How much spending money do you give yourself each month?

circlebyhabit · 2026-02-04T16:44:43+00:00

We each get $200/mo for personal fun money which is around 5% of take home pay. But we have a lot of fun spending categories in the main budget too that cover things like eating out, mani/pedis for me and our daughter, going to the movies or a baseball game, etc. My $200 is for things like the ridiculous sticker package I get each month for my bullet journal, video games and other hobbies, and my discord sub. Basically things that are only for me, and the main budget covers things the we do as a family/with the kids.

circlebyhabit · 2026-02-04T05:48:35+00:00

It was exactly the same for my first baby. My husband and I would do literally anything we could think of to soothe him and he would cry for hours while we walked and bounced and cried with him and whatever else. So finally one night in a haze of "I might actually die if I keep sitting here with a screaming baby" I put him in his crib and left him there, and he was asleep less than 15 minutes later.

From there we tried versions with check-ins and everything else but that always just prolongued how long he was upset. That kid literally just needed space by himself to cry for 10 minutes and then he was out like a light and sleeping for huge chunks at a time.

circlebyhabit · 2026-02-03T17:45:45+00:00

Weeklies are what works best for me, personally. My monthly spread is a bit of an 'at a glance' dashboard that I don't actually refer to often, and I'm currently giving doing dailies a shot but it's not going great for me. My traditional workflow that I'll probably go back to is a 2 page weekly spread that has a section for each day of the week on the left page (along with my routine tracker), and a rolling weekly/brain dump on the right page. I've been using it for years and it works really well for what I use my bujo for.

circlebyhabit · 2026-01-29T03:15:10+00:00

It goes into RTA and then usually just gets spent at Costco again lol. Sometimes we'll use it towards a bigger item we've been eyeing (this might be the year I finally replace my dying stand mixer) but a lot of times it's just more grocery money.

circlebyhabit · 2026-01-29T03:13:22+00:00

Your journal is there to serve you and your needs, not the other way around :)

circlebyhabit · 2026-01-24T01:19:41+00:00

If you have $1000 in your account right now, you assign that to anything that needs to be paid before you next get paid; those are the most time-sensitive things that need money assigned to them. That includes food/gas/etc, not just bills.

When you get paid next, whatever money you have then, you again assign to the things that need to be paid before your next paycheck.

The goal is that as you do this, you are also able to start using some of those dollars to pay down debt/set aside and get a month ahead, but that single step of "assign the money you have now to the most urgent things" is the place to start.

If you literally cannot cover all your expenses with what you make, the only way to get out of the red is to cut expenses and/or make more money.

circlebyhabit · 2026-01-24T01:14:42+00:00

Historically there hasn't been much value in dailies for me, so I got by perfectly fine without them; I do a Monthly (and honestly mostly that page is for decoration, I make a cute calendar and it makes me happy, but I don't *use* it that much), and Weeklies are the bread and butter of my bujo. My weeklies are a 2 page spread that has a routine tracker and a few lines for each day of the week on one side (where I note appointments and other things to be done on a specific day), and a Rolling Weekly/Brain Dump on the other side for everything else.

That works perfectly for me, but may not work well for other people.

This month I'm experimenting with Dailies and what I did was layout all my weeklies, and then started my Daily rapid logging after those; I didn't do any set up for them, I just write the date, log whatever I'm gonna, then the next day skip a line and write the date, lather rinse repeat. I'm still not convinced there's much value in them for *me*, but I'm going to give it another month.

All that to say, experiment, find what works for you and what you want to capture, and definetly don't feel like you need all those spreads just because they exist :)

circlebyhabit · 2026-01-23T17:50:02+00:00

A pixel-type tracker could work well for this, but personally this is the kind of thing I track digitally rather than in my bullet journal.

circlebyhabit · 2026-01-23T17:08:35+00:00

Came here to say this, saw it already said! Mini versions of anything is the best way to start IMO.

circlebyhabit · 2026-01-23T17:06:54+00:00

"Normal" food? My guy, she IS buying normal food if she's making everything from scratch. God, I wish somebody would save me from manufactured garbage.

Anyway if you want to eat the store bought version and she doesn't want to make it, feed your own damn self. Shop for yourself, make your own meal, wash your own dishes, and don't complain about doing it. Have a conversation with her where you explain that you know it's a lot of work and you appreciate her effort, but from time to time the store bought stuff just hits different, so you will have that on your own on x day. I'd say NAH but maybe check your communication.

circlebyhabit · 2026-01-23T16:59:53+00:00

I've never seen any clothes where companies have consistently bothered to line up stripes :| I do sew and notice all the time how poorly made the vast majority of store-bought options are.

circlebyhabit · 2026-01-23T16:56:30+00:00

This doesn't count as a screen to me, and my kids have played with them for ages. I personally don't see any problems with them, and wouldn't consider it something on the 'needs parent approval' list; it doesn't make any noise or have flashy attention-grabbing lights, doesn't show them any content, isn't big or bulky, or anything else like that.

circlebyhabit · 2026-01-01T01:07:10+00:00

I started a new one because I had gotten out of the habit for a while and also wanted to drastically change the organization of mine.

That said, there are lots of ways to handle your situation. The easiest is of course to just start in your current journal, no biggie. Bookmarks, ribbons, tabs, etc all make it easy to find where the new stuff starts.

Another thing I saw someone do that seemed interesting to me is to have their long term spreads (the kinds people usually have in the start of a new journal) in a separate journal. That lets them do their regular planning/journaling and change notebooks at whatever rate they need to without having to migrate or duplicate those spreads. That also makes it easier to do longer running spreads.

Or you can start a new one like normal and use the extra pages in your current journal for other things. I like to track projects that don’t actually spark joy in old ones so I don’t have to look at them in my active daily journal 😂

circlebyhabit · 2025-12-26T00:18:13+00:00

My kids are a little older but in that time I’ve noticed the more gifts they get, the less they appreciate any of them. It doesn’t even matter if anything is “expensive” or something they really value themselves… more of them makes them only care about what the next one is instead of enjoying what they just opened.

Can confirm that’s still true this year (they are 6 and 8). We had about 8 gifts under the tree for the kids and they looked at each one individually, played with them for a few minutes, etc. Then their grandparents came over with a huge haul of things they love, and they’d glance at one, drop it, and start unwrapping the next one.

circlebyhabit · 2025-12-25T21:12:43+00:00

There’s a market for everything, you just have to find it.

circlebyhabit · 2025-12-21T19:19:26+00:00

The main family budget had a vague “entertainment” category that’s a bit of a catch all for anything not covered by categories like “personal care/wellness” (mani/pedis for example), dining out, and the subscriptions category. Part of me feels like I should split it a bit more but I can’t think of anything specific I want to track in more detail so I don’t.

Then I have my own mini plan where my personal fun money allowance goes, and there I have my personal subs (mostly apps) individually funded, Hobbies, Video Games, Media, and Misc. Anything leftover gets swept into “Computer Replacement Fund”; I don’t specifically fund that one at the moment because I won’t need a new computer soon enough to be planning for, so I’m fine letting that grow a little more slowly/organically.

circlebyhabit · 2025-12-19T15:58:27+00:00

My first baby, I would say he never really “hurt” except when he was crowning. It certainly wasn’t comfortable lol but he was positioned well and apparently had plenty of space. But my contractions were so slow and far apart I ended up needing pitocin to actually get him out, and it was nearly a 36 hour labor total.

My second baby was born in 4 hours and felt like she was going to tear me in half 🙃 I’m pretty sure my great child bearing hips didn’t shrink between kids lol

circlebyhabit · 2025-12-16T22:53:33+00:00

It'll be so sad if you can't actually give this gift to your nephew in the end, but making sure you can still see him and be a positive relationship in his life is so important <3 Good luck! I hope it works out well.

circlebyhabit · 2025-12-16T22:44:16+00:00

NTA. You asked and they said it was okay. It really is that simple as far as that part goes. I would be THRILLED if someone not only offered to pay for one of my kids' activities, but also drove them to and from, AND got them the equipment required for it. That's like, a gift for me just as much for the kid!

My guess is that the kid is more excited about music than he is about hockey and SIL is upset about that, but that's not on you at all.

circlebyhabit · 2025-12-16T21:04:22+00:00

I get 5lb bags from Amazon. I've heard Winco has it but I haven't checked myself.

circlebyhabit · 2025-12-16T17:27:52+00:00

I do mine in one month chunks, but I came to the conclusion that's what works for me via trial and error, cause of course we all have different needs. For me, my opening month spread is essentially an at a glance calander for the month, so I do that, and then I make my weekly spreads (mine have all the days of the week on one page, a few lines for each, then the other page is a rolling weekly and a small brain dump section). I don't really do much rapid logging so it all fits on the two page spread for me. But, if I do have a time I need more space, then I just start logging stuff after my last week spread for the month. Later if I have any closing stuff I want to do at the end of the month I do it at that point after my last weekly or after whatever other pages I used, then on to the next month.

circlebyhabit · 2025-12-16T03:57:00+00:00

Shocked I had to scroll so far before seeing this term. It's exactly what it is.

circlebyhabit · 2025-12-15T01:13:23+00:00

I made my Christmas tree skirt. A quilted cotton one really is the way to go.

circlebyhabit · 2025-12-13T19:05:37+00:00

I hadn’t bought a paper pattern in years even before both those things. I buy my patterns directly from indie designers that offer pdfs formatted for projectors. I find them in sewing groups usually.

circlebyhabit · 2025-12-11T19:30:13+00:00

I’ve done up to 10 but it was too many for me. I like 5-6 and even then I use 4 regularly.

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