October 3 report: Gas: $0/$150 Groceries: $83/$300 Eating Out: $59/$220 Fun Spending: $25/$163 Clothes: $0/$100 Savings: $600/$650 Utilities: $152/$340
Every year I forget that I spend a lot early in October on eating out because it’s my best friend’s birthday. We did his birthday dinner early, and I also let myself get a fast food treat post Covid/Flu shots, so that spending was high so far.
Big grocery stock up already as well, and I finally hit “buy” on an amazon cart we’d had going for ages, my portion of which was $25.
I’ve transferred all my savings this month except Roth IRA. I know it’s probably silly, but I always wait until the end of the month just in case the market declines and I can get that monthly contribution “on sale.”
Week one Check in:
I spend the first 2 days in a nice Spa hotel, additional costs are excluded from the challenge.
Yesterday, on my way back, I had fast food for 12,80 Euro and later coffee/Ice cream for 6,50 Euro
Today is a no spend day, enough things at home in the fridge/pantry
No spend stopped me from buying more biscuits in the Pokémon Sleep store this morning. There was a Farfetched, and I really wanted it (I don’t have one), but no, managed to stay strong. Tell you what, my hands and brain were quick to go for that Dopamine hit though. It was pretty much automatic. And I know that’s built up over time, because I used to not spend in the game very often at all.
Pokémon have been identified as one of those companies using so-called ‘dark path’ algorithms, and the company developing this particular game changed about a year or so ago. Which makes me wonder if they’ve gradually wound me into their web. Hmmmm…
Had it been a shiny one, I would have been really tempted, and they might have got me.
Pixels on a screen. Have to keep telling myself they’re just pixels on a screen…
No coffee or restaurant spending unless it’s with a friend. Success!
No buying groceries unless I have a specific plan for it THAT WEEK. No stocking up allowed. Success! No groceries were bought, lol.
No buying stained glass supplies or patterns. Fail I bought a couple more glass sheets from the factory that is stopping production. BUT I successfully resisted buying more vintage glass that came across my FB feed, so that’s good. Really made me aware of how much of a gazingus pin this is for me, though.
Only replacement clothes spending allowed - success, no clothes were bought.
My third-ever stained glass piece of an alpine sunrise, made with all iridescent glass!
We went for a drive to a nearby flea market and farm market.
$5 3 lbs. apples
$5 3 buttercup squash
$5 one regular pumpkin
$6 ice cream
$29.40 produce and bread at Farm Market
$30.86 lunch out for my birthday
made 13 servings of red sauce, using 2 packages of meat, freezer carrots, celery that would have become freezer celery, and thyme that was in a mystery produce bag. they are in the freezer, but taking up less space than the component parts did
bone & skin on chicken breasts turned into lemon pepper chicken that we’ve been eating the past 3 days. bone and skin saved for broth to be made later this month.
tried to reorganize the freezer to see if I could get the containers to fit into the sections more efficiently, but no luck yet. Still struggling with the whole freezer drawer on the bottom setup.
My Budgetober revolves around budgeting for and learning about spending habits while on a 2.5-week vacation to the Northeast! I’m tagging all transactions with a specific tag in Monarch. So far we’ve spent:
flights: $32
rental car: $669
hotels: $804
luggage: $122 (unplanned; our previous large suitcase broke)
Total: $1,627 / $7500
feeling pretty good so far with flights booked with points and hotels half-booked with points, half being staying with friends or family. Some more money will be due upon arrival or car pickup but so far so good. Gas, parking, supplies, food, and activities are gonna be substantial!
$19.23/$75. That’s more than I spent in all of last October. Will need to tighten things up in the next four weeks but I think I can stay below the target.
Week 1:
Food: $43 groceries (more ready-to-eat than usual, see below for how I’ve been spending my time), $0 eating out
Travel–$0
Home Improvement–Basement leak and what looks like a foundation issue found Thurs, no idea what that’ll do to this budget except that if I’m right about it being the foundation it’s an HOA issue (although the cleanup remains my problem). Someone is supposed to be coming to look at it tomorrow.
Sports/Hobbies–$0
Gas: $0/$150
Groceries: $83/$300
Eating Out: $59/$220
Fun Spending: $25/$163
Clothes: $0/$100
Savings: $600/$650
Utilities: $152/$340
I bought a couple more glass sheets from the factory that is stopping production. BUT I successfully resisted buying more vintage glass that came across my FB feed, so that’s good. Really made me aware of how much of a gazingus pin this is for me, though.
Mortgage: 2118.58
IRAs: 400
Coffee with mr krmit: 12.80
Zipcar subscription: 13.50
Monthly transit pass: 50
