What percentage of your income do you consider to be insignificant?

[SS-18 ICBM]

By insignificant I mean that you can throw away this amount on something frivolous more than once a week without having to worry about it (e.g. for me a soda once a week). What are examples of purchases would you do in such a manner?

 

[gay_Aleks]

Well, the amount of money that remains after paying all bills, after that, subtracting the leftovers for food.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

No, I'm not asking for the percentage of disposable income. I'm asking about the amount that you wouldn't think much of "throwing away", so to speak.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I have 'on demand income', but I usually live by barter. If I want something that involves money, I go generate the money to acquire it. So whether it is something frivolous or not it is going to consume 100% of the income I generated to get it.

 

[warpus]

I'm a very frugal person, so I'm having a hard time answering this question. How about: Anything bought with change? I have a jar full of 25 cent, 10 cent, $1, $2, etc. coins.. Anything in that jar is considered "free money".. Roommate needs some change? He can take some from the jar and "owe me one" later.

Everything bought with credit, bills, or my debit card, is scrutinized. I'm usually saving up money for trips, so I don't throw out money for any reason. Unless it's money from the change jar, like I said.

I do allow myself an "entertainment budget" and a bit of a "whatever the hell I want" budget. So every month I have money to spend on random stuff, if I want to.. I usually don't, but if I do - I have money budgeted for it. So that doesn't really feel like I'm throwing money away either. Basically what ends up happening is I don't spend most of that money and it goes into savings.. and then every once in a while (every couple months?) I see something expensive that I need, and I splurge. And I don't feel bad about splurging, because I know that I'm a frugal person, and that all that money I don't spend each month adds up - allowing me to splurge. It actually feels awesome to splurge like this and not have to worry about it ruining your credit or whatever. I think it might be one of the subconscious reasons why I do all this.

When I'm on a trip, I might blow $100 on a scenic cruise, $300 on a bungy jump, or whatever. But that's all sort of budgeted too. Sort of. I basically know that I live for this stuff, so spending $1k over my budget isn't going to break me. So on my trips I'm a bit more free with how I spend money - but at the same time I am also a frugal traveller. I stay at hostels.. but I do eat out at restaurants. I'm a paradox.

All that text and I didn't really answer your question.. or maybe I did?

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

You did. I should have specified monthly income, now that I think about it. Change would most likely be less than 1% of anybody's monthly income.

When I'm on a trip, I might blow $100 on a scenic cruise, $300 on a bungy jump, or whatever. But that's all sort of budgeted too. Sort of. I basically know that I live for this stuff, so spending $1k over my budget isn't going to break me.

Yeah, that wouldn't count. You're still thinking about the money being spent. Basically just the stuff that isn't even budgeted at all.

 

[luiz]

I probably spend a good 30% of my income on "frivolous" stuff. But that's called living.

 

[El_Machinae]

It's actually really tough to work with it as a percentage.
A couple years ago, I earmarked 2% of my income (plus $50) to charity. I find I still hem and haw. I'll blow $40 on drinks out on the town (or, vastly, vastly more than 'home drinks' cost) in one weekend, but I find writing the cheques for 'large' sums still tough. When I write a cheque for $300, it still feels like a 'lot' of money, even though annually, it's not.

I probably spend 10% of my income purely hedonistically. Maybe another 10% less than optimally. I'm quite regulated, since I have much better things to do with my money.

 

[Zelig]

By insignificant I mean that you can throw away this amount on something frivolous more than once a week without having to worry about it (e.g. for me a soda once a week). What are examples of purchases would you do in such a manner?

I don't really understand the question, I think about and optimize all my purchases, regardless of how big or small.

Furthermore, I have enough in liquid savings that my income isn't particularly relevant to my monthly purchases.

I won't bother picking up anything smaller than a quarter that I see on the ground, so I guess by that measure ~.001% of my monthly income.

I probably spend 10% of my income purely hedonistically.

Going by that definition, I probably spend 10% of my income on food and drinks alone hedonistically. (Above what Soylent would cost me, not even taking into account how much time Soylent would save me.)

 

[Borachio]

I try and watch everything I spend.

But do I bemoan the loss of 1% of my income if I happen to drop it down the drain, get conned out of it, discover I could have bought an item for that much less than I actually spent, etc? No. Not for more than 2 or 3 weeks.

How much of my income do I squander on inessentials? Er... I'm not terribly sure. I'm not keeping too strict an overview at the moment, since I feel I'm living fairly well within my means.

It's what I've spent after all my essential outgoings, fairly obviously. Probably 5%? Maybe.

 

[warpus]

I spend money on breakfast and lunch that I probably shouldn't be. And I order out every once in a while.. I'm almost tempted to include some of these purchases for the purposes of this exercise.

The key for me is that I spend less than I make per month, so I always have money left over. And it adds up and up, so when I want to splurge on something, it's not a problem. And it's not that I make a killing, I just don't see the need to buy many things. I'm a very functional guy. I'll buy something if I need it. I need a hammer? I'll buy one. I don't buy all the latest gadgets and so on. Every once in a while I'll buy a game or some cool toy to play with - but I see that as stuff under my entertainment/self-sanity budget.

In contrast, I see most people around me always increase their spending per month when they get a raise. I don't understand that sort of thinking.. Then those people complain to me that I'm going on all sorts of trips, and they're not. Well, sorry, dude, but you bought a new car, you bought all your kids ipads, you bought a new watch when your old one was fine, and those stupid christmas lights that are on your house way too early... and so on and so on... If I lived like that, I wouldn't have gone to Thailand last year. I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

 

[Ironsided]

I'd say about 50%. I make maybe 400k SEK a year (~$50k). Significant to me is rent+food+essentials.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

I wouldn't frivolously spend over 10% of my income more than once per week, that's for sure. 1-5% would be okay, I guess. I'm fairly frugal too and spend when there's reason to.


One measurement one could use is how much extra would you spend to buy ecological, fair-trade or similar. I think most people have a breaking point for it. Not all care about it in the first place though.

 

[Lights]

I'm Catalan, every single penny counts.

 

[Harv]

By insignificant I mean that you can throw away this amount on something frivolous more than once a week without having to worry about it (e.g. for me a soda once a week). What are examples of purchases would you do in such a manner?

Hmm. I have not answered your question yet, but I think I can calculate this number by reviewing the number of trips taken to the bank machine and assuming that 100% of my visits to the bank machine are for frivolous purchases. After that, it is a question of how much of the credit card bill is frivolous and how much of it is a budgeted expense.

I will guess the number is a little bit less than 5%. If it is more than 5%, then I really should take a closer look at what goes on the credit card.

Now I am talking about frivolous expenses - stuff I really do not care to put specifically in the budget. It gets lumped together under "wasted money." I am drawing a distinction between "frivolous" and "stupid." If I combine "frivolous" and "stupid," then that number will be much greater than 5%.

How about those monthly dingers, like subscriptions and memberships and stuff? They sign you on when you think it is a great idea and get you once a month because you never get around to cancelling?

How often do the rest of you clean house on stuff like this?

 

[red_elk]

Once a week? Less than 1%.
Generally, I can spend my monthly salary and more on frivolous stuff, the only requirement is that I have to consider it worth the spending.

 

[Quintillus]

I'm skipping voting both since I don't tend to think of my income in percentage terms, and because it's somewhat ambiguous what period of time we're talking about.

Probably the most significant "frivolous" item I spend on regularly is eating out. In part it's something I could easily reduce by planning ahead more, but in part it's also social, so I wouldn't want to reduce it to zero.

I don't have any particular budget, but I do review my expenditures when the statements come in, pay them in full, consider cost (such as moving in to a cheaper apartment recently), and perhaps most importantly earn more than I spend nearly every month, even after taking out the retirement savings. And even though I don't have a budget per se, my spending tends to wind up being pretty consistent.

 

[Old Hippy]

I give my self $100 pocket money each friday, so 5-10% is just insignificant, everything else is a considered purchase and goes on my card, and would show up on my budget at some point, as I still use old fashioned paper account books to track my spending/saving

 

[GenMarshall]

None, I don't get payed enough to warrant disposable income. Any amount that's not gobbled up by student loan debts and gas is imediaty dump into savings to not be touched.

Bad enough I still get payed close to minumum wage .

 

[The_J]

<1% of the monthly salary.
Partially due to the fact that nearly 60% of it go to rent/electricity/water/health insurance (yes, I'm living expensive).

But then again, what's insignificant? When I want to do something, then I'm not wasting it. If I e.g. want to see an exhibition, want to play lasertag, or want to get new cloths, then this is significant for me, and not a waste. A weekend might then have cost more than 100€ (>1%), but it was worth it.

What I really throw away, and most likely shouldn't...that'd be 2-3€ per day, max (most often pastry or something sweet to east ), but I also feel bad about it.