I’m in. I’m new here, just in from over at the lives on YouTube. Goals are to learn beyond the basics stuff that would translate well to bullet journal budget and possibly a start on my business finances, if something happens to be applicable.
Autumn is the busy season for me, my new years. Lots is good about it!
I’m in! I’m also new around here - I’ve been watching the livestreams and decided to finally join in for Budgetober! 
I’ll be getting back from a trip at the beginning of the month, so it’ll be a good time to do a mental reset and evaluate my budget. October is also the month when I’ve been at my new job long enough for my 401k contributions to kick in, so I’ll finally be at the point where my paycheck will be a consistent amount for the foreseeable future. I’ve had a few months to adjust to the new normal of post-college full-time work, but I recently rearranged some budget categories & want to see how it works for me.
I’m going to be tracking all my categories in YNAB, but I want to pay the most attention to food and savings. For food, I want to track how much of what I spend is snacks/discount bakery cart stuff and see if I can determine a less arbitrary number in my budget for future months. For savings, I want to sit down with a spreadsheet and figure out how long it’ll take me to reach a comfortable emergency buffer at my current rate. And after that, maybe finally stop procrastinating and get a savings account?
There are a lot of things I love about autumn and spooky season, but I’m mostly looking forward to the cooler temperatures!
Welcome, MeridaElla and cadence!!!
I’m in too. I want to track grocery/take away categories to find out what our new budget should be sitting around as a new family of four plus with all the inflation. I think the last time i properly tracked may have been last budgetober?! Time to see where we’re sitting at again!
My toddler is really into Halloween at the moment so it’s pretty cute seeing her get excited to dress up.
I haven’t budgeted in a while but am going to be going down to a one-income household plus new unavoidable expenses soon, so I need to get a grasp on our household spending!
I’m gonna focus on recording and budgeting for essential vs discretionary spending and the working through the nuance of which is which.
(edited for grammar)
I think I am going to try to join because I have a completely new normal I am trying to deal with - income is way down, fixed expenses are way up, but categories are being aggressively reorganized because I am able to axe some spending that solely existed in support of the former higher income. I have never had such a big disruption in my planning before, so it’s a bit like being brand new to budgeting all over again.
A wrinkle: I have a huge long-deferred expense transacted a month ago, but which may end up rolling in as a charge either end of this month or early next depending on fulfillment - either way I want to treat as September’s spending, because the fulfillment delay was unexpected.
I am excited for cooler weather with most the highs below human fever temps, the opportunity to bake all the spiced everything, plant some things that might fruit before it freezes, settle in for some spooky storytelling, & wear some festive getups. My favorite thing about the Halloween season is all my favorite hobbies get popular attention, so there are a lot more people to enjoy them with for a few weeks.
Well, it has certainly been A Year, so this is a good time to do a close tracking month to make sure the budget is working.
I like Little Kid Halloween - pumpkins and candy.
I’m in! I’d like to track all of my food expenses in October: specifically, the amounts I spend on groceries vs. meal prep services vs. eating out, and what the cost per meal ends up being in those three categories. I love the convenience and variety of my meal prep service, but the expense of it has been creeping up. So I want to use Budgetober to establish some target weekly spending goals/caps in each category. Maybe I’ll also experiment with incorporating some more budget-friendly and easy-to-prepare recipes into my cooking routine, so I’m less tempted to overspend on the meal prep category.
Favorite thing about halloween season: candy!
OKAY Im in
I’m going to budget for pretty much everything. i moved in with family and now i need to change up my budget with different expenses.
I’m going to start with a budget that matches my guess at our current expenditure of $6000/mo for 2 adults that breaks down into the below to see how close my guess is or how much we go over 
I’m going to try to include annual recurring expenses (/12) as well in order to represent monthly expense more accurately.
I’m going to be categorizing our Mint transactions for Oct and then splitting the categories into the below two as well:
will probably be happening but hopefully relatively late in the month.
Okay so for our household of 3 adults the budget categories are:
$12k life expenses (loan payments, mortgage, car, medical, groceries, etc) - stuff that I don’t plan to optimize day to day
$2k fun (shopping, travel, hobbies, etc)
$1k fun food (alcohol, restaurants)
Let’s see how we do! Me and my partner are both job hunting. Just from getting health insurance we’d be able to knock the life expenses down a lot (health insurance is costing us 5k/mo for 3 people. At least we’re using it??).
Omg! You don’t qualify for Medicaid? Too high of unemployment income? Or non expansion state?
Nope! Too high disability benefits. 
Which is a good problem to have!
Also, I’m paying extra monthly in exchange for the lower annual out-of-pocket max, which I hit easily every year.
While I agree it’s a better problem than not having too high disability benefits… also wtf.
yeahhhh I’m not thrilled about it
Hello, I’m in! I’m currently dealing with a very tight budget due to an increase in rent with no warning, so I’m using Budgetober to get a hold on eating out and Uber rides, two of my most out of control categories. Also, my favorite part about Halloween and fall in general is the music (I love a good fall jazz playlist) and candles!
I’m in!
Haven’t been good about budgeting for the last few months and want to get a better understanding of what I’m spending and limit takeout/shopping for things I don’t need/etc. I’ve also noticed my credit card usage increasing so I want to be more responsible with that.
Not sure yet how I’ll track yet - YNAB didn’t really work for me.
Favorite part of spooky season is watching scary movies! I try to do one a day in October - (usually) a free activity if I’m just watching at home!
I need to do this, I have gone through a lot of upheaval over the past couple of years, but am in the process of trying to buy a little house and will need to save as much as possible for furniture and stuff. My favourite thing about spooky season is that my birthday is on the 25th haha, self-involved I know! Also last week of the month I am on holiday in NYC which was a post-break up treat I splurged on, so need to factor in a holiday budget.
Fall jazz playlist? Sounds intriguing! Would you DM me an artist it song or two? (So as not to clutter up the budget thread). I am always looking for cool new-to-me music. 
I’m in!
My income took a dip this year and I need to reign in my spending. If I spend no more than $2100 total in October, I’ll count that as a win.