We sat down with our kids and looked closely at their day - to - day lives and then decided on what we would pay for such
as clothing, cell phone plans and after - school activities and sports fees and then gave them a budget for the rest such
as entertainment (the price of a movie ticket once a month),
gifts (
birthdays, holidays, church), their craving for school cafeteria food — which we capped at
twice a week — plus a small stipend.
Make an exhaustive list of all your monthly expenses, excluding your rent, and then add in the major costs that may only occur once or
twice a year, such
as insurance premiums, holiday and
birthday gifts, and trips.