I think the term "allowance" is putting a negative connotation to this practice. My husband and I both work outside the home. He works full-time, and I work part-time. I am the one who is doing the budget. Therefore, I am much more likely to know what we can and can't afford. While I don't say to my husband, "No, you can't buy that." I know that he, like most of us will spend more freely if they use a debit card for treats. I don't think there is anything wrong with 2 adults having a conversation about money and deciding what is an appropriate allowance ( or pocket money if you prefer) for a week. This helps budget and promotes conversations about finances.

I am thinking about doing this for my husband and myself. Our biggest block is getting the money. We both have direct deposit and rarely go to the bank. Does everyone else just visit the bank on payday? I suppose I could do that monthly and put the money in an envelope, taking it out each Sunday. I feel like if we don't do it on a set day of the week, we will end up borrowing ahead, or not keep track of the system.

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Darcilew

My dh takes what he needs and he gives me up to $40 a week. But not always, and I never ask for it. I usually end up giving my money away for kids things, sometimes my dh, and something we want to do. I also save it. He recently bought me some scratch offs and I won $31! We used it for the movies. That was fun. Its nice to have cash on hand so we don't spend/charge more than we need to.

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Daycare mom

Some of the best advice I was ever given. "A man needs to always have a bit of money in his pocket"
My dh and I both take about $30 a week for our own personal spending. Sometimes it all gets spent, sometimes it doesn't and is just saved. Both of us work - he works for the state and I am a home daycare provider. Gas money is considered part of our bills so is not part of our personal money. We are not wealthy at all but consider our personal spending money to be part of our budget.

I'm divorced so there is no hubby in the picture. However, I have blow money that I use to get small things if I want to. I think everyone should have some pociket money that they can use for whatever they want and not be acountable to anyone for it.

Wow...this did go somewhere I didn't intend for it to go!!! I shouldn't have used the word "ALLOWANCE" That brought up some negativity, clearly! I think the point I was trying to get at is that DH and I TOGETHER are trying to pay off certain debts, etc. and we both feel guilty for spending a little money on ourselves weekly, since that money could have gone toward a credit card payment, etc...instead of feeling like it was wasted on fast food, etc. So I initiated the budgeting in of cash for both of us to spend each week. This isn't about who makes the money, or telling my DH that he can have an allowance. I'm not that kind of woman. Do you know what kind of woman I am? I asked DH not to get me anything for my birthday so he could have an even greater gift than me. I don't ever tell him what he can or cannot spend, and he doesn't do that to me either.

Yes, I agree that this thread took a spin that you didn't intend. Please don't worry about it. Money brings out emotions with people. From what I read, nobody meant any harm to you. It's just that finances and emotions run hand-in-hand.

As for dh and I, we would love to be able to each have an allowance each month/week that we could use for whatever we wish. We are planning on doing that when we have our debts paid off. I think it's important to have "blow money". We can't do that right now, but it is something we want to do. We plan to allocate a certain amount each week or month, and we'd be able to use it however we wish. BTW, I didn't get allowance was a bad term, either.

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If you need to get in touch with me, my email is teach1107910@yahoo.com.

I try and give myself and DH a spending allowance, but maybe I should call it a spending guideline because somehow we always go over. I would love to figure out a way to stick to what we have budgeted. We really don't have the money to go over, otherwise it wouldn't be a problem. I tried something different this month, and it didn't work either. My DH has already gone over his amount and the month isn't even half over.

Because we do the cash envelopes system & a zero-based budget my husband, my kids and I get an "allowance" per se - it is $60.00 per month for him & the same for me. If he ever needed more and we had it I would have NO objections!

Erica

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"It's one of the most beautiful compensations in life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

My dh and I both have an allowance. We keep track of all of our spending, using Microsoft Money. So not a penny is spent that is not accounted for. My dh wrote a program in Access (he is a software engineer) that allows us to track our spending in relation to our budget each month. If we do not spend all of our allowance, it rolls over to the next month, which allows us to save up for bigger purchases if we want. It has worked very well for us, and we are much more careful about spending money if we know it has to come from our allowance.:love: