Well, I think I continue on the lazy trek, but I have had work get in the way??? I am learning I really need to make a bigger commitment to get the step count up. As I posted in tiny victories I pushed myself to hit my 12,000 step goal tonight. The month is not over so I can do it!! I’m travelling for work next week so I will need to make a big commitment to get to the hotel gym everyday since I won’t be doing my 3x a week Zumba classes. I should add, 2 of these classes is with weights which makes it more challenging. I’m also going to be reaching out to our EAP program, because we have nurses and dieticians available and want to see what they can provide. I always do better when someone is telling me what to do, not always trying it on my own.
Questrade and other money stuff - I told the SO that this weekend I will be finalizing the account and $$$ is being transferred out of the emergency fund to support it. I saw that you need $5000 to avoid some fees, so that’s what is going in. I also finally sold some of my company stock - I have been carrying too much of it in my RRSP and TFSA, so since it actually has gone up in the last few weeks after our recent earnings announcement I diversified it into US equity funds and some International funds. I still need to sell more of it but I’m hoping it will increase more - now I’m being greedy!! But I have faith that they will be increasing more, at least another $10 share - then it’s gone!
I found out how much the socks are that I want to get for D and they are $13 each. I was hoping for $5-10. So next month I will get him one pair of socks.
I can’t buy anything else because I ran out of money, though I am achieving my wordcount goals.
I can’t remember what my other goals were, but we haven’t spent a cent on unplanned purchases (not a single meal outside of our prepared cooler of foods) at this convention, and we’ve been here since Weds morning. Woo!
Update for the week…mostly things are just moving along:
Gifts–$381/$600
Travel–$0/$0*…still trying to figure out if I can get to an oddly timed baby shower. Found a flight that looked doable but by the time I got somewhere where I could make a purchase it had jumped by $200 so that didn’t happen.
Food–$284/$300, should be done for the rest of the month.
Home Improvement–$122/$100…good with this, means things are getting done.
Goals for the week are getting the couple things I need to order online in my shopping carts so if anything shows up as a Black Friday sale I can grab it quickly, and not buying anything for myself at the craft fair I’m doing (I am allowed to pick up gifts for others there).
Chugging along well here, grocery spending will increase a bit next month unless I can order another gift card at 5% off before then. Everything else looking good!
Spend at least $50 on protein. I did not spend any money on protein this week because I hardly spent any money on food at all (I only spent $16.13 all week on milk, half & half, eggs, and cilantro.) Since this is No-Stress November, I am not worrying about it, because maybe I can’t actually spend that much without buying really expensive fish!
Make an appointment for an eye exam and buy new glasses. No. There are still a week until the end of the month, though. I am getting really fucking tired of these broken down glasses. I’ve even been wearing contacts, which I almost never do (because I am laaaaaazzzzzzyyyyyyy).
Make some decision about professional development. No. But. I’ve still been working on R and RStudio (a free resource). I also maybe have a low stress (and low income) possibility for a job, but not until I move back east. I have decided to not look for a permanent position in current city, because if I am gone in 6 months anyway I do not want to be that person. (Even though there is a position I saw advertised I was somewhat interested in.) I need to figure out where to go from here. Temp work? Maybe that is the decision and I need to figure out how to go about it.
Forgot to ask, Smacky–does buying beer(s) count ? About to head out to a congratulations (and also congratulations that whatever pain meds are done and you can drink again) celebration for a friend whose last transition surgery was a month or so ago, but apparently insurance was non-obnoxious and a gofundme hasn’t been necessary (and I’m at my limit for non-gift charitable giving until I get through the gift part anyway, I’m afraid)
Week 3
Dental work put on hold until next year. Spreadsheet not attended to. Food is going great! Christmas presents being made, slowly but steadily. We had an excellent weekend full of activities that were optional, meaning we weren’t stressed about any of them. We also went out for a lunch + IKEA trip today that took 1 hour total because we’d used Click & Collect. It was well worth the $20 fee.
Spending:
Groceries: $935/1000 (eating down the freezer this week!)
Meals out: $200/250
Work lunch: $175/250 (we’ve been making some lunches and Ponder has been sure to eat breakfast at home. It’s working!)
Week 3:
I spent no money on drinks/alcohol or clothes this week.
I did end up spending money on food; I took my friend out for dinner. It was totally worth it and aligns more with how I would like to approach going out to eat in the future: I hadn’t seen the friend in a long time, I bought since she had a milestone birthday recently, and it was a new restaurant for both of us and the food was great.
I have not been to the gym, but I did walk 4-5 miles yesterday to appointments. Still not stressing, but I would really like to find a sustainable and fun daily or weekly exercise, especially before winter. This may be a goal for December.
Just a check in – doing so much better this month than last month. I’m down to eating out for lunch once per week. I did go out to dinner with my oldest daughter…my only evening out all month. This is some serious progress, as I used to go out with husband or a friend once a week.
The only budget pitfall I"ve had is underestimating holiday expenses. but YNAB is keeping me honest and I was able to move $$ from one category to another. So far, so good.
In the spirit of no stress November, this update is actually a guess. I’ll spare you the details of why I basically had a breakdown this morning but tracking down my numbers isn’t going to happen today.
I think we’re around $130. We got one round of actual groceries, plus about $5.30 for app night (some appetizers for a night my husband was filling out job applications), and then some take and bake pizza and breadsticks and beer from Aldi.
We spent about $20 at a food court at the mall. We weren’t there to shop at all, just had such a large group with so many mutually exclusive food/dietary things that someone suggested the food court so we could all pick which restaurant worked best.
Guess who procrastinated doing this update because of ALL THE SPENDING omg
Food: $297.35/$300. Yeah, probably gonna go a little over, BUT I’m still doing way better than before. It’s been funny/sad on how not-deprived I feel on a lower food budget (wut were you doing past Panda???)
Gas/travel: $985.91. So um yeah multiple plane tickets were purchased to visit family…a bunch of family members are going to be together for the first time in a long time, so I couldn’t pass it up.
Recreation/health: $34.99/$9.99
Clothes: $267.52. Replacing more and more clothes as they wear out or become too big…
Household: $87.06/$50. Finally bought some needed kitchen storage containers.
I don’t remember when I last updated. But I reconciled mint and marked duplicates this morning. And I filed my bills and EOBs as they came in yesterday.
Just wrapped up, and this is still true!! We spent $0 at the convention itself. Now the group is going to get a Friendsgiving lunch outside the con - very much worth it and very much planned. Hooray!!
? About to head out to a congratulations (and also congratulations that whatever pain meds are done and you can drink again) celebration for a friend whose last transition surgery was a month or so ago, but apparently insurance was non-obnoxious and a gofundme hasn’t been necessary (and I’m at my limit for non-gift charitable giving until I get through the gift part anyway, I’m afraid)