Budget w/ a Wife

[magnumb]

How do you guys determine a budget for the hobby when you have a wife? 

[JimBear]

Depends on how expensive the wife is.

No, seriously, I pay whatever bills I can, do the work around the house and the rest of the spare change I earn is mine. Other people may have the luxury of trying to get rid of their money, me not so much.

[Hypoxic]

Separate accounts.

[Busdriver]

Secret hiding places🤔

[Pylon80]

... she couldn't care less?

Edit: the good ol' trick: "what car honey? Oh, THAT one? I have had it for year!"

[Siclick33]

More importantly, how do you determine the budget for the wife when you have a hobby?

[yogi-bear]

my take as I have had both good times and bad times. Both my wage and my wife's wage goes into paying bills etc. Bills, food and housing etc always come first. What is left over goes towards extras like entertainment and for me of course RC. I do basic budgets and from that work out what is left over and from that Ms Yogi-Bear and I get a 'weekly' spend on whatever you want amount. In lean times it's not been much in good times it goes up, although if things are very good, I tend to direct extra funds to paying off the mortgage.  We also make sure we direct some funds to savings in some way.

So in short, budget and work out what you can actually have leftover to spend on fun things, share with wife, she is your life partner after all.

[Otis311]

What's a wife?

[Rinskie]

My wife is cool with the RC stuff. She knows I am not out at bars and stuff and she understands a $200-$400 expense every now and then is actually cheap compared to her hair maintenance. Bottom line, I don't care what she spends it on, she don't care what I spend it on as long as the bills are paid. 

[Ferruz]

Reading the answers so far, it seems that I lucked out in the wife-to-RC department. My wife is actually encouraging the RC activity, and has been since the day I got back into it. Come to think of it, she is the one that insisted I'd get a Hornet and have fun with it back in 2018. 

Also, while being far from making big revenues, we currently have a lifestyle that is slightly lower than what we could afford, which makes RC expenses a breeze. As we know, there's plenty of things that easily get more costly than our hobby.

As for the RC budget itself, I find that planning ahead along with making  few savvy investments can go a long way in terms of saving. For instance, if you find a kit that you like for a lower price than usual, it might be a good idea to jump on it, even if you are not planning on a build at the moment. It will be right there for you in the future when the good moment comes, and finances will have likely replenished by then making it feel even better. But I know most people already do exactly this. It works, as long as one keeps it under control, that is 

[alvinlwh]

I do not have a joint account with my wife. She pays the council tax and most of the weekly shop, while I pay the mortgage, electricity, broadband, insurances, fuel (her car) and maintenance. Every month, £1k of my pay goes to her ac on payday and half of that amount gets drip fed back to me weekly. The balance is kept by her as our emergency cash/savings. 

When I overspend in a month beyond my "float" cash, she will transfer whatever amount needed to keep my head above water. Smaller amounts within my "float" is my freedom to spend. If I want to spend on a bigger amount, I will run it by her. She knows usually I will hunt deeply for a good deal (like the recent UK Tamiya FT price slash) that she will approve the purchase of 2 kits at once. She will encourage me making use of 0% interest deals, Pay-in-3, etc. If not, she will transfer money to me to cover the shortfall. 

Now, when we head out to the Far East, where prices can be as low as 50% of UK prices, she will strongly encourage me to buy as much as humanly possible, to the extent of maxing out our excess luggage allowance. She will even plan to dispose of clothes as we go to make more space for me. 

I have a trip in a week's time and she is planning on 0% balance/money transfer deals on return to spread out the payment when we return with a maxed out credit card. 

[junkmunki]

You need to rephrase the question and ask, How do you budget for a wife, when you have a hobby?

J

[Dan1891]

Just dont tell your wife?

[Grumpy pants]

Wife or not,  it is about managing yourself.

Spend only what you can comfortably afford. 

Buy only what you need or are going to make use of. 

Our house - bills & kids, always 1st priority - then gym, social stuff and a bit of Tamiya.

My hobby spending fluctuates, but I do monitor my outlay carefully as it can quickly escalate 😳.

November I bought 2 used runners, so in December I didn’t buy anything at all. 

January it is highly unlikely I will spend anything either, as this is one the most expensive months of the year for our household.

Tamiya for Christmas and birthdays is great and there are always good deals on eBay, you just have to be patient and know your values. 

 

[Mad Ax]

I'm sensing a lot of unspoken dialog in a single-sentence question.

My answer- and this is what we've done for several years now:

We each get our wages paid into our own personal accounts.

We sum our net monthly income together to get our fixed monthly income.

We add up all the fixed costs, like mortgage, insurances, taxes, electric, gas, and all the rest.  For anything that's paid annually, we divide by 12 to work it out by month.

Then we add some monthly budgets, like healthcare, child toys and clothes, fuel, etc.., and other guestimated costs, like the weekly shop, vehicle maintenance, household maintenance, etc.

Hopefully, the total should come in at significantly less than our fixed monthly income.  If it doesn't, we need to earn more or cut costs.

Then, we look at what's left, and we pick a figure that allows each of us the freedom to do our own thing every month, without having to be in each other's pockets.  We keep the figure high enough that we can buy and do the things we want, without being overly extravagant or wasteful.  This figure is called "percy" - short for personal.

Then, with whatever is left, we split out into luxury budgets, like a holiday, new kitchen, new motorcycle clothing, new (used) car - stuff we can do without but is nice to be able to save for.  If we have any short-term hardship or dip in income, we can compress the luxury budgets before we have to cut our percy.  That means if I've planned a whole year of racing and budgeted for it up front, we can afford a few little income dips due to illness or economy before I have to cancel events or start selling stuff.

 

So, as the start of the month, all my wages goes into my personal account, then there's a transfer that takes around 90% of it and puts it straight into the joint account to handle all the essential stuff and future budgets.

What I'm left with is enough to cover my basic maintenance (which is my personal phone bill, personal banking fees, and internet backup), plus the agreed percy figure.  My wife does the same.  If my wages fluctuate (sometimes they do) then I'll transfer any extra at the end of the month.  My wife calls this "overs" and distributes it to whatever budget account looks like it most needs it.

We both really love this way of working, since neither of us have to justify our expenses to each other, as long as we aren't going over percy.

We also have an agreement that if either of us does a 2nd job, all the income is "percy" so it encourages us to do extra little jobs somewhere without it all being swallowed up in the joint account.  That said, I get up at 5:30 every morning to work on stuff that I sell on Patreon, which pulls in a tidy little second income every month and pays for my racing weekends - except I have to put over 40% of that aside to pay as income tax every year, which is a bit of a stinger.  As my wife's income is significantly lower, if she did any extra work she'd only pay 20% in tax.  Now that's just not fair 

 

[Mad Ax]

One thing I would add - percy is not just RC and racing, but ANY alcoholic beverages (we never pay for alcohol on the weekly shop, if I order beers I have to pay for them), clothes, shoes, snacks or meals bought away from home that are not part of a joint day out, any personal fuel (I have to pay the fuel used on my RC racing trips back to the joint account at the end of the month), nights out with friends, books, DVDs, games - basically anything bought for personal use.

My wife has agreed that I have a budget in the joint account to replace my motorcycle clothing every few years, since it's got so expensive these days I'd pretty much have to stop racing for a year to pay for it all, and she is amenable to "big dreams" going in the joint, like a new (used) motorcycle or paying to get my novels edited.  Which is kinda cool to not have to keep percy back every month to pay for it.

[ADRay1000]

we each hold our separate checking accounts and split bills down the middle. we do have joint savings and CDs. 
 

whatever is left after my personal bills is for whatever. however, rc is but one of my interests that require funding. It takes a backseat behind going to concerts, “horticultural projects”, and my 1:1 Mini. 
 

usually hashes out to about 1 kit a year to 18 months and money for spares, the odd hop-up, or rc ephemera.

[F-150]

Make more money or divorce.

Simple.

[markbt73]

I have a small account of my own, which is my earnings from freelance writing. It's mine to do with as I please, with a few exceptions like quarterly taxes, and I never let it get below a certain amount.

[Nikko85]

My wife has always been very independent.

We both get our salaries paid into our own accounts. We both then put some money into the joint savings account, in which bills are paid.

I put in far more (in real terms and as a percentage) as I earn at a higher rate and she works three days a week as we have a toddler. If we each put in the same amount (either amount or as a percentage) I'd live in luxury, whilst she'd have to skimp and save to pay half our outgoings and that's nonsense to me. This way we end up with a similar amount in our own accounts which we've both earned, which we can then spend guilt free.

I could probably drop down the monthlies and afford to get a new RC car every month, but I'd actually rather put more into the joint, as there's it's locked away - and really paying off nursery bills, mortgage and saving up is more important to me at the end of a year. As what stays into my account is quite small I feel I have to economise and save to get something like an RC car, which for me makes it feel more valuable too. Just buying whatever you want when you want quickly means things lose value - you only have to watch people eat gold wrapped steak to see that.

Really what's mine is hers and vice versa, but this just gives us both some autonomy and privacy and I don't need to justify spent to her, I need to justify it to myself.

Lucky we are wealthy enough to be allowed luxuries - if we were just scrapping by then yes each RC car would probably more of a joint decision from a joint account.

Most of my cars are quite cheap by standards here, and try and use birthdays or Christmas presents to get most of my RC action, spending more time tinkering on getting cheaper used models than a brand new platform.

 

 

 

 

  

 

[dannymulder]

My wife and I have a monthly budget for hobby stuff, we have separated bank accounts, every month my wife transfers her money to mine bank account and keeps her budget for hobby stuff on her bank account so she can do wat she want with it,  I pay al the bills, food and all the other stuff that we need to life, my wife has also the card of mine bank account with that she can buy stuff like clothes and things for our little daugther and other things that we need, but no hobby stuff, as long we can pay al the bills and all of the other things we need it is fine with me.

Sometimes it happens that I spent more, and sometimes my wife want a little more budget, but it is not that I put that on a golden scale, it happens when I see things in sale that I want a few  months of budget in advance, some times it  happens to my wife but thats no problem.

There are also times like last year I spent nothing for a half year and then have a shopping spree and spend 8 months budget in 1 month.

[urban warrior]

A lot of interesting and also funny comments here. And I don't think I need to add too much input from my side, since it wouldn't bring more news. But ... there's is the one or other thing I would like to mention.

A modeller once said or wrote: "My biggest fear when I die is, that my wife will sell all my modelling stuff for the price I told her!" Like in the one or other video: "Dear, how much did that cost?" "Oh, they gave it to me!"

Even though my spouse (and after Thursday this week my wife) does like my hobby very much and encouraged me to take a model car with us in the holidays several times, she doesn't have a real "idea" of all the costs involved in it. And as one other member here wrote, as long as all our bills are paid and we don't suffer thirst or hunger, I think that I can live my hobby as I like, as long as I can. Since I don't hestitate one second if anything in our daily life is needed to get that ordered or bought, I think I have this freedom. Apart from that, we both have independent bank accounts and share all we need to get along during the day, week, month or year.

[tamiya_1971]

When we decided to have kids back in 2005, the plan was to live in a modest house and if we could, my wife would stay home with the kids. The plan worked. What truly helped was that she learned photography at a job she had prior to kids and started doing family photography and opening up her own side gig in 2006. It ended up working out beautifully. She felt good having her own spending money that she earned, she was home with the kids and I covered the mortgage, insurance, cars, etc. And I could mess around with my rc hobby.  

Fast forward to 2020. When everything was shutting down her photo studio lease happened to be up at the end of March ‘20. We moved all her props out. It was definitely an emotional time for her but at the same time she wasn’t  on the hook for a 1k a month lease, which was a blessing at that moment. With me and the kids in the house with her all day all night,  she spent April ‘20 watching out for jobs, and there were many of them since people were scared to go to work. She ended up back in a marketing position by May ‘20 and since then has moved on to a better position elsewhere but still in marketing. 

We are still in our modest house, we keep out of debt except for our mortgage. We both have our things we love, me rc cars and her….singing with a choir, shoes, and other various girly things. We basically still keep the same budget. I pay for home and related insurance stuff and she helps out with other household expenses now and helps with our first year college kid. She occasionally still does photography on a very limited basis. 
 

Honestly, independent bank accounts are the best. It works for us because that’s just how we have always done it. And much like what I’ve read above, if the bills are paid and there is good retirement funding, do what you enjoy. 

[mtbkym01]

We have a joint account that both our salaries goes into, and all our bills and living expenses come out of, then we both have our own individual accounts that we both have an allowance go into every fortnight which is ours to do with as we please, this is generally what funds my hobbies, so although we are doing quite well, I have to budget my spending and save for new kits. It’s why Team Associated’s current formula of dropping a new release every month (or so it seems) really annoys me, as I just cant “afford” to keep up . Can you imagine being a 50+ year old and having to save your pocket money to get that new RC car, takes me back 40 years 

[yogi-bear]

35 minutes ago, mtbkym01 said:

...

Can you imagine being a 50+ year old and having to save your pocket money to get that new RC car, takes me back 40 years 

I'm kinda in the same boat, I have used Afterpay a couple of times to get a bargain that I hadn't saved for, and no extra cost, much like laybying in the old days.