what is a discretionary expense 
a discretionary expense is a non essential expense discretionary expenses are costs without which businesses or households can survive as such they are defined as being wants rather than expenses that are needed this means a business or household is still able to maintain itself even if all discretionary consumer spending stops meals at restaurants and entertainment costs are examples of discretionary expenses understanding discretionary expensesexpenses are divided into several categories namely non discretionary and discretionary while non discretionary expenses are considered mandatory housing taxes debt and groceries discretionary expenses are incurred above and beyond what is deemed necessary these are generally considered wants while non discretionary expenses are usually referred to as needs as such discretionary expenses rarely have anything to do with a business or household s day to day operations rather they cater to choice and lifestyle 1businesses and individuals pay for discretionary expenses with discretionary income the amount of money left over after paying for housing food taxes and other necessities when times are good people have more money to spend and they normally do so on things they don t need such as luxury items and other services cars vacations restaurants entertainment electronics etc 