How We Budget: Entertainment

This morning, a couple of our friends texted to ask if we wanted to go out for brunch with them. It was a very enticing prospect - we'd get to spend time with two very fun people, eat good food (well, delicious, if not good for us), and have someone else take care of the preparation and clean-up of the meal.

The problem? We are already overbudget in our "Entertainment" category this month.

We budget $65 per month to our entertainment/going out budget. (In Pittsburgh, this is definitely reasonable. If we lived in New York or DC, we'd be going out maybe once a month.) So far this month, though, we've spent $66.50. And that's not even counting the few times we've ordered pizza for dinner rather than cooking something ourselves. In order for us not to go wildly overbudget in the entertainment category, I've put those expenses in the food category of our budget.

I know that some personal finance bloggers don't have an entertainment category in their budgets. They are concentrating so entirely on their goal, whether it's eliminating debt, saving for a down payment, or whatever, that they don't want to spend money on frivolous things like going out to a bar or to see a movie. That's 100% reasonable.

But I know that we would feel completely deprived and despondent if we didn't give ourselves at least a little license to go out when it's within our budget to do so. So, we plan for it and stick (mostly) to our budget.

However, we had to politely decline our friends' request this morning. C'est la vie, I suppose. Maybe next month.