I love seeing how many new folks and returning folks are coming back for Budgetober!
11 Likes
it’s my one financial anchoring/resetting point every year!
or maybe I’m here for the stickers 
7 Likes
I’m absolutely here for the stickers.
3 Likes
I can’t stand to put the stickers on things.
I so would never have eaten the marshallow…
4 Likes
me neither. I just like having them.
5 Likes
I’m in! I didn’t have the bandwidth until today to sit down and figure out my plan/goals. We are a household of 2 adults and 2 toddlers. One spouse is disabled and the other thankfully has a well(ish) paying job, in a high-mid cost of living area (Denver Metro).
Goal for overall spending in October is under $6200. I put the individual categories under the cut. This is basically our normal monthly budget, but I zeroed out the categories that I set aside in sinking funds that I don’t plan to actually spend this month. For a frame of reference, average spending for the year has been $9255 per month, although that has included some expensive home improvement projects. If I remove that category then average for the year is $6901 per month.
Summary
| Category | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Car Insurance | $0.00 |
| Car Registration | $0.00 |
| Gas | $100.00 |
| Service and Parts | $0.00 |
| Uber | $75.00 |
| Electric / Gas | $200.00 |
| Internet | $55.00 |
| Cell Phone | $0.00 |
| Trash | $0.00 |
| Water | $0.00 |
| Student Loan | $532.00 |
| Subscriptions | $75.00 |
| Life Insurance | $75.00 |
| Coffee Shops | $50.00 |
| Groceries | $700.00 |
| Dining Out | $300.00 |
| Giving | $60.00 |
| Christmas Spending | $0.00 |
| Gifts | $100.00 |
| Medical | $400.00 |
| Rec Center | $0.00 |
| Home Gym | $0.00 |
| Judo | $50.00 |
| Home Improvement | $100.00 |
| Mortgage | $2,379.00 |
| Baby Supplies | $50.00 |
| Baby Sitter | $0.00 |
| Enrichment | $100.00 |
| Hair/Massage | $75.00 |
| Toiletries | $30.00 |
| Amazon Prime | $0.00 |
| Books | $30.00 |
| Clothing | $0.00 |
| Date Night | $100.00 |
| New Technology | $0.00 |
| Household Items | $75.00 |
| E Fun Money | $25.00 |
| DH Fun Money | $25.00 |
| Family Visit | $0.00 |
| Cleaner | $300.00 |
| Costco Ann Fee | $120.00 |
| Total Spending | $6,181.00 |
I will check in weekly with progress in each category!
6 Likes
For us it is about communication and settling on the goals together so we come up with something that feels achievable for both of us. I am the one who can physically look at YNAB to see how we are doing on different categories so I just make sure there is communication throughout the month and he knows if we are getting close to going over budget in a certain category.
2 Likes
I am in! (i want a stickerrrrrrr) I will:
- track spending as per usual
- get back up to date in YNAB
- update savings rate spreadsheet to see if I will hit my goal of 50% this year
- get home repair estimates for budgeting purposes/possible insurance claim
- roof
- roof insulation
- hvac/heat pump
7 Likes
I have my goal numbers worked out! I’m going to try to keep to a monthly total rather than try to guess each individual category- I am not traditionally great at predicting whether I will want to buy more stuff for the kids vs for the house vs clothes for myself at Costco, etc. So I will move money between the discretionary categories as needed and have added a few hundred dollars of extra overage. Our average spending for the year (minus the electrical upgrades we did) is $7100.
Hoping for a relatively low-spend month. One possible big-ticket expenses is Halloween- at least 1 costume, possible 2-3 costumes, for the kids; and the Boy usually buys a new decoration or two. But I’ve already bought candy and corn maze tickets, so we might come in well under what I’ve budgeted.
The other big item in October is the kids’ semi-annual consignment sale. I’m hoping to get like six months’ worth of clothes for the baby, maybe some early Christmas presents, get the tweens all set for winter* and a few graphic Ts and whatnot.
*But will probably need to buy boots new and I saw snow pants at Costco for $15 so I for sure won’t spend more for that!
In our favor: No travel in October, no home or car repairs or major medical bills anticipated (knocks wood) and the cat already got his Chewy autoship! Feedback welcome!
(I did not highlight my husband’s fast food on purpose 
.)
We generally spend at least all of our take-home pay but so far as staying afloat!
4 Likes
Yes. Must hoard like dragon.
11 Likes
back in the day, one of my tricks to get myself to save money was a coloring sheet of a dragon hoarding its treasure where each treasure piece represented some $ amount
11 Likes
Probably supposed to do this tomorrow, but doing it now because I just finished Sept. accounting and have enough chores to do tomorrow that I’m not sure I’ll actually be on the computer. So…
Things I’m not tracking:
- Fixed costs: home, car, fixed bills
- Recurring although not technically fixed: taxable savings, donations, anything that comes out of my paycheck before I get it
- Reimbursed expenses: Portion of internet covered by work, all of my current streaming services
Tracking with budget for the month:
- Cat expenses: $230. $192 of that is prescription food, may be able to skip for the month since I think I have 3-4 months in stock, but need to check. Would be nice if I could since he has bloodwork and most probably dental coming up in November.
- My food, both groceries and eating out: $300. One known ‘fancy’ dinner to go with a show for my birthday, but other than that I really need to dial in on groceries because they’ve clearly crept up
- Electric: $75. Should be easily doable unless I need to turn on the heat (no gas)
- Hobbies: $30. This should cover all patreon, but I haven’t reviewed in a while, especially for the creators that charge per release rather than a flat fee per month
- Health: $50. Prescription refill + 3 shots (covid and tetanus boosters, flu…the first and last are covered by insurance but not sure about the second)
Tracking without budget for the month:
- Travel. Looking for a few specific supplies plus (hopefully) a good deal on tickets to Italy next year, but no guarantee I’ll buy any of that next month
- Gifts. No more events until the end of the year, but I’ll start looking around for things that people might like soon. $500+529 contributions is the target for the holidays, but again no guarantee that I’ll be spending any of that next month.
3 Likes
Late but in! My goals are embarrassingly the same as last year because somehow in 12 full months I still have yet to achieve the incredibly basic goal of just tracking monthly expenses. I know that we spend less than we take in each month (uhhh with the exception of some very spendy vacations over the last 12 months that came out of savings) but I really just want to have it all tracked nicely.
5 Likes
STICKERS! STICKERS! STICKERS!
I keep them in a small pile to hoard forever. Maybe someday I will use them, but they are TOO PRECIOUS…
6 Likes
Since I already track extensively, and I don’t really budget (though I do sometimes adjust spending if I have spendy months), I’d like to set a really broad goal. My monthly average (all in) in 2022 was $3582, and my average so far this year has been $3511. I’m setting a goal of $4000 with a stretch goal of $3500 - my dog has an expensive vet visit coming on the 30th, and my car registration is due plus it needs servicing (with possible repairs as well) hopefully sometime this month (I keep putting it off but need to just get it done). It would be grand if I could get it under $3000, which does sometimes happen in months with no lumpy expenses, but that might be too much to ask for this month.
As previously mentioned, I’m in because I want the stickers. I love Spooky Season - costumes and candy and fall colors!
7 Likes
Woke up today and was like. OH NO I DIDN’T SIGN UP FOR BUDGETOBER. I am HERE, I am READY TO GO. I talked a little over at my journal about doing a time budget because that was really stressing me out, but unfortunately money is now also stressing me out, so we’ll start with that. I am doing some time-tracking which should help (I stopped using a vertical planner and now it’s really hard to visualize how much time I have??? I really did not think it was helping that much??).
Things I’m tracking
- Takeout expenses (budget: ~$500 but would like to spend less)
- Lunchbox times & lunchbox meals I liked (functionally free, might talk about this more in Journal)
- “Entertainment” purchases (these will be individually categorized as they come up, I imagine) - I want to buy the last of my 2024 planner stuff this month, as well as I “need” to buy some Legos before they retire, and I have some miscellaneous school stuff to buy also (budget: $200, would like to transfer some of the Takeout Expenses into this category)
- Health expenses to Not Get Covid as well as, I have new insurance so will have different health expenses (budget: $200 but I expect it to change/adjust)
- I have printing through school but I want to track it because I only have $24 of it which is much less than at my old school (budget: $24, I refuse to pay real money for printing. This school costs $26k a semester!)
Task-based goals
- I want to set up an online High Yield Savings Account
- I also want to start tracking expenses in my Mossery twinbook so that I can process it into YNAB at the end of the day like I do with all my school notes
My budget is weird and more difficult than you might think because I have a Grad Stipend so my Total Budget for the month is $3000, which is more money than I’ve ever had in my life, and grad school is MEGA HARD so I want to turn to Shopping all the time. But I Shouldn’t because it doesn’t really make me happy. And I also need to buy stuff that I’ve procrastinated on for years due to not having any money (like new shoes that fit me). Okay! Happy Budgetober!
(My therapist was really excited that I mentioned Budgetober again, so, we’re very popular!)
12 Likes
I am familiar with this procrastinating buying problem
5 Likes
I’m in.
I want to get a better grip on our ‘run’ costs - ie what everyday life costs us. Financially we’re in a great position although we’re not good at embracing it!
We are both retired from corporate life and have a beautiful paid off home in a fantastic location. We designed the house with an annexe to use for B&B with the hope that it would generate enough income to pay the bills and, so far, it does. Between state pensions and a variety of private pension pots we have gathered up over the years we should have a well funded full retirement in 10 years time but we are both rather compulsive worriers about money. We have a large cash cushion which is now earning between 4.5 and 5.2% interest so we will have accumulated this year even though we are supposed to be in the de-cumulation phase of our lives!
B&B season is probably over so October a great month to analyse our expenses. I’m going to track all the every day expenses for the month. I will count the fixed costs such as heating, insurance, subscriptions etc, and the variable such as groceries, fuel for the cars and eating out/takeaway food.
I’m not counting major purchase or holidays as they are discretionary. I’ve got everything I used to want in a holiday (quiet, views, hot tub etc) at home so there is much less desire to get away. Hopefully at the end of the month I will be able to remind myself what a great position we’re in. We have always been frugal and maybe it’s time to relax a bit and not always have to be a maximiser on every purchase (but then I remember that we only got where we are by being frugal!)
I’m setting a goal of £1500 as I think that’s probably about what we spend in an average off season month. Hopefully the reckoning at the end of the month won’t be a shock.
7 Likes
If it’s not too late…I’m in. Will be focusing on our food budget category. Overall it has been much better this year, but the last few months have been trending high. Take out is always our struggle.
I want to stay within 5% of our official food budget. I have it broken down into weekly chunks to hopefully keep us on track.
My favorite part of Halloween season is our not so spooky home my hubby decorates for us each year. It may be 100 degrees outside still but my home feels like fall.
6 Likes
Not too late!!
1 Like