OK. I know Iām late to join (this is a pattern for meā¦ one that I want/need to look atā¦). But I am going to build a budget for October and then track whatās really happening. So I may not actually stick to it, but at least Iāll know when I go off the rails! NOTE: we are heading to beautiful Yucatan MX at the end of the month - first vacation in over 3 years - and so will include that sojourn in the budget too. Thanks and off I go to Google Sheets (easiest way for me to get startedā¦ will look at budget templates later or else Iāll get lost in those shiny objects and never get down to it). Thanks Lillian/Anomalily!
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I did! For a wonder! Bank says itās a 1 in a million chance of getting it back! They figure the middle man didnāt know she was being used for fraud. She had suspicions, as evidenced by her emails to me, so refunded my money. It was Nigerian.
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I re-routed my craving for pizza into homemade nachos with ingredients on hand. Discretionary allowance spending saved for another day.
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do you mind sharing what happened? There are so many scams around, and I find it helpful to continue to build on my knowledge base of potential flags.
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Letās just say do not ever use email cheques! They are, apparently, very easy to forge! I had never heard of them before. They are bad news. Someone online wanted to buy product via social media using one.
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Got on it and began creating a budget right away. WHOA! Now I know why I avoided thisā¦ I/we are spending way beyond what we used to. Yes, some of it inflation (groceries, gas) but also other stuff like getting help around the house (increasinglyā¦ as sweet husband has mounting health issues) and whammy! although our mortgage is low, weāve been hit with some pretty big maintenance items. Luckily we have some savings, but how to replace THAT with inflation, etc. Iām glad Iām in good company around all of this. Carry On and Eat a Burrito. Thanks, Kristine
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Whoops, withdrawing from Budgetober. 
Due to family medical drama I am out of state and everything regarding food is wild.
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oh no, sorry to hear about the medical drama! Sending you love.
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Itās relatively calm for medical drama, so I will take it.
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I have this mental map that getting coffee in the morning is a small and attainable treat. Except I dwell in the land of Dunkinā, and 50% of the time I get coffee from Dunkinā I find it actively revolting.
Logically the grossness should suppress my desire for morning treat coffee. Instead, often have to resist getting coffee I know will be gross.
Minds are weird. Also, I drank work coffee this morning. Also 50% gross, but free.
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The chart was getting too hard for people to read, so I deleted that post. Weāll try this instead. The first number is the budgeted amount. The second number is what has actually been spent so far this month.
Dining Out - $100.00|$166.84
Groceries - $500.00|$150.29
Groceries - Meat & poultry - $250.00|$189.99
Allowances - $400.00|$1,953.71 [mostly my website]
Transportation - $1650.00|$71.50
Home - property taxes - $1,400.00|$1,356.34
Home - utilities - $350.00 [results not in yet]
Medical Insurance & copays - $350.00|$397.73
Home - miscellaneous - $100.00|$31.74
Internet fraud - $0.00|$7.00 [bank says come in and theyāll reimburse and unfreeze accounts]
Hobbies - $0.00|$76.14 [I put in a pre-publication order I had forgotten about, for a reference book that was ready to ship a month early!]
Home - heat pumps - $350.00|$0.00
Home - front door - $200.00|$0.00
Charity - $0.00|$15.00
Dental Implant - stage 1 - $2,250.00|$0.00
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I bought gas. It was thrilling.
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This week has contained a root canal and our annual homeowners insurance bill. Good thing Iām only tracking food and fuel.
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Went to bank today and had the $7 fee for the bounced scam cheque reversed. Itās good to alert the bank before the scam completes.
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Q: had a bit of $$ from a small inheritance after parents died. Used most of it to pay off debt, even small ones. but now wonder if that was the best move, even though it felt GREAT (pretty much debt free except for very reasonable mortgage). Budgetober has shown me, though, how squeezed I am financially right now, and that will continue for another couple of months (unexpected health care and home expenses including big ticket item of needing to replace incoming electricity to the house - eek! thousands of $!). Spending down savings like crazy. Yuck. Maybe I should have left some of that $$ in savings instead of getting rid of debt? Thanks friends 
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I bought some groceries, and spent some allowance on a pet fox.
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nope, they are very nice clients who paid me today! so tomorrow I will move money out to be given back to the govt at some point, and then we will look to see how much we still need to pull from the EQ bucket to fund next month before we can start putting money back in.
And I made a nifty little spreadsheet calculator to put in how many days I billed for and how that translates into money set aside vs. can allocate as I want.
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Iām actually eager for this next check-in because Iām at a conference for work this week so Iāve incurred no personal expenses and also havenāt had the chance to impulse-buy anything material either.
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+$75 refund for infant CPR course we missed due to birth.
-$750 for Bris
-$129 for nursing bras a size up 
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according to one person our interconnection is a go, and according to the utility we need to apply in another system now 
BUT in an unexpected turn, that person assured us that we ought to get credit for everything weāve produced because of net metering, which we were not expecting, so it may turn out okay anyway! Weāve been thinking we would not get credit and were mad about it, since the install happened in July, when we had nice long days and now weāre into a heating season with increasingly shorter days ( so, producing less while also using more electricity). and I am working my way toward hitting the last goal, I put another $500 into savings when I got paid at the end of last week.
I am still waiting for my partner to reconfirm the bitdefender invite, so I still havenāt actually gotten to look at the credit card. I need to poke him about that.
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