Dear wise, un-biased YMers,

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Dear wise, un-biased YMers, 

My husband's ESPN Insider account is up for renewal. 
I believe this should come out of his fun money. 
He believes this is of utmost necessity and should come out of some other fund--like groceries or gas because those also are of utmost necessity. The NFL Draft is coming up and he needs the information. 

What say you


 
Please give detailed, well-defined, persuasive arguments. Citations, though not necessary, are welcome. 
Thank you for bestowing upon me your wisdom.

Chloe. 

[quince]

Fun money, because YUCK-sports.


Seriously- it's an entertainment related expenditure, that is for the entertainment of only one person in the household.  Definitely fun money. If he was PLAYING football, I might argue for joint funds because exercise is healthy, and health and wellness related things should be a general fund item, but as a spectator?

Fun money.

[busymom]

Sports is fun money. Nuff said. Or, you could ask him which professional football player is going to swing by the house & drive him to work, because you're not giving him any gas money.

[Shooby]

Yes . DH studies the draft and is standing by in case Bill Belechik needs advice lol. I feel your pain.

[Jaguar]

Mar 27, 2014 21:30:31 GMT -5 busymom said:

Sports is fun money. Nuff said. Or, you could ask him which professional football player is going to swing by the house & drive him to work, because you're not giving him any gas money.

Oh yeah I love this.

[shanendoah]

Where does the rest of the cable bill come from?
What else comes from fun money? Do things that are specifically for you come from joint funds (like haircuts, manicures, clothes, etc) or is it all from fun money?

I think it really depends on how your money is otherwise divided up. 

In my house, WoW subscriptions do come from allowance funds, but cable comes out of bill money, so it really depends.

[Deleted]

Perhaps you should come up with something for yourself to qualify as a 'necessity'... Weekly massages could at least be given a medical purpose, right... 

[midjd]

I think Quince has the best argument.

If you do the allowance system - entertainment for the family = joint funds. Entertainment for the individual = individual funds.

How was it paid last year?

[tallguy]

Mar 27, 2014 21:18:03 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Dear wise, un-biased YMers, 

My husband's ESPN Insider account is up for renewal. 
I believe this should come out of his fun money. 
He believes this is of utmost necessity and should come out of some other fund--like groceries or gas because those also are of utmost necessity. The NFL Draft is coming up and he needs the information. 

What say you


 
Please give detailed, well-defined, persuasive arguments. Citations, though not necessary, are welcome. 
Thank you for bestowing upon me your wisdom.

Chloe. 

Is he in prize-money fantasy leagues?  If so, then he MAY have an argument in justifying it as an investment expense.  If not, then no, it's fun money.  I win about half of the leagues I play in and I don't pay for Insider.  I'm only playing football now but it's $50 buy-in and the top-three get paid.  My $400 for winning this season paid for my Christmas shopping for myself.  And I STILL wouldn't pay for Insider....     

[tallguy]

Football is stupid.

She asked for, "detailed, well-defined, persuasive arguments."  NOT the rantings of a lunatic.  Can you at least TRY to honor that request?

[Deleted]

So, a reasoned argument would be that if tallguy can win without it, DH should be able too as well...

[tallguy]

Well, I win because I'm really good.  The reasoned argument would be that it would help him win if he had it and would MAKE money for the household.  Of course, to CLAIM that puts the onus on him to PROVE that by actually winning. 

And again, if he isn't even in prize-money leagues he's got no shot.

[whoisjohngalt]

Mar 27, 2014 21:18:03 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Dear wise, un-biased YMers, 

My husband's ESPN Insider account is up for renewal. 
I believe this should come out of his fun money. 
He believes this is of utmost necessity and should come out of some other fund--like groceries or gas because those also are of utmost necessity. The NFL Draft is coming up and he needs the information. 

What say you


 
Please give detailed, well-defined, persuasive arguments. Citations, though not necessary, are welcome. 
Thank you for bestowing upon me your wisdom.

Chloe. 

I would like to start by saying that I do not  understand interest in most sports.  I make exception for boxing.

That being said - it should come from food/gas money.

The alternative cost to paying for ESPN would be your husband going to a bar to watch it there.  He would be eating food and spending money on gas.

In addition, if this situation was happening in my household, my husband would be getting very little entertainment from his sports  watching activities since I have a very hard time keeping my mouth shut when anything sports related is on TV
 
And since I recognize that about myself, I would feel it was injustice charging this as "entertainment" expense.

[tallguy]

The alternative cost to paying for ESPN would be your husband going to a bar to watch it there. He would be eating food and spending money on gas.

In addition, if this situation was happening in my household, my husband would be getting very little entertainment from his sports watching activities since I have a very hard time keeping my mouth shut when anything sports related is on TV

Not what they are arguing about.  ESPN Insider is an online thing offering additional or enhanced access to articles and "expert" insights.  You also get the magazine included for free.  Does that change your opinion?

[whoisjohngalt]

Mar 27, 2014 22:30:55 GMT -5 tallguy said:

The alternative cost to paying for ESPN would be your husband going to a bar to watch it there. He would be eating food and spending money on gas.

In addition, if this situation was happening in my household, my husband would be getting very little entertainment from his sports watching activities since I have a very hard time keeping my mouth shut when anything sports related is on TV

Not what they are arguing about.  ESPN Insider is an online thing offering additional or enhanced access to articles and "expert" insights.  You also get the magazine included for free.  Does that change your opinion?

I can't offer an intelligent opinion as I find the whole thing completely useless.

But if I pretend for a second that it has some value, I would still put it in the food/gas category bc if the husband doesn't have access to this information, he would want to go out and meet up with his buddies to try to get the above mentioned information from other sources and food and gas would be involved.

[sapphire12]

His allowance if this is for his entertainment only.

[NastyWoman]

Mar 27, 2014 22:05:41 GMT -5 tallguy said:

Football is stupid.

She asked for, "detailed, well-defined, persuasive arguments."  NOT the rantings of a lunatic.  Can you at least TRY to honor that request?

And what is wrong with a concise statement of fact in this context? All I can think of to enhance this statement is "and stupid comes out of your fun money" 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Mar 27, 2014 21:41:53 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

Where does the rest of the cable bill come from?
What else comes from fun money? Do things that are specifically for you come from joint funds (like haircuts, manicures, clothes, etc) or is it all from fun money?

I think it really depends on how your money is otherwise divided up. 

In my house, WoW subscriptions do come from allowance funds, but cable comes out of bill money, so it really depends.

As tallguy mentioned, this has nothing to do with the cable bill. Insider is a scam run by ESPN that gives you access to another portion of their website. 
Our budget has line items for: 
Family Fun
Vacation
Haircuts (includes all of four people plus girls' waxing)
My fun money
His fun money
Girls' allowance
Cable Bill
Landscaping (which could be argued to part of his entertainment)

And, I've had to slightly increase the grocery allotment because we purchased a Keurig single cup so DH would stop driving a 32-mile round trip four days per week only to get a mocha freeze thing. That really means that the gas budget is not going over a ridiculous amount. 

He mainly spends his fun money on coffee runs and iTunes. Last time I paid the ESPN magazine/Insider renewal, I took it out of his fun money. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Mar 27, 2014 22:41:53 GMT -5 whoisjohngalt said:

Mar 27, 2014 22:30:55 GMT -5 tallguy said:

Not what they are arguing about.  ESPN Insider is an online thing offering additional or enhanced access to articles and "expert" insights.  You also get the magazine included for free.  Does that change your opinion?

I can't offer an intelligent opinion as I find the whole thing completely useless.

But if I pretend for a second that it has some value, I would still put it in the food/gas category bc if the husband doesn't have access to this information, he would want to go out and meet up with his buddies to try to get the above mentioned information from other sources and food and gas would be involved.

It is true that he doesn't go out an watch at sports restaurants or bars too often. He doesn't drink at all and he does go to games often. Ticket purchases come out of Family Fun. 

Being a sports fan is his main hobby, and is purely for entertainment. 

I forgot to list in the post above that there is also a gym membership line item. 

[tallguy]

You should skip the whole ESPN Insider fight.  If he was driving 128 miles per week for coffee you should just shoot him instead.  Save both ways.

[whoisjohngalt]

Mar 27, 2014 22:51:29 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Mar 27, 2014 22:41:53 GMT -5 whoisjohngalt said:

I can't offer an intelligent opinion as I find the whole thing completely useless.

But if I pretend for a second that it has some value, I would still put it in the food/gas category bc if the husband doesn't have access to this information, he would want to go out and meet up with his buddies to try to get the above mentioned information from other sources and food and gas would be involved.

It is true that he doesn't go out an watch at sports restaurants or bars too often. He doesn't drink at all and he does go to games often. Ticket purchases come out of Family Fun. 

Being a sports fan is his main hobby, and is purely for entertainment. 

I forgot to list in the post above that there is also a gym membership line item. 

I wasn't 100% serious with my response, but we have "subscriptions/memberships" line in the budget.  Magazines, husband's Sirius radio - things like that fall into that category.  So, that's where *I* would put it.

Our "allowance" money are for....actually, I have no clue what husband uses it for.  Nor do I care.  But things like you mentioned come from our budget.

Of course, I don't know how much your husband gets as "fun money".  He might be getting a lot more than *I* would consider allowance, kwim?

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

I do know I couldn't handle actual gambling with the sports. It would be fine if it was out of his fun money only since he can do with that what he wants, but certainly not out of any other line item. 

This is mostly a good time for him and our oldest son. They play fantasy baseball and football together. They talk to each other several times per week and sports always come up in at least some portion of the conversation. I suppose I could see it coming out of Family Fun in that regard. 

It was just funny the way he responded when I asked if he had any fun money left for this month when he asked me to renew the supscription.  It was a "What This is necessity!" It was mostly mocking, unless, of course, I had immediately acquiesced.

[tallguy]

This is mostly a good time for him and our oldest son. They play fantasy baseball and football together. They talk to each other several times per week and sports always come up in at least some portion of the conversation. I suppose I could see it coming out of Family Fun in that regard.

Okay, with that stated, go there.  It makes a difference.  It's still probably a waste, but it can be justified there. 

Or, even better..., let it be a present.  Christmas, birthday, whatever.  He gets what he wants, you get to save elsewhere. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Mar 27, 2014 22:55:46 GMT -5 whoisjohngalt said:

Mar 27, 2014 22:51:29 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

It is true that he doesn't go out an watch at sports restaurants or bars too often. He doesn't drink at all and he does go to games often. Ticket purchases come out of Family Fun. 

Being a sports fan is his main hobby, and is purely for entertainment. 

I forgot to list in the post above that there is also a gym membership line item. 

I wasn't 100% serious with my response, but we have "subscriptions/memberships" line in the budget.  Magazines, husband's Sirius radio - things like that fall into that category.  So, that's where *I* would put it.

Our "allowance" money are for....actually, I have no clue what husband uses it for.  Nor do I care.  But things like you mentioned come from our budget.

Of course, I don't know how much your husband gets as "fun money".  He might be getting a lot more than *I* would consider allowance, kwim?

Oh, I know. This whole thing--while factual--is just amusing. 

Since I parse everything out so much within the budget, we only get $60 each per month in fun money. It's that low partly because we choose to pay for cable because I want the live news stations and HGTV and he wants the live sports. 

[Works4me]

How much is it and how often?

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

It seems like it used to be a lot cheaper, but right now it's $30 per year for bi-weekly magazines and the super secret special Insider access. 

[Works4me]

I would be tempted to allow him to convince me to put it elsewhere because it is such a small part of your monthly/annual expenses yet a large part of his monthly fun money, plus he shares with son.

Best part is if you allow him to convince you, you may be able to collect on something else because he may then owes you one - lol!

[alabamagal]

$30 a year is not worth fighting over.  $30 for a magazine is nothing. It keeps him home. He talks to his son. Enough said!

We dropped the ESPN this year for son, but he has Sports Illustrated, which is more money.

[Miss Tequila]

I'm with Georgiagal...it is $30 a year. Who cares?

This is another reason I am glad that I have separate finances. It would get exhausting to argue over very small $'s everytime I wanted something. 

[Deleted]

Yeah, I'm going to have to go with the 'don't argue over 30$/yr ' crowd. Fir some reason I thought it was a monthly thing. 

Do you get other magazines/newspaper, etc?