The goal for budgetober is set and stick to your budget for the month of October. It’s also vaguely halloween themed. Also it has special forum badges and even a STICKER SHEET for people that complete the whole month.
You must establish a budget, a way to track it, and target amounts for the budget.
Your categories can be as broad as you like, or as specific as you want. You can even just choose a single amount for the month, You can also track + limit one category if you prefer (i.e. grocery spending, restaurants, or stationary splurges.)
You’re allowed one week where you wave a magic wand and “re-cast” your budget . This means if you go off the rails in a category, or something big comes up, you can set a new budget for the month. Don’t get discouraged just because you have an off week! Jump back on the budgeting haywagon! (I told you this was Halloween-themed).
Each Saturday you use this thread to report how you did on your budget for the week. You can report on where you’re at, and what your biggest challenge and victories of the week were. Then, you’ll put your predictions/goals down for the budget week ahead.
Who This Challenge is For
Maybe you’re already great at sticking to your budget , but you want to try out adjustments to your categories or a low-spend month.
Maybe you don’t currently do a budget , but feel like maybe your expenses are creeping up and want to use October as a chance to do a check-in and see how you are doing.
Maybe you have a new normal - new job, new family member, new location and need to figure out your new baseline.
Maybe you’ve been spending a bit too much on take-away orders or planners , and want to dial it back a bit. One months seems doable!
Maybe you’re tired of “cleaning up” categories the last week of the month - i.e. moving money from a too-full grocery budget into an overspent takeaway category. So the goal here is to change behavior or reset categories to more realistic amounts.
Maybe you’ve never budgeted before but it feels overwhelming to start. Perhaps one week at a time, for only a month, seems achievable! You don’t have to do it forever, just for October.
What do you get out of participating?
Deep Satisfaction of trying to stick to a budget this October
Community support for whatever your budget goals are for October!
Budgetober success shout outs on the podcast
A weekly CUTE halloween-themed forum badge for participating in the weekly check-in
And if you do all 4 week check-ins, you get a STICKER mailed to you. It’s halloween, cat, and budget themed. I will mail these anywhere in the world.
If you’re in to participate (or on the fence and need encouragement), comment below with what you’re hoping to get out of Budgetober and your favorite thing about the halloween season.
I’m in. Groceries have been spendy the last few months, and we’re going to be travelling, so I think the goal is to manage that line item with an eat down the freezer challenge, and food hack on travel.
I’m almost done with a couple of other pieces and can happily spam those when completed
Turns out I really love doing this and have tons of ideas for my next projects, so I’ve started investing in the tools and also glass…assisted by just ~ happening ~ to find a FB marketplace haul of really good glass for absurdly cheap, and 2 really good glass warehouse sales .
BUT I should have all the glass I need now, aside from maybe one-off sheets for pieces for friends! REALLY.
For Budgetober i want to see where i can find any extra money at all to put towards our renovation. Every dollar is going to make a difference because prices for everything keep rising.
Also will be finding things to glue googly eyes to.
I’m gonna noodle on what I need from this. Probably to check in more often, I don’t “use” monarch as much anymore. Also probably to rename and cement some budget categories and what fits into them, and decide how granular is the right amount.
I’m in. Just reduced hours at work, so need to get back to tracking. I’m pretty thrifty to begin with, but with my firehose of cash job, I do indulge many whims. Turning that firehose down to a trickle means i need to be more intentional.
To that end, I’ll do a YNAB budget reset and track and keep to all categories during October. Including doing a normal shuffling around of money if or as priorities shift during the month.
I’m actually planning to travel for most of October with the family, and in the past I’ve not been good about budgeting vacations, so this time I want to diligently track the costs associated with the trip to get an understanding of the real cost of vacation now with a family of 4 and the need to check bags and paying 1.5-2x as much for food and tickets and a bigger rental car.
I’m gonna throw out $7500 as the budget for this 2.5-week trip for a family of 4.
I’m about to start booking, so my estimates are:
$500 for flights (3 seats + 1 lap infant, $250/seat, but I’m using points and travel credits where I can)
$1300 for lodging (17 nights, 8 of which we need to pay for)
$1300 rental car (14 days, needs to be SUV or bigger for 2 car seats and stroller and luggage) + parking
$2200 food, restaurants, formula, supplies
$1700 activities
$500 for emergency
That seem reasonable? The restaurants will also include treating out people who are hosting us or else our lodging costs would be a lot higher
Re the costs themselves, it’s hard to know what’s “reasonable” without knowing the destination! Especially things like lodging and parking vary so widely based on location.
But those items are all things I would think about.
Are there any special experiences that you want to account for separately?
We tried every budgeting app so you don’t have to [2021] - YouTube
.