WEEK 2 PROGRESS:
Next dental work is Saturday morning. Pretty confident about it, and then I can discuss the dentist’s list of remaining work.
Landscaper comes for site visit tomorrow. My folks help us finish the fence on the weekend.
Grocery spreadsheet has made keeping the pantry properly stocked really easy.
My yarn for xmas presents turned up and I’ve started working on them.
We have had the air-conditioning on and ignored electricity costs because it is fucking hot.
Spending:
Groceries: $770/1000 (not much left)
Meals out: $100/250
Work lunch: $90/250
Me spending: $78/$75 (didn’t buy anything else, worked out how to browse library ebooks easier.)
Send food to feral cats plz
Okay, my idea of updating in the middle of the week is not aligned to the badges giving timeline. Can I have one anyway @Smacky?
ETA: after reading your post, it seems that I am in the timeline, just one week late lol. I assign the treat to Sprocket the dog and I want you to throw it so that he can catche it. Seems like something he’ll like.
Packing Lunch: It’s a good thing that this is a No-Stress challenge because I haven’t done any lunch packing whatsoever.
Meal planning and batch cooking: Still on survival mode here. We had 2 take-out meals last week; one on Wednesday eve and one on Saturday before we left for the weekend. This week I’ve been managing so far, I did a big pasta sauce for Tue and Wed. Tonight I don’t know how I’ll manage but I’m thinking of taking tomorrow off to do some batch cooking and decluttering. If I do I’ll create a meal plan for the remaining weeks.
Having a budget for the black Friday shopping: Nope. I feel nauseous just thinking about it. I might create a topic to ask for tips on how to make yourself do necessary shopping.
Tracking my personal spendings: I am reporting a cumulative amount (detailing when necessary). For Nov1-13, it was: €160.89
Entertainment: €64,09
Restaurants: €58,79
Swimming pool: €5.30
Transportation:€96.80
Uber: €21.60
Monthly Transit pass: €75.20
Tracking our family spending: Also cumulative and for Nov1-13 it is €1285.45
The feral kitties need some kibble. (Side note, is there a spay/neuter volunteer group that would come out to the colony?)
I think the last items I have are to get autopay set up and work on my art project. I have made zero progress on my art project so I’ll have to make it a priority this weekend, but I have poked around in my bank’s web interface for autopay and asked [entity] for the information I would need for autopay.
Groceries are now at $151.67. We inadvertently planned a week of meals that leave us tons of leftovers so I expect we’ll have a cheap week next week.
We haven’t had any invites from friends to spend money on restaurants. We’ve mostly been seeing our friends who are working on some house projects. We’ve been trading off whose house we work on, and whoever’s house we’re at makes dinner.
Thing I’m proud of: We’ve been better at entering expenses into our spreadsheet as we go instead of waiting until the end of the month when we don’t remember why we went to Target or whatever. Sometimes we enter the expenses into the spreadsheet before we even leave the store.
no one has PM d me their address for Christmas cards. As I explained to a friend last night (while forcing him to retrieve my Christmas tree from high, and switching between the three of us who wore the princess santa hat, the reindeer headband or the cat’s Santa hat), Christmas for me is not religious or overcomercialized. It is the remnants of my family’s distant pagan winter festival and requires people to accept my overwhelming and unwelcome cheer. Also food
feral cats. And I want my delivery made by a singing child.
3). Last week I survived. Today is the dawn of a new week and my goal is also to survive, and to withdraw money from my bank account today.
Accomplishments from last week
Survival
Halfway complete money laundering
Ate lots of home food
Did not touch savings accounts to avoid money laundering
Grocery costs this week $56, total for the month $95, well below my target of $300. So far resisting the impulse purchases because they are on sale. So were the ones currently in my freezer, eating them first.
Still meal planning well. Have next week’s plan mostly done too.
Stopped tracking for several days. Geting back into the habit. Tried one of my suspected problem foods and it causued problems. Not doing that again for a while.
Initiated the rollovers. YAY! Selected the funds I will invest them in once they transfer and everything clears and I’m able to invest, probably next week. Proud of this one, I’ve been procrastinating for a couple of years.
As stated earlier, I purchased my first reward. I will reach 25k words in a few days, so theoretically I should buy my second reward soon, but…
I did not spend fun money this month on something other than my rewards. It turns out that I spent it last month. I got a Patreon charge last week. I guess I have run through the money in my account from
(WTF? What happened to the rest of my post? Argh.)
ANYWAY THE UPSHOT IS I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO AFFORD ANYTHING ELSE AND I AM SAD.
I will likely update this weekend since I will likely spend in all categories then. But I have to say, I LOVE the rewards this time. Poor cold feral kitties. We have them in our alley and last night I heard meowing coming from outside. Boy Kitty, who was lying in bed next to me, heard it too and looked distressed.
I was smart and made a big bulk pot of chili on Tuesday and it’s lasted us into Friday lunch and maybe even dinner. So no grocery spending this week! I’m planning on updating my budgets since August this weekend to check all sinking funds are on track.
Also, please give those feral kitties some love in the cold!
Roth: spouse got no raise, therefore last year’s taxes and other estimating I did is as good as it is going to get. Will schedule this via Vanguard. Need to note for taxes (Form required)
Health Insurance: enrollment is done. So this goal is finished.
Item I am proud of - efforts to declutter (eleven 3-ring binders taken to a goodwill today).
Treat designation: Sushi burrito for @Smacky to enjoy in a hot bath. Otherwise a treat to whatever pet or feral being that is not getting their fair share - via whatever means is convenient.
I worked on none of these things. I prepped for a mulled wine party this weekend and I worked.
I am proud of the introvert krmit household following through and having a damn house party. It only took us 13 months from buying the house to actually throw a housewarming.
Well all my goals have shit the bed for this week. Work has been ridiculous and when I have gotten home I am exhausted. I did go to Zumba toning twice this week and will go on Saturday again. And with my mother visiting I will be busy with her baking and doing things. But it’s ok.
What am I most proud of? Cleaning the house, not bailing on my Zumba classes, and not eating as much crap as I could have been. And commuting to checking in.
I think sprocket deserves treats and hugs since we always hear more about Daisy! I think they are both adorable and wish I had more time for a dog.
AHHH. I have done none of these. Does that count as an update? I did literally just do a bodyweight exercise off a free 30 day program, though. Does that count as 1. even though it’s free!?
The plan-I-just-decided-on is to do 5) or 4) today/this weekend.
As I contemplate my possible weekend spending, I’m curious about others’ budget rules:
Is booze a grocery?
(My opinion: yes if it is wine/beer to be drunk at home AND it is bought at a grocery store. No if it is hard liquor regardless of place of purchase, OR if it is bought at a liquor store/wine shop/other specialty store like World Market.)
Is tea a grocery?
(My opinion: yes if it is bought at a grocery store, no if it is bought at a fancy tea shop.)
Is coffee a grocery?
(My opinion: yes, always.)
Why these opinions? I have absolutely no idea.
This post brought to you by the cup of s’mores chai tea I’m drinking right now. Part of a sampler gift set I was given. It is SO good. I want more of it. It’s from David’s Tea, which seems impossibly fancy to me.
For me, I tracked all alcohol in a separate category “Booze for Home” as a subcategory of groceries and “Bars” as a subcategory of “Dining Out” . That way I could track how it shifted over time/seasons, which was helpful data. I also stopped drinking quite a few years ago, take my advice with a grain of salt.
2 + 3. I also track this as a separate subcategory in groceries, coffee/tea combined. Same, I want to track how it changes over time. I do firmly think it is if you buy at a grocery store.
I think it depends what your goals are, and if you get value out of tracking separately. I have a master category of food, which has the subcategories of alcohol, coffee (because I buy fancy coffee), grocery, and restaurant. Anything purchased “out” (to be consumed out) would go under restaurant, otherwise, into one of the other categories. I used to have a category called coffee shop too, because I was going way too often, but I cut that down to almost 0 so it just goes under restaurant now. I use these categories because they make sense to me if I want to adjust my spending in one of them.
ETA: If you wanted to, you could have a sub-subcategory under restaurant called booze so that you could really see ho much you were actually drinking away. FOR ME, being able to see how much I was actually spending in certain categories was really helpful for me to be able to change my patterns of behavior and stop spending money on things that were not important to me, but had become habit.
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