently, I am using a modified envelope system which entails cash for some expenses and separate saving accounts for most others. I love Capital One because it allows me multiple saving accounts and one checking account with a debit card which I can move money into and spend easily. The one downside to my Capital One accounts is that it can take up to a week for money to move from my regular account into the capital one accounts.  I promised to use real numbers this year so here we go.

Currently I have 2 cash envelopes at home. The first is “hair fund” this covers hair cuts for everyone and color for myself. We budget $40 a month. Currently this is being paid by Matt’s business.  We don’t always spend the $40 but this builds and makes it less painful when I need color. This works well for us as the hair dresser lives less than a mile down the road so we can schedule ahead or on the fly and have the money easily available. The second envelope is for “piano” both Lily and Kendall are currently taking lessons once a week. The cost for the lesson is $20 a week.  I do have this as a line item in our budget but usually supply the envelope once a month or use cash from cell phone payments so I don’t have to make a trip to the bank. We purchased a keyboard last summer for $100 and have had to purchase 2 sets of book. Lily is starting on the second set this week.  We are currently going to keep all the books with the goal for Zach to begin in two year with only the cost of lessons to be added.

At this point,  I have five separate accounts with Capital One. The least used account is “Auto Fund”. My initial plan was to use this account to save for car repairs and/or the purchase of a new to us vehicle; however this has not worked out. We did purchase a new to us van in January but have been using part of our “gas budget” to make small repairs. I may, in the future, eliminate this fund because it is much simpler for me to use the gas budget for small repairs. If the need for a large major repair would occur this would most likely come out of our emergency fund.  I am still paying on the personal loan we used to purchase a van last year. Currently, it is scheduled for pay off in December of this year, I may start to save this payment amount for future vehicle purchased so for the time being it is sitting with less than $1 in the account.  “Clothing and Gifts” are designated for the “checking account”  My logic is that these are very fluid accounts and need to be accessed easily for purchases. My budget is $100 a month for each of these accounts. After April, I plan to switch the Gift budget over to
“Disney”, more on this later. “Cheerleading” is by far the most expensive activity that we participate in. Currently both Lily and Kendall are part of a competition squad. I budget $150 a month, however this needs to be increased to $200 in the future. This fund covers the cost of tuition each month, competition fees and uniforms. It does not cover our expenses such as hotel and/or food when attending competitions. Last year I was able to save and allotted a certain amount each month to use for these  completion day expenses however with both girls involved I have not been able to do so. Because of the new job Matt has taken, the plan is to cover all current Cheerleading expenses with this job and place the current budgeted amount of $150 into our Disney Fund and then into a fund to use for expenses on competition day. This fund is a work in progress and is undergoing major changes. My goal is to update this fund and budget in July when things have had a chance to settle down. “Car Insurance and AAA” is not really a entertainment expense but it is a expense that I am budgeting and saving for monthly.  Currently, I place $10 a month to cover our yearly AAA membership and $35 a month to cover our car insurance. The insurance amount is adjusted every six months to reflex the actual amount of our car insurance. The final and newest saving account is “Pool”. We are members of a private swim club that operates from Memorial Day to Labor Day each year.  Our dues allow us access to the pool all summer long. I also use money from this account to help cover the expense of the little kids participating in swim team.  I currently place $45 a month in this account. My goal is to use this same $45 during the months of June, July and August to cover treats such as food and ice cream while at the pool. In the past, we have used grocery money and dinning out money for these treats but I like the idea of having cash and once it is gone then we have to bring our food and drinks from home.

An honest look at where we spent money on entertainment and other extra expenses.  I did not discuss at all our Disney trip but will be sharing our it as well as how we are saving to cover it very soon.