I have been offered a table at a de-stash sale. That will make three sales before Christmas: Nov. 4th, Dec. 1st and Dec. 2nd. Hopefully I will earn some money for Christmas.
Why? Although I notified everyone I was scaling back, and ordered notebooks for everyone (<$10 CAD each), we have been invited to Sis#1ās for Christmas. That may mean stockings all around. She has two adult special needs children. Weāve never been there for Christmas, so we donāt know what to expect. If they do stockings, we want to contribute. Soā¦Iām faced with rejigging the budget again. But that can wait until after the first sale in November.
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This challenge is showing me very clearly where the holes are in my budget. I spend pretty freely on business related items and services. They are going to have to start turning a profit.
This month Iāve also been updating my Cash Envelope System for 2026 with Canadian currency in mind. Meaning Iām dropping all the challenges that require $1 & $2 bills, as those are coins for us. Iām revamping my 100 envelope challenge via the method shown by Hello Happy Budgets on YouTube to do away with the need for $1 & $2 bills as well.
I decided to do everything by download, as itās more affordable. Plus I have tools, talent and time to finish up the system components on my own. However, it did cost some money. Iāve spent $175 CAD on challenges, laminating pockets, and 5 new binders. My old binders were magnetic and didnāt hold many envelopes at all. This time I ordered snap closures. Plus a money bag to take money to the bank. And then the downloads cost something too.
The big expense was a box of 100 - 3 mil laminating pockets for laminating savings challenges, money placeholders, dashboards, etc. The only choice I had was 50 for $45 (including tax), or 100 for $69. I knew Iād use them eventually, so bought the bigger box.
The other big expense has been Sales Supplies. With the offer of being in a third sale there were certain requests made to sell āsomething specialā. Of course they want a deal. So Iāve been cutting up my hand spun yarn and making mini skeins. That means I need containers to store and display them in. That meant another trip to Dollarama. For $22.80 I walked out with five containers with lids. Hopefully that will be enough.
Nothing has to be perfect! Just check in by posting on this thread and mention where youāre at with your budgetober objectives.
This can be posting how much youāve spent this week, what problems you ran into with your plan, or asking for help if you need it.
After you post your check-in, myself or another mod will get you a special-edition week 2 budgetober badge. If you still havenāt gotten your badge by Tuesday, please bat signal me (@ anomalily) and Iāll make sure you do!
Well, had some interesting learnings this week. I did not set the entertainment budget high enough since I bought future concert tickets (Christmas show and show in February). I also had not planned for SOās spending to golf. I did not consider his separate spending when I created the budget.
I have also learned that silent auctions are my gazinga pins. I won/bought an experience for next year ( less than half of the projected value). It was for an ALS fund raiser!! Also, the weekly local auction I happened to look at had a portable wheelchair which I purchased for my mom to be able to take her outside for walks. Yes, something needed but we may be getting one for free and I didnāt want to wait.
We had a car battery die and had to replace it. So that was total for planned car maintenance.
One bonus which I put towards the additional income category was using gift cards and points to pay for stuff. So far this has been $637.
Anyways, I still consider this all success. We have categories where we have not really spent any money.
Some existing junk food eaten. Early in the week I got my fill of delicious desserts at a social event. Then I bought a giant bag of chips for DH, got a bunch of discounts on it, and ate a serving (maybe 1/10 of the bag). Then I tried on my dress for an event in a few weeks and realized it is tighter (than before? Definitely tighter than I want) which means more exercise and less junk food (with family or by myself) which massively sucks but is keeping me well under budget.
Goal 1: cheap and prepaid thrills. We did well at this again. The only thing I spent money on was a $4 movie download. Watched The Big Short which Iād never seen before.
Goal 2: plan ahead. I meal-planned well again. But I did go grocery shopping AGAIN! And I spent $104 so I have spent over $500 on groceries.
Goal 3: Pay a bill. Still not paid. Waiting for my spouse to get paid on the 31st when we will pay it. Ugh.
Goal 4: Spend under $4000 in the month: our total spending is $3364.36, so still holding strong on this one!
This week we only paid for family Friday takeout instead of a sit down bbq joint. Which was slightly more than a third of the price. The food was also much better.
I have restocked on several types of honey, which is now only available in the fancy organic stores. I havenāt seen my favorite type (only one place where it was sold out), but last time that happened I found a new one I liked, so I am keeping an open mind.
Still want to get a bit more chocolate, but it may not happen- I was waiting for the sales cycle to flip, but the grocery chain that carries them might not be on our route.
Oh, I guess I need to decide if we are going to pay for lunch with the shadowy oneās parents. Tbd.
A lot of places have an extra fee for using credit cards, which is fair because they are being gouged by the processors, but also makes me think maybe we should go back to pulling out cash. I am happy we were able to use a no addl fx fees card about 60% of the time, so at least we saved that %.
I supported a lys with a small purchase of enough yarn to make a hat.
Sleep budget: met 6 of the 7 days this week again, so on target. Suspiciously, Sunday night is the problem. (Revenge procrastinating, maybe.)
Meals budget: Technically I did once again eat all meals every day except Wednesday I skipped lunch (electrician was here all day). But I ran out of cookies, so even though I ate meals (which was the stated and intended goal), I missed a lot of targets because I didnāt have easy cals available (like, at ALL). I was also out of yogurt all week, so I couldnāt even make protein smoothies, which would have 100% fixed the problem. Holes sure do become apparent when you look real closely. Anyway, did technically meet the goal this week. These more specific details are just info gathering for future work. (Gotta start simple.)
Craft Supply Budget: still no spending (!!) Iāve just been so exhausted. With one week to go, Iām not even sure I will do my planned purchases at this point. I may switch the bigger one to something different I have my eye on, and postpone the original plan for some other time. Money is fungible, TBD.
I am still pretty well on track, I have 74 Euro for eating out in the last week of the month
The fried rice and chicken takeout yesterday was a huge portion, I had the 2nd half for Dinner today. And as the Italian Ice cream parlor is closing at the end of the month, I splurged on a big portion today.
Grocery budget remaining: 303.08/900. Thatās still a third left despite getting spices. Itās good to know that we can manage with some extra focus.
Not much progress on the pantry. Itās hard to focus on the pantry when we are so overwhelmed with veggies from the CSA. Of course they support each other, soā¦ I dunno. I think part of the problem is Iām not really aware of what is in the pantry.
I am still keeping up with entering transactions.
Pantry update: my husband has proposed, all on his own and without me even telling him about this challenge, going through it and throwing old stuff out!
Well Ponder was home sick the whole week and so was Duckling. We ate barely any vegetables. But we only did takeaway dinners twice! (I wanted to outsource all cooking but did not.) Lunches are probably comparable to a normal week when Ponder would have been in the city, overall
Still on track to save $3k this month.
And brought in an OK amount at my craft market yesterday, so that was a nice win!
Check-in!
My checkins are kinda boring but I really like to interact with my budget everyday. This week I was on track, entered my transactions everyday in YNAB. My fun money category and my grocery category were depleted so I had to WAM. Otherwise nothing out of the ordinary. Next week will be my third paycheck of the month! Canāt wait to replenish some categories (sinking funds) and invest part of that paycheck!
Hooray! I only spent like, $32 this week in groceries. Doing a lot more ārandom stir fryā recipes to use the random ingredients in the fridge. That freezer was a lot more full than I thought, and Iāve been working to try and check what I have ābeforeā going grocery shopping.
Cancelled a couple of reoccurring expenses I had forgotten about, but thatās only $20 per month saved (although it is still a savings)
And itās recast week . Mostly for Sports/Health/Hobbies, but food kicks in some too.
Food, $293/$300 (up from $250)āExtra happy hour for an un-retiring coworker, plus I needed to grab some candy for Halloween since I forgot I wasnāt going to be out of town anymore and that stuff is a lot more expensive than I remembered. Shouldnāt need anything else at the grocery store this month, but leaving myself a couple dollars just in case.
Sports/Health/Hobbies, $386/$400 (up from $100)āOne more streaming charge should happen before the end of the year and the reimbursement wonāt come until next month hence the gap, but most of the increase was because I ended up doing the shark dive and then tracked down the last of the PT bills. Seriously, you think theyād make it easier for me to give them money. PT and random one-offs are the main reasons so many other months were up this year, and even if the first should be less of an issue next year (should beā¦), Iāll probably still increase this category for 2026 so it doesnāt keep being a surprise. Anyway, have a shark:
Trip refund/reimbursement, 86%/80%āMore than I thought Iād get; the main thing Iām still waiting for is money back from the shorter flight which they pinky-swear is on the way, but itās been a week and change. Waiting to submit the insurance claim until that either goes through or time says they arenāt sending it, but that should be another 1-2%, and then thatāll be the end of it since travel supplies/internal hotels/etc. are the things Iām just writing off.
Gifts, $0/no specific budgetāFound a rhyming book with a furry bouncy ball (? no idea, but it will probably be nephlingās favorite part of gift) attached so both nephlings are covered, or at least the only other thing Iāll do for them will be 529 contributions in Dec. And then another thread here reminded me that parent was looking for a backup system for their music, so pieces acquired and Iāll set that up for them when I visit (~$100).
no progress on the spreadsheet. My work schedule means itās unlikely any more progress will happen this month, but at least I got startedā¦
Little Treats: none this week. Planning on a snack run for busy work week
Groceries: $62.40 this week: at $97.25 / $150
Iām going to wave my wand this week and do a Costco order next week: among other things, we need Halloween candy, and that canāt wait until November.
Ok, reconciled all the bills in hand with the EOBs from my insurance company and finally started a spreadsheet to record whatās been paid. Paid all the bills I could confirm we really owe. The one I mentioned last week that billed for something I already paid did in fact do that, and furthermore, they see the payment in their portal. So I guess Iām calling them. Also have to call about one tiny hospital pharmacy bill ($4.27) to see if they have any way theyād like to get paid other than me driving 45 miutes down to the hospital and taking them cash or a check. Cause thatās not happening.
Turns out we hit our OOP max during an ambulance ride on 7/27, but that doesnāt neccessarily mean we donāt owe for things that happened after that, or that we do owe for things before that. It all depends on when the providers got their info to the insurance company, and when the insurance company accepted it.
Canāt call anyone now because itās Sunday, so Iām done for now. But I do need to go down to the post office later today, where I bet I find more. I told Husband dealing with medical bills is a full-time job.
Went to the post office. No new bills yet, but a new EOB from the insurance company. Know what a cardiac catheterization costs without insurance? $48,000.
We paid $0 of that because of our out of pocket maximum. (Which means we paid $10,000 before that came along, not counting insurance premiums.) Aināt America grand?
. Mostly for Sports/Health/Hobbies, but food kicks in some too.