Yeah, I definitely need to do some replacement shopping and also I’m being a little hesitant about it for some reason.
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Final checkpoint 
You can check in anytime between now and November 2nd (Next Thursday) Feel free to write out your expenses for the week in detail or simply reflect on how your financial week went.
Once you check-in, you’ll get the final installment of this year’s Budgetober Epic Story as a Badge as soon as myself or another mod has some time to add you!
The form for stickers will follow
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Week 4 Check-in
$956.46 / $156.46 over
$567.10 / $32.90 left
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Bad news: I had Covid all this week and was home sick. Good news: My parents very graciously took care of my groceries during my quarantine period and insist that I don’t pay them back. I have leftovers for the next few days as well. So that’s really why I have a ton of budget left for these last few days of Budgetober.
I spent $148.22 this week, mostly on recurring donations, subscriptions, and a little online shopping. I have $433.36 left. The last major bill I have to account for is my HOA check for $226.42. (Why are housing payments in the weirdest amounts?) Thanks to not have to pay for food last week, I’m going to be fine.
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I spent $87.93 on groceries this week, for a total of $866.12.
I at least did a lot of thinking about what to do with the credit union money and will probably put some of it in CDs.
I am particularly pleased that I was able to set aside $1000 this month to put towards Chuck’s dental work next month!
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Final check-in!
Well ok so this was a successful week…depending on how you define success 
Food budget: $1042/$1100. Which is obscene, so gonna keep working on this, but I got into some better habits this week (especially limiting number of shopping trips and - shocking! - planning meals ahead). I did buy coffee out once, but you know what, I am my own friend, and it was also for the noble purpose of breaking up a $20 to get tip money.
Misc budget: …my no buy was successful, unless you count getting an offer accepted on a house and then spending $$ on inspection and appraisal 
Buuuut the impending spectre of buying a house did help me prioritize whether I wanted to buy random shit or not, so I guess that’s a win? 
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Check in #4
Balances:
-$34.15 groceries (overspent)
$10.91 restaurants
$98.81 personal
$114.20 clothes
Purchases of shoes and bra were both a bust (pardon the pun). The Amazon seller shipped the wrong bra size and the shoes were the right size but didn’t fit. The bra is returned, credited & re-purchased, and the shoes are up for re-sale. The re-purchase has not hit the account yet, so that will bring clothes down to about $40 remaining. Enough to cover the overage in groceries!
Good progress on grocery and restaurant spending. This is the one area where I consistently spend more than budget. Groceries may just be due to inflation, but restaurants are more tied to poor planning and overindulgence. Will personally keep the focus on them for the near future; this month was a great challenge to get a little extra accountability.
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Week 4 check in, in Canadian dollars…
Joint Expenses
$150 Power/electric
$126.50 Internet
$60 water
$48.48 Groceries
$6.00 Health - prescription copay
$63.97 dinner out
$39.88 miscellaneous - batteries and paper
$24.13 miscellaneous - household supplies
$518.96 total week 4 joint expenses
+ $879.87 past weeks total
$1398.83 Total October Joint Expenses
Joint Income
$56.50 dental claim refund
+$2582.48 pensions so far
2638.98 this week
+ $250 from before
$2888.98 Joint Income (there is a pension cheque yet to come)
Personal Expenses
$341.64 Charity
$4.59 Apple storage
$1.14 Prime membership
$22.99 GoDaddy domain
$370.36 for week 4
+ 401.29 to date
$771.65 Total October Personal Expenses
Personal Income
$280.00 sale of goods
$200.00 allowance
$480.00 from Week 4
$112.63 from before
$592.63 Total Personal Income (plus a $73 investment sale end of month)
We do fine on our joint expenses. Mostly eating garden produce and from our stock at this point, so groceries are really low.
I spent a lot in charity this month. I provided:
- two meals to the homeless camp. That will be backed down to one in November.
- a lot of snacks from apples and flour donated to them,
- supplies to tie down tents and tarps to prepare for bad weather, and
- art supplies to two artists. In November I hope to talk to a major art store in town about a discount for the people who need art supplies. There are six in the camp.
I also had saved up over $240 for charity before this month, so that “old” money was used up this month. So, I have enough money to cover my expenses.
This was a very good experience for me. Thank-you for this annual thread. It allows me to see what’s really happening with my money.
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Okay, maybe-final checkin…I’ll report again Tues if I spend anything else, but as of now it’s cold and gross outside (I like the white stuff falling from the sky but object when it immediately melts upon landing) and I’ve got everything I should need.
$19 grocery-type food stuff including supplies for mulled wine in celebration of the first snow (even if it’s melting), and $45 for pizza delivery when I took an unexpected nap after work on Wed and woke up both hungry and unwilling to do anything useful. I had the last of it for breakfast this morning, so at least I got more than one meal out of it.
$115 of what’s currently labeled gifts will be reimbursed by work, I’m running an electronics workshop this coming week and they somehow doubled the number of attendees and just now thought to tell me about it (I enjoy working with the local college groups on this kind of thing, but their understanding of logistics is sometimes questionable). Fortunately the attendees are older kids so I worry less about last-minute volunteer recruitment, but breadboards and power supplies still cost money. And the other $16 was for Halloween candy, half for work trick-or-treat and half for home.
And I have officially recast hobbies this week to cover on-sale replacement kayaking supplies (skirt, paddle, throw bag) to $325, with $148 of that being covered by credit card points and sales.
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Final Update!
Wow what even was my budget this month. Everything has been. So Much this month.
Takeout expenses:
$296.69
Lunchbox stuff: None. Zero
Entertainment purchases: $220
Health Expenses: $260 (rheumatologist did not take my insurance!)
Printing: $0
Tasks: Completed none of these, I have been squashed by grad school
So, I overbudgeted for takeout and under-budgeted for everything else. Which, you know what, I did okay, grad school is so much. I have learned that I want to get into meal planning 4srs just so that I don’t have to Think about what I’m getting for lunch every day though.
Also I spent $200 on shoes which was retracted immediately because None of them Fit and I Must Return Them.
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Happy almost-Halloween! We spent $26 at the farmer’s market and $100.28 at grocery stores, including some vegan ice cream because it’s been unbelievably warm outside this week. Grand food total for the month is $268.44, not bad for two people and a bit less than average, I think switching to a cheaper grocery store is working out for us.
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Final check-in! 
Spending this week:
- Last week’s groceries: $50
- Recurring donations: $5
- Electricity bill: $164.08, my share is $73.84
- Fun stuff: $4.52
- Fun/dining out for anniversary: $52.81
Total: $276.41
October Grand Total: $1,946.56
There might be another grocery trip before the end of the month, but there’s room in the budget for that so I’m comfortable cutting things off here.
Budgetober thoughts:
- It was nice to have this weekly reflection! I usually take a bit of time on the weekend to make sure YNAB is up to date, but I liked writing things out here and reflecting a bit more. I think it might be fun to start a journal on here and keep that going.
- I’m quite happy with my spending to savings ratio. I feel very lucky that I can do this sort of thing and I plan to continue it for as long as it’s feasible.
- I had to move money around to cover my gifts, dining out, and planner categories. I’m not really counting the planner category, since that just serves as a place to stick money that I use when I order my next planner at the end of the year, and anything extra comes out of the fun category. I regularly overspend in dining out, but it’s not usually by much. And again, my fun category covers the extra there. Gifts are a bit harder to account for, but I have a misc/flex category in my budget for a reason
- I still haven’t picked a printer to order. It’s not a huge priority, so I don’t mind having to roll that task into next month.
- It’s hard to track grocery spending when I’m not the one doing the shopping. Maybe doing some meal planning would be a good November goal. I think I have a slightly more realistic number for my monthly grocery budget but I want to see what we end up spending when we’re trying to be a bit more proactive with planning dinners.
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Week 4 check in: I went out to lunch twice this week and grabbed a pumpkin muffin as a Friday treat. Not bad at all! I did spend $$ on drinks Friday and Saturday night, but I was out being social and celebrating the Halloween festivities with friends. I just went over all this spending in YNAB and everything has been covered. This challenge has been super helping in keeping me aware of my spending all month!
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| Item | Cost | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Broadband | 40 | Monthly |
| Electric | 220 | Monthly |
| Council tax | 241 | Monthly |
| Mobile phones x 2 | 20 | Monthly |
| Property insurance inc public liability | 80 | Monthly |
| Netflix | 11 | Monthly |
| Kindle unlimited | 9.5 | Monthly |
| Groceries | 101 | Week 1 |
| Groceries | 91 | Week 2 |
| Takeaway | 20 | Eating out |
| Groceries | 93 | Week 3 |
| Bird food | 18 | Hobby |
| Groceries | 125 | Week 4 |
| Total | 1069.5 |
£1070/1500
Pleasantly surprised with the total spend as this felt like a fairly average month and there was still plenty of headroom for things like fuel for the cars if it had been required. Slightly higher groceries this week but I did a major reorg of my large walk through larder and stocked up on some basics ready for winter weather and less frequent shops.
I’m pleased that I tracked this month as it has just confirmed that we’re fine financially, now if only I can convince DH of that!
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Reporting for October 15 - 21
Goal 1 - blocking out time for priorities - fail, and it wasn’t such a busy week
Goal 2 - In bed by 10 pm: 1/7 days; Up by 7 am: 6/7 days
Goal 3 - Plan each day the day before: 4/7 days
I’m getting to bed close to 10, but not by 10, most evening. I think I would benefit from making my goal 9:30. I’m going to do that starting in November, and keep tracking on my own journal.
I felt really, really good on Tuesday this past week, and have been dragging every day since. It feels like I’m on the verge of coming down with something. I think I need to work on getting to bed by 9 or 9:30. I feel like I sleep better if I get to sleep earlier, and not as well if I’m up past that.
I think the time change next weekend is going to be rough for me. I need to work on getting to bed an hour earlier, and everything is about to shift an hour later.
Thank you for the challenge Lily!
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I hit my rover goal and haven’t used a credit card all month, so i’ll take small wins!
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I think the only purchase left is the Boy’s lunch tomorrow and that is usually like six bucks, so I am doing my final check-in.
We had another big unexpected thing happen: LB (age 11) was struck by a car while riding his bike. He is on crutches but otherwise pretty OK. TBD how much this will cost! The bike might be totalled and we’ve met our deductible but I’m always nervous when I have to use an out-of-network ER. Also, LB was ticketed for riding on the sidewalk- I’m hoping I can get charges dismissed on the grounds of basic decency but I don’t actually know what the fine will be if I can’t.
But so far, the only thing I’ve paid is that I took him to Chick Fil A! Also BB (12) volunteered to be in a haunted house at his school carnival, so he needed a last-minute costume after all (he is going to wear his inflatable dino from last year for trick-or-treating but obviously that is not scary!).
I am NOT including the plane tickets I bought for Christmas as my mom is going to reimburse me. Less than a thousand bucks for 4 tickets!
This has been a really useful exercise for me to take stock weekly and really see where we’re at and where we’re going. I was correct that it would be lower-spend month for us! I am getting better at predicting how much to budget for each category month by month, although some (I’m looking at you, Utilies) remain a little mysterious. I was spot-on for a big month of kid spending, so yay me.
Fun fact: my “personal spending” consists ENTIRELY of bath salts, which I accidentally overpurchased.
Anyway, here’s the final chart. We came in comfortably under my total spend goal!
Goal was no more than $6600 and we spent under $6050, even with the impromptu eclipse trip and the car breaking down.
| Original estimate | 10/7 | 10/14 | 10/21 | 10/29 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October challenge | |||||
| Mortgage | 2050.13 | 2050.13 | 2050.13 | 2050.13 | 2050.13 |
| Home maintenance and repairs | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Home supplies and furnishings | 100 | 31.09 | 86.9 | 86.9 | 208.23 |
| Subscriptions | 90 | 51.32 | 51.32 | 57.67 | 75.47 |
| Misc. bills/services | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Utilies | 430 | 104.46 | 198.19 | 305.81 | 367.92 |
| Health | 50 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 104 |
| Groceries | 1300 | 150 | 538.68 | 720.67 | 966.3 |
| Restaurants | 100 | 0 | 90.31 | 90.31 | 90.31 |
| The Boy’s Fast Food | 50 | 10.82 | 14.25 | 24.68 | 41.4 |
| My fast food | 50 | 0 | 43.12 | 43.12 | 74.39 |
| Kid spending | 500 | 41.41 | 220.99 | 449.61 | 495.9 |
| Gifts and holiday (Halloween) | 200 | 8.94 | 78.32 | 143.88 | 219.02 |
| Shopping | 100 | 5.71 | 20.12 | 20.12 | 20.12 |
| Cat | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Donations | 46 | 0 | 24.25 | 45.75 | 45.75 |
| Travel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 322.28 | 322.28 |
| Out and misc. entertainment | 50 | 4.67 | 10.1 | 47.71 | 47.71 |
| Car payment | 452.05 | 0 | 0 | 452.05 | 452.05 |
| Auto maintenance | 10 | 0 | 192.16 | 192.16 | 192.16 |
| Gas | 85 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 33 |
| Taxes/insurance | 150 | 149.29 | 149.29 | 149.29 | 149.29 |
| His clothes | 100 | 0 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| His misc. spending | 100 | 0 | 20 | 22.17 | 22.17 |
| My clothes | 100 | 0 | 22 | 22 | 31 |
| My misc. spending | 100 | 0 | 12 | 12 | 24 |
| 6213.18 | 2607.84 | 3838.13 | 5318.31 | 6048.6 | |
| Goal: $6600 total |
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Is it week 4? I’m doing well enough with my budget, in that I’m documenting everything. But I’m spending way too much money. I went to a wedding recently. We moved into our new condo in the beginning of October so we’ve purchased some high cost items like a coffee table and a vitamix… I also went on a mini stationery shopping spree last week that I’m not proud of. But other than that my budget is doing well and I’m even underneath my projected spending for food and restaurants 
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Food $699.74/725
Local Food $65.14/100
Transportation $60.55/75
Pet $59.12/200
Household $194.59/120 
I think we’re going to be OK on everything other than household! And I know what I messed up with the household budget, so I think as long as we actually pay attention, we will stay in budget better in the future.
Though with the pet budget it’s also that I haven’t gotten around to making an appointment for the vaccine one is due for…
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$852/800 groceries - Yep, went over here
$364/400 restaurants - Will probably have takeout on Halloween but I’m happy with this!
All in all, I was surprised at how participating in this challenge helped refocus the budget. Right now we’re pretty loose with our spending, but it really brought home how focused we’ll have to be to stay within our budget.
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