So I wrote in $355 for food and drink. Food and drink (which means groceries) is the only category of mine that I roll over month to month. So I started with a $300 budget last month and had $55 left over. I’m basically just seeing if this works out and it averages to about $300 a month in the course of a year, which I think it will be close to, but if it’s a bit over that’s ok too. I am hosting Thanksgiving this month and I’m also in need of some spices/specialty pantry items so I might totally blow it, who knows! Haha!
Thus far I’ve spent $107 on groceries including a bunch of nuts, coffee, gum, plus my regular Aldi and Produce store trip.
The $25 under shopping was me, for a new set of resistance bands I needed.
The $81 for dates is part Wendy’s, haha, because frankly I was PMSing like a mofo and all I could think about were spicy chicken nuggets so DH and I did a drive through. And the rest is for a Chopin concert later in the month <3 which we’re both excited about.
The $34 in household was for some boring cleaning stuff (ajax), trash bags, swiffer attachment things, shoe polish, and clay (for candle fitting).
I think my goal this month is very simple: Track my current spending and also get all of my back-finances sorted out. I haven’t massaged my spreadsheets in several months and it’s all a horrifying mess. So, every week I need to reconcile this week’s spending and make a bit of progress on The Old Spreadsheets Of Doom.
As far as check-ins go – I have begun the process of reconciling all the various accounts and sheets. The current spending has been close to nil, so tracking so far has not been hard.
Cat expenses so far this month. On Nov. 1 I spent a total of: 201.41. Gack!!
6-pack of Revolution (flea/tick/heartworm preventative): 122.94 at chewy.com. This will last 3 months (applied monthly, 2 cats.)
I am pissed - last time I got it at Chewy it was $96-something! Now it is only a little bit cheaper than getting it directly from my vet (who charges $128). But, it saves me a trip to the vet, and it’s free shipping.
I get a manufacturer’s rebate of $15 per 6-pack, which is loaded onto a prepaid card that I’m only allowed to use at the vet.
78.47, also at chewy.com, for:
36 3-oz cans wet food
8 3-oz pouches wet food
1 5-lb bag dry food
Cat toothpaste (?) The vet said we should start brushing their teeth. Hahahaha. If I end up missing fingers, I’ll let you all know.
They eat 2 cans/pouches of wet food per day so that’s enough for 22 days, and I still have, I think, 16 cans of the stuff they don’t like too much, which I am still making them choke down every few days because I am a mean kittymom. They did eat a decent amount of it without complaint tonight, oddly.
The dry food will probably last not quite a month. We are OK on litter for now but will probably need some in a few weeks.
Important note: At the end of each month I total up what I’ve spent, and Boyfriend splits the cost with me. I do 99% of the cat purchases; if we have a vet visit then we need a zipcar and he typically pays for that and drives, so that is figured in. They just had their checkup last month, though, where they were pronounced in “perfect health” so hopefully there won’t be another visit for a long time.
Anyway, I think this is obscene and I need to get the cost down but I don’t want to switch their food to something cheaper as FINALLY they are regularly having solid poops that don’t smell like something unholy died in the box and Boy Kitty no longer has horrid silent-but-deadly farts. Chewy has the best prices, but I’m starting to get good coupon offers via email from Petco - like $25 off of $75 - plus they have a rewards program and Chewy, to my knowledge, does not. I don’t believe they do free shipping, though, and Petco is far enough away to be a PITA to haul heavy stuff home from the store. I think the nearest el stop is closing for renovation soon, actually. I have to run some numbers and see whether the coupons out weigh the shipping cost - they might?
First check in, we did a to up shop at the farmers market on Sunday and got lunch from a local shop rather than something convenience related from the supermarket. No convenience (read: plastic) food from the shops. Pleased with this. We’ll go out for dinner tomorrow for my birthday but I don’t see needing to go to the shops for food until the weekend.
Out of curiosity, can you stop using the flea meds for 6 months? My vet told me to start using it in the spring, and tbh I haven’t used it on my cat since the beginning of summer. But I am also in a single cat household and she never goes outside. Just a suggestion, it would save on costs.
We also bought the flea meds through local buy/sell - paid $20 CAD for a new box of advantage or whatever I have in the cupboard. And it wasn’t expired or anything like that.
One would think, right? I asked that question and my vet said she recommends they get them year round because it also protects against other things like heartworms and I guess there’s been a lot of that here and it’s worse for cats to get it? My vet knows I’m not buying it from them any more as she had to authorize the prescription for me to be able to get it online, so there’s no financial incentive for her.
I’d probably be willing to risk it if I weren’t volunteering at a cat shelter where I’m likely to bring home god knows what to my kitties, even though I strip and shower as soon as I get home. Fleas are annoying little fuckers, though. These guys had a terrible case of fleas which I’m pretty sure we picked up at the kitty ER - they were very sickly as kittens and in and out of the ER frequently for like a month - and I do not want to experience that ever again!
I will keep an eye out for cheaper online sources, for sure. That’s pretty much my overall goal with the cats - how do I get what they need cheaper, without skimping? I’m working on finding cheaper sources, couponing, that sort of thing.
Cool side effect of this challenge: it’s motivating me to minimise my food waste. Just cooked up a big batch of vegan chilli to use up capsicums that needed it, and a batch of choc banana muffins to use up overripe bananas and eggs.
Ahahahaha, that’s almost exactly what I meal prepped Sunday! Vegan chilli and vegan chocolate chip banana muffins cause we took a ton of bananas home after a local 5k.
After Ophelia had a cleaning three years ago and now needs another one, I support brushing your cats’ teeth. However, I can’t share any experiences with it
My vet has suggested the same. I went with the feline greenies for teeth instead on the grounds that it would be less traumatizing for everyone involved, and they seem to work fairly well (just had another cleaning this year after 6+ years since last needing one and the verdict was that aside from the plaque that triggered the cleaning his teeth were in very good shape).
It’s time to detail more my goals and how I’ll do this No-Stress challenge. I’ll update once a week (5 times). I’ll report a cumulative along some remarks on specific spendings.
Packing Lunch: Friday last week was off and I haven’t done it so far. As I said I need to start by the lunch box. I also have to do more batch cooking.
Meal planning and batch cooking: I did make a big casserole on Sunday and it’ll be used for at least 3 days. I didn’t meal plan though. I’m thinking of creating a spreadsheet or something to organize my ideas.
Having a budget for the black Friday shopping: Nope I haven’t thought about it. Anyone has strategies to get them to shop. I hate shopping and can forgo having basic things just because I don’t like wasting time in stores. Anyone has strategies for shopping when it’s not something you enjoy?
Tracking my personal spendings: I won’t make specific categories, I’ll just report whichever categories are on my bank. For Nov1-5, it was:
TOTAL:€101.68
Entertainment: €16,88
Restaurants: €11,58
Swimming pool: €5.30
Transportation:€84.80
Uber: €9.60
Monthly Transit pass: €75.20
Tracking our family spending: Same. I’ll use the bank categories and here it is for Nov1-5:
I’d be happy to, except that I don’t really use one and almost always just wing it for muffins. Banana already acts as a decent egg replacer so I just use a little more than you might in a recipe with egg, plus add some ground flax seed which is my go to egg replacer for most baking things. I wing it on amounts but there are flax > egg conversions online pretty easy to find. If a recipe calls for butter, I generally use coconut oil instead (but again I mostly work with vague memories of recipes for muffins). And that’s about it! Sorry if that’s not super helpful.
Blah I typed up something but idk what happened. So here’s the short version.
H grocery shopped on Monday so that was $130. I’ll shop on Friday again and get back on our regular schedule.
H spent ~$100 this weekend on stuff for his class (parking, food, lunches, etc.) it’s no stress November and I’m not worrying about it since we saved on paying for a hotel for the class and he didn’t drive. Pretty unavoidable and reasonable since he packed all his snacks and lunches and all that.
That’s a great idea @HaH . I need to work more on reducing food waste; it concerns both produce -tomatoes from garden, or lettuce that goes bad- and cooked food - tired of eating the same thing, let it stay long in the fridge and it goes bad.
I’ll look into that. Boy Kitty tends to barf up any treats that have medicinal purposes of any kind - not sure if it’s intentional or not, the junky treats stay down just fine, haha. My vet mentioned that as an alternative too.
I’m going out to dinner tonight with a friend. Goal is to NOT drink. Boyfriend took me out for dinner last night at a fairly $ place for us, and we didn’t drink as we had booze at home, and I about fell over at how much lower than usual the bill was. Funny how that works.
So, I’ve made good progress on my second goal. As it turns out, you can now close many accounts using the automated system without having to convince a rep that yes, you do want to close the account. I’ve closed several store cards (I opened for discounts and then didn’t use again) and a couple of credit cards (opened for bonus, don’t use). I also finally tracked down a small account that my parents had established for me as a small child and requested it be closed. So, I have a check coming in the mail!! I have a savings account left that I’m trying to decide if I want to close it and then goal two is done.
