Budget Challenge: No-Stress November (Nov 1 - Nov 30)

[Smacky]

[Smacky]

[Greyweld]

Aww, it looks very witchy. Oh well. It’s an altar in my headcannon.

[Clare-Dragonfly]

The oil diffuser candleholder thingy is indeed very witchy. It has fake books and a fake skull and fake bottles and a fake spider and a fake raven (I guess, though it’s disproportionately small).

Edit five days later: I realized the skull is so small that the raven is proportional. I guess the books and bottles are just huge. And the spider… that’s quite a spider.

[daffodil2001]

@daffodil2001

Sign me up! I was pretty close with my original Budgetober estimates. For November I want to focus only on two food related goals:

1. Keep to our grocery budget ($260)
2. Anticipate if/when we will be invited to go to restaurants this month, and decide ahead of time how many we will say yes to and what our budget will be. This will require my husband’s input so I don’t have numbers right now.

1. Groceries: $73.91.
2. Our going out with friends limit is $30. So far no spending here.

[Smacky]

[TNT]

Saturday check-in…

Goal #1 was to work at least 40 hours/week. I have one day left and will probably make it happen. This is my summary so far this week (it doesn’t include time I’m working but offline, usually for repositioning in a better area). I lost much of the day yesterday because my town’s AT&T reception wasn’t working. This goal is staying in place going forward, except that I’m reserving the possibility of going on a weekend trip the weekend before Thanksgiving. If I go, I probably won’t get 40 hours that week.

Goal #2 was to mostly eat from home. I’m not abandoning the general idea, but I’m pivoting toward a little more leeway here for the rest of the month. I keep running out of spoons (metaphorically but also literally). Getting restaurant food and feeling guilty about it has not been awesome this week.

[GJT]

Doing ok.

Minimal buying from the nursery this weekend. Just a Azerbaijani pomegranate to replace the one that got cooked during the mini heatwave two weeks ago. Bought it because I had 40% off at BAAG this month for poms, so it only cost me $20 instead of $34, bargain!

Money stuck to one side for rent and mortgage. So at least we have a roof and a future roof over our heads.

Our business and personal taxes have been done by our accountant. Bit of cash coming back to us hopefully. Just need to pay their bill, can’t recall if that affects them submitting our claims or not. So used to having an accountant that garnishes our return for their fees.

[cornflakegirrl]

Best trophy ever!

[sheila]

My goal was to spend no money on food, alcohol/drinks, or clothes in November, and to go to the gym once a week. I was half successful. I spent no money on food, alcohol/drinks, or clothes, but I did not go to the gym. I’m not stressed about it, and this week I will aim to go to a specific class at the gym.

[Smacky]

You are the official winner of the TNT Cup.

[Smacky]

[Smacky]

Half trophy for half success!

[Bracken_Joy]

@Bracken_Joy

I’m actually in for this one! I have a pretty easy goal: continue to track my spending. Given the impending life upheaval though (baby inbound soon), this will be more of a difficult goal than ever before. I’ve tracked spending for years, but I don’t want the habit to slip. Especially because Mint has been having issues, it could be tempting to give up (why hello duplicate and triplicate accounts, and the fact that I can only mark duplicates on desktop and I can only recategorize transactions to certain categories on their app right now…).

So, yep. That’s my goal. Continue to track spending, don’t give up.

OH, I suppose I’ll also add “deal with medical bills and insurance as they come up”. It’s so easy to procrastinate that stuff because I haaaaate it.

I have continued to track my spending, including fighting Mint to remove accounts in the hopes things work better. Also, we did pay a medical bill as it came up. (Even using it to hit a CC sign up bonus).

[mountainmustache29]

I’m in on this, a little late!

Goal 1: Get a Job
Goal 2: Don’t spend any money until you accomplish Goal 1.
Goal 3: Try not to stress about length of time required to accomplish Goal 1.

[Smacky]

[Smacky]

You are the official winner of the Mountain Mustache Cup!

[Candygirl]

Budget Challenge: No-Stress November (Nov 1 - Nov 30)

I’m in! Goals tbd shortly… Editing to add: Financial goal - get $$ in the quest trade account. I did the initial set up a log in but haven’t proceeded past that. I also need to figure out stuff with it and do more research Physical goal - i. weighted work out 3x a week, and ii. fit bit step tracker to be raised from 10,000 to 12,000 for a target. November is going to be a busy month with work, business travel and family visits so this all I feel comfortable with committing to right now.

Week 1 check in: did 1 weighted work out, and 5 out of 8 days hit or was within 500 steps of 12,000. Learned I need to focus on walking in the am or I can’t meet target. It was eye opening to see how much I really do need to shift things in a day to meet these goals.

Nothing yet with questtrade, but I need to research more.

[haypug16]

Checking in;

Total Budget Goal: $2,000 spent $917.20
Clothing: Goal $200 and purchase all items from ThredUp NOT AMAZON! spent $213.11 for 19 items that will become my new capsule wardrobe. I also ordered a clean out bag so I can send my clothes back to them and maybe make a few dollars.
Massage: Goal $100 - Made an appointment for next Friday. I can’t wait!

[Oro]

hOLY Shit this thread.

Weekly check in

Goal 1 ( pack lunches): Did 3 out of the 4. But had a free lunch on the 4th day so I’m counting it.
Goal 2 (find another place to have lunch so I don’t spend money at coffee shop): not super success yet. Got a coffee 1 time to run away from the office.
Goal 3 (don’t spend a million dollars on groceries and eat down the pantry): going reasonably well!