Hoping to get back into this again. It’s been a lot of rough times and while I’ve been keeping my shit together on the outside, it feels like it’s one thing away from falling apart. I need to re-prioritize my various WFH jobs, set some goals, and set myself up to keep better track of things.
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What exactly does that mean? I’m open to anything.
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Ooooooooook…I’m in but October has strong potential to be a monetary shit show with work travel and moving. But I am going to commit to sticking to our normal budget for groceries and eating out and then will track separately food costs we wouldn’t have incurred if we weren’t moving like the cost of replacing perishable condiments that can’t fit in the cooler we’re taking with us and we arrived on the 13th but all of our stuff isn’t arriving til the 16th but we need to eat.
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I’m in! Does anyone have advice on how to stick to a budget in a partnership? Most notably, I do not do the grocery shopping, and I never know whether the Boy will be buying clothes (or fast food). He is also generally in charge of Halloween.
I could:
-ignore those categories completely and only focus on my own spending
or
-budget tons of money for them just to make sure we stay in line
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I’m in – sorta? Buying a house that needs work, and some of it will probably be at least partly paid for in October (though I might front-load some to late September as I schedule contractors, etc.) Will be on the road to/from Moab/Colorado most of the month. I guess I could make my target to have that road trip come in under $2000-3000 all in. I am traveling with my sister so can share gas costs, but we also will be staying in some fancier places some nights (doing 4 nights in/around Yellowstone on the way there). I may not count things I have already paid for, like my share of the cabin in Moab.
But I want stickers this year, and I do need to start tracking again, so consider me in, kinda.
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I’m in! Just completed a challenge elsewhere on the web for August and taking a break in September but getting back to it for October sounds like the perfect timing.
On average, my highest discretionary expenses are groceries, restaurants and personal spending. So these are what I’ll track.
Fave part of halloween season is the decorations on all the houses.
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My partner and I are hoping to retire in two years. We have set a monthly budget and need to start carefully tracking expenses to see if we can meet it. 
I do love the fall foliage colors in October! 
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oh – I’m in! 
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I’m in!
I will be tracking my food budgets (groceries and takeout) which have been a little off the rails lately. Trying to reign those back in!
My favorite thing about the season is the return of cooler weather and all the fun spooky things (many free!) there are to do.
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I’m in! I need to be better about setting down a budget and actually sticking to it. (Need to rebalance everything now that many situations have changed)
As for the season, i am thrilled that every possible thing will be pumpkin spiced soon.
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I’m in! We need to rein in our grocery and restaurant/takeout budgets.
My favorite part of October is the leaf colors!
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I am in! Currently I’m the unemployed person in our household so I can’t really focus on saving, but I do most of the grocery shopping so I want to see if I can identify a reasonable spending target for groceries based on what I’ve spent in the past. Need to work on eating more of what we already have.
Oh and I have an inordinate amount of subscriptions (for tv watching) which is probably costing me like $100 a month. I’ll do an audit of those and discontinue the ones I’m not using.
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Hey Chi!
We don’t do a ton of case studies on these forums, but it would essentially involve:
(a) You starting a thread where your post describes the situation – the worry/issue you see and relevant information to the situation. So if your issue is about finding money for paying your student loans, relevant information might be loan payment amounts, what kind of payment plan you’re on, what your income is each month, the amount of money you have to pay for fixed expenses like housing, what your savings look like, any relevant deets about how you and your partner share expenses for housing, etc.
(b) Other forumites ask questions, try to understand your situation, and try to help you figure out what some viable paths forward would be. (Usual disclosure that no one here is your financial advisor etc etc, we’re just people on the internet.)
I like case studies a lot personally. 
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Yea! I’d be happy to tune on that, with the “I’m a financial advisor but not YOUR financial advisor” hat on
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I have resurrected my old spreadsheet tracker. I made it back in the 90’s when I was reading Your Money Or Your Life (original edition…) and hanging out on the free Motley Fool forum. Yes, I’m old. The tracker needs tweeking. A lot of tweeking actually. I’m using the old one for the rest of the year and taking notes as I rebuild a new one. Lots of categories no longer apply. Some new categories need to be added. Making the spreadsheets is how I learn(ed) spreadsheet programming and formatting. Also, doing it this way I interact with my finances in a much more personal way. Having to look up everything on the individual sites means I check the accounts much more closely.
Of course I use Libre Office suite now. No longer have the corporate license I used to always have for Office.
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Hi! Budgetober is an enormous opportunity this year. My husband and I just combined finances AND moved to a new city so everything feels crazy. We need a routine and baseline for expectations and joint priorities.
My favorite part of the Halloween season is my cheesy decorations and the return of berets. Oh how I have waited for you.
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Hi! I’m in for this year. We have some big question marks about our spending and budget for October:
- One of my partners is currently job searching / unemployed
- I need to get login access to my student loans figured out
- student loans for all 3 of us are restarting
- I need to do more wrangling for disability benefits approval
In general the categories we track are:
- living expenses / lifestyle
- Fun food
- Other fun stuff
… with specific buckets set aside for irregular non-monthly things like quarterly taxes, travel, etc
I’m nervous about what the numbers will look like but spooky stickers are motivating!
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Hi ChiShannon! Oof. I feel you on the loan payments. A case study thread might be a good idea!
Also - have you looked at the SAVE plan yet? If you qualify it might help a lot! And with the new payment plan rules, interest doesn’t accrue while you make payments.
https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/save-plan?ftag=MSF0951a18
faq excerpt
That means you will not owe loan payments if you are a single borrower earning $32,800 or less or a family of four earning $67,500 or less (amounts are higher in Alaska and Hawaii). Borrowers earning more than these amounts will save at least $1,000 per year compared to the current income-driven repayment plans.
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I’m in!
I’ve really fallen off tracking expenses and have added a few bigger monthly expenses in, so I don’t really know what my baselines are anymore. So I’m hoping to get a handle on everything going out and make some new baselines for my categories.
And my favourite thing about halloween is mini aero bars and rockets (canadian versions). oh and sweater weather.
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OK I’m in!!! I can’t not do it. I’m going to set myself a budget for my kid’s 1st Birthday Party. Wish me luck!
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