Been thinking (see post I wrote in Rock Bottom for the thoughts)
Found a few Debtor’s Anonymous groups I could try. The first one meets on Monday.
Been reading some DA materials, to try and wrap my head around if and how I can benefit from them.
I managed to find a way to stop myself buying several items over the past 2-3 days. It was tough, and I’m still tempted, but I really need to be strong.
I ought to do a spending log, and a food log for that matter, but suspect I won’t, yet.
Nice to see that grocery spending is consistent even if it is so much higher than it used to be. We just have to accept that is what happens with the current inflation rate.
I’ve checked and the wild bird food spend is around £20 per month, we’ve discussed it and decided it’s definitely worth it for the joy the birds bring us (and is claimed as a business expense as it’s part of the B&B guest experience!)
Balances:
$113.86 groceries
$20.86 restaurants
$143.00 personal
$38.89 clothing
Unless something wild happens in the next week, I won’t need to recast (that probably just jinxed it ). I’m doing OK rotating through just the two pairs of shoes for now, and even so there’s enough in personal to cover any overage in clothing if I do buy a third pair. Date night was fun and we ended up at an upscale mall food court, so ended up being very affordable. Very little personal spending this month! I track it because it is so variable. This month was just a light month.
The biggest value personally was in reining in my solo dining out. This is just not something that is workable with my heath concerns*, but had gotten out of hand starting in March (but May was the worst) and I’ve had trouble getting back under control. This month marked the fourth consecutive month of no more than 1/week**, which is a lot more reasonable. Even better, I was aware of more self-talk about “does this choice support long term goals” vs “but I want it! ”. The mindset shift is really important!
*not as often as I’d been going, anyway
**in addition to date night and other social activities with an eating component
Over budget on food this week. This was two extra days off work so more restaurant/cafe tambay time. A little behind on my spreadsheet input but everything’s accounted for in my notebook:)
I’m up to $106 total on rabies shots AND this last shot was by a different nurse who left my arm super bruised T_T
I was tucking away cash but needed it for things at work. Have opted out of sticker/fandom/comics/planner events to avoid temptation, honestly wish I could opt out of Mandatory Work Holiday Gift Giving + Parties season too T_T
This week I spent a total of $1,577, which includes the car tire replacement which I really did not plan on this month. Everything else was pretty reasonable for us.
Category
Amount
Service & Parts
$609.76
Utilities
$193.43
Babysitter & Daycare
$150.00
Groceries
$145.82
Baby Supplies
$136.74
Home Improvement
$84.35
Doctor
$69.04
Restaurants
$66.69
Home Supplies
$62.38
Gas & Fuel
$50.49
Hobbies
$4.32
Newspapers & Magazines
$4.26
This would bring this month’s spending up to $6520 ($3,200 recurring expenses + $3321 of other spending), which would be over my original $6,000 budget.
I would like to recast at this point to exclude the $1399.95 of unplanned car expenses as those belong better in some sort of emergency fund accounting rather than in normal monthly expenses!
That would put me at $5120/$6000 so far for the month instead, which would be on track for a $6000 total budget for the month
Groceries: $50-$75? Partner hasn’t put them into splitwise yet, I’ll bug them about it when they get home from work.
Total: $93.83 + whatever groceries come out to
October total so far: $1,670.12 (this number is straight from YNAB, I realized I made some math errors in previous check-ins haha)
Other financial things that happened this week:
Monthly investment transfer happened on the 15th. I figure I’ll look at that account when I get my statements every month.
My 401k contribution finally processed successfully! I get less per paycheck, but my taxable income went down a bit so I actually get a bit more usable money per paycheck than when I was just sticking that same amount of money in a savings pile. I’m considering moving some things around to max out my 401k match depending on how the numbers work out.
Items still on my Budgetober to-do list:
put together a spreadsheet for calculating savings trajectories done!
do some research & replace our broken printer - I did some research this week but I got overwhelmed and stopped. Printers are the worst. I’ll try again this week
Some categories this week are showing negatives, and that is because I received some reimbursements in those categories (WAEPA life insurance premium refund, CC Bonus that I applied to date night). We were so drastically under budget for groceries that I decided to go to Costco and do a $300 stock up. We went over budget in the baby supplied category because I stocked up on pullups while they were on sale.
Even with going over in a few categories, we are going to end the month safely under the goal of $6200. D1 has an EEG scheduled for Tuesday and I’ve been planning to pay her deductible for it, but apparently Kaiser is covering it 100% as a “test” so that’s $350 that we don’t have to spend! As an added bonus, we got a tabor property tax refund, so a little over $100 is waiting for me to deposit!
ooh I just realized this is actually only $17 because $49 was from a meal that the company is reimbursing! I just haven’t gotten the reimbursements yet. Woo!
This week was a doozy, but to be expected. Rent & Water Bill came in this week, and I made my student loan payment (although good news-- I’m approved for the SAVE plan starting next month, which will bring my payment down to 0). Eating out this week was $43, bringing me up to 124/150 for that category, and groceries were $49, bringing me to 203/250.
I think this week I’ll need to sit down and reevaluate these categories (which was one of my goals anyways), along with my sinking funds & long-term savings goals.
$350 on clothing, taking our annual spend to 102% of budget. I could re categorize that some of that was a present for the shadowy one (I had considered getting the pjs as a holiday present, but then decided there was no point in waiting). I may decide to get another pair of waterproof running shoes before the new year, but I’m going to hold off on anything that isn’t a replacement. I will be patching the shadowy one’s fall jacket next week.
$620 for vacation food ($80-$100 of this was treating other people we were seeing). This was within budget, but I would like to find a better balance when we’re away from home now that we don’t have a kitchen because we’re not doing airbnbs any more.
The shadowy one has been doing most of the groceries now that we’re back because I’ve been stressed about work, so all I know atm is that we’ve spent more than $130 on groceries, not what the real number is. I won’t get that until month end reconcilliation.
this month had wild inflows and outflows, with the double payment for my contract gig, the hotel payment, and the first payment out to the financial planner, but nothing that requires a revisiting of the budget, just lots of shifting between accounts.
October 15-21 groceries: $56.86
October 15-21 eating out: $33.04 which is two lunches in the school cafeteria and one out with collaborators in the city, all for him.
I’m adding back in the pet food from Week 1 to the total so that we’re comparing apples to apples (hah) with last year’s challenge. That was $34.
So, total October food: $413.72
He’s heading to a conference next week, which would jack the cost way up, but it’ll be reimbursed from work, so not going to count it (he’ll likely make a little on the per diem).
Reporting for October 15 - 21
Goal 1 - blocking out time for priorities - understandable fail, it was a very busy week
Goal 2 - In bed by 10 pm: 1/7 days; Up by 7 am: 7/7 days
Goal 3 - Plan each day the day before: 4/7 days
Goals 2 and 3 both felt better than the numbers suggest. Regarding Goal 2, I am feeling much more restood and have a little problem being up by 7 AM. I think it would be even better if I could get to bed around 9:30, instead of 10. There were a couple of days that i had planned out the following day but not written it down, those didn’t count.
Despite being a busy week, calmer and more in control, I think because I was better rested. I feel that although I’ve had some struggles with this challenge, I’m getting some benefits from it. I’m happier with how I have been choosing to spend my time.
Your local money disaster checking in!
Food budget: $872/$800 so um yeah gonna recast this limit to $1100 cuz this month has gone wild for other reasons…and apparently my food spending is the first thing to go haywire when I’m stressed. Reinstating limiting my trips to acquire food to twice a week and no coffee out unless with a friend.
Misc budget: $250/$150. Doing a no-buy week this week. For obvious reasons lol
Still haven’t got to some clear numbers for all the cards.
Made some medium purchases this week for a bit of camping gear. Because of my Budgetober goals I was a lot more thoughtful about cost and options than I usually am.
When I was taking a close look at a card I only use for subscriptions I found a lot of fraudulent charges from out of state. Reported them and will hear back soon. On one hand I’m glad to have found them but on the other I’m really surprised at the amount that just got lost in the churn of my money this last year or so (there’s been some pretty heavy things happening).
So I take a deep breath and take it slow. I’m trying to change some pretty big habits and patterns — it’s probably not going to be different overnight. But it’s kinda scary to really take it all in and see it. It’s not the numbers, it’s what they represent. idk I’m really glad for this community, I never feel judged or shamed for being where I am.
Week 3:
Utilities 66.25
Car 55.40
Groceries 243.05
Medical 25.98
Misc 119
Eating out 122.30
Gifts 61.67
Interested to see what the last week brings, a little surprised so far. I think there arent a few things captured on husband’s card which I’ll have to follow up too.
Checking in week 3: I spent $75.59 on groceries this week. That leaves $90.76 for the month. I… think I might make it!
Only shopping once per week and meal-planning (both pretty new for me) have changed things a lot. No more running to the store mid-week because I suddenly need things for dinner because I didn’t think ahead (and then buying a bunch of impulse buys).
). I’m doing OK rotating through just the two pairs of shoes for now, and even so there’s enough in personal to cover any overage in clothing if I do buy a third pair. Date night was fun and we ended up at an upscale mall food court, so ended up being very affordable. Very little personal spending this month! I track it because it is so variable. This month was just a light month.
”. The mindset shift is really important!
recast at this point to exclude the $1399.95 of unplanned car expenses as those belong better in some sort of emergency fund accounting rather than in normal monthly expenses!
