Iām issuing a challenge: Budgetober, which will run from October 1 - October 31.
The goal for budgetober is set and stick to your budget for the month of October. Itās also vaguely halloween themed. Also it has special forum badges and even a STICKER SHEET for people that complete the whole month.
The sticker was designed by aliasxahna and itās adorable as usual. Here is last yearās
You must establish a budget, a way to track it, and target amounts for the budget.
Your categories can be as broad as you like, or as specific as you want. You can even just choose a single amount for the month, You can also track + limit one category if you prefer (i.e. grocery spending, restaurants, or stationary splurges.)
Youāre allowed one week where you wave a magic wand and āre-castā your budget . This means if you go off the rails in a category, or something big comes up, you can set a new budget for the month. Donāt get discouraged just because you have an off week! Jump back on the budgeting haywagon! (I told you this was halloween themed).
Each Saturday you use this thread to report how you did on your budget for the week. You can report on where youāre at, and what your biggest challenge and victories of the week were. Then, youāll put your predictions/goals down for the budget week ahead.
Who This Challenge is For
Maybe youāre already great at sticking to your budget , but you want to try out adjustments to your categories or a low-spend month.
Maybe you donāt currently do a budget , but feel like maybe your expenses are creeping up and want to use October as a chance to do a check-in and see how you are doing.
Maybe you have a pandemic paycut or furlough and need to live on less money for awhile.
Maybe you have a new normal - new job, new family member, new location and need to figure out your new baseline.
Maybe youāve been spending a bit too much on take-away orders or planners , and want to dial it back a bit. One months seems doable!
Maybe youāre tired of ācleaning upā categories the last week of the month - i.e. moving money from a too-full grocery budget into an overspent takeaway category. So the goal here is to change behavior or reset categories to more realistic amounts.
Maybe youāve never budgeted before but it feels overwhelming to start. Perhaps one week at a time, for only a month, seems achievable! You donāt have to do it forever, just for October.
What do you get out of participating?
Deep Satisfaction of trying to stick to a budget this October
Community support for whatever your budget goals are for October!
Budgetober success shout outs on the podcast
A weekly CUTE halloween-themed forum badge for participating in the weekly check-in
And if you do all 4 week check-ins, you get a STICKER mailed to you. Itās halloween, cat, and budget themed. I will mail these anywhere in the world.
If youāre in to participate (or on the fence and need encouragement), comment below with what youāre hoping to get out of Budgetober and your favorite thing about the halloween season.
I am commenting to say I am participating! My goal for Budgetober is to do an in-depth tracking of my grocery spending this month, as it has gone up so much via inflation. Hereās what I used as a template last time:
I also want to do a review of my wardrobe and update the price charts for my wardrobe.
I never succeed at these but I must have that sticker.
My goal is to write down as many purchases as possible and tabulate the regular spending and other expenses that come out of my account. My goal is to determine how many actual hours I need to work to be making progress on my debts and keeping up with my expenses.
I am in! This year for some reason I got out of the habit of monthly budget review so I want to get back in the habit.
Goals for October:
*get the spreadsheet up to date - I think the last month I reconciled was March to April.
*track food/grocery expenses weekly
*update the spreadsheet at the end of October and reassess category numbers
*bonus goal, try not to freak out at how inflation may have affected the yearly budget
I am in. I need to focus more on things that are in my control. I feel like weāre pretty good and autopilot. But when I look up at the big picture, it starts to feel more hopeless.
Maybe heads-down, hereās what I can do to improve my numbers, is what I need right now.
And my favorite thing is the fall weather, so nice and crisp. Also you never know, summer can come back, or maybe snow. Itās a real smorgasbord.
Yes yes yes. Next month marks adding a nearly $600/mon car payment that plus everything else and prepping for Husband to I guess technically become self employed? Yeahhhh need to decide on what aspects/how, Iām in for this.
Honestly, decent budget-adjacent goals then might be things around making sure that you keep track of hospital bills, stuff gets paid, youāre able to keep a running tally of expenses if youāre interested in that or need it for tax deductions or anything.
HOPEFULLY you have an incredibly uncomplicated birth. But I had so many providers and units to track bills from it was very hard for The Brain. a system helped for sure.
I should do thisā¦ just had a kid. Probably just focus on that line item, because medical billing from the birth will be a mystery, and i donāt usually purchase the groceries.
also the only current thing I use for budgeting is Fortune City which is just not sustainable. Iād like to use YNAB but itās way too expensive for me now so IDK what I will do about it instead.
One thing I realized I do that I maybe want to actually track
You know how people save money on something, so they mentally think oh I saved x so I can buy something worth x
And then spend that x multiple times over?
I do that with extra hours worked, I think. I mean I presume I do. So I think I need to make a page in my paper journal extra hours work and then actively mark down when I spend on fun stuff outside my allotted budget. Like, worked an hour extra, but then bought a video game with that hour. Basically visually see what my extra time is turning into and make sure Iām not repeatedly spending each extra hour.
I am going to make a budget for my business. This should prompt me to put together the tax receipts for this FY so far, and for last FY. I need to work out what I am supposed to buy this month; I will post it here before the start of Budgetober!
I need to talk to DH, but maybe a limited/no potato chip/crunchy snack October is needed. Inflation has hit junk food, too, and itās appalling how much more it costs these days.
that plus everything else and prepping for Husband to I guess technically become self employed? Yeahhhh need to decide on what aspects/how, Iām in for this.