Checking in for week 3, sorry about the late check-in but the weekends this months have been a little hectic.
Total spending for the month: $2831
Total Vacation Spending: $674
I think Iāve learned here that even though eating out the whole weekend feels astronomically expensive, realistically theres a cap to how much food money you can spend in a weekend
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Week 3 check-in: total spend so far $2435.41 (includes $1389.97 of flights to visit new cousin across country and will hopefully be reimbursed for husbandās flight as he will work over there). This number is starting to scare me but will keep tracking and assume this is new baseline (without flights) for going forwardā¦
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Traveling to MX for week 4 of Budgetober, so maybe I should build a travel budget and submit for week 4?
BTW, impressed with yāallās budgets and transparencyā¦ thanks!
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Late check-in, the weekend was kind of crazy.
Iāve been listening to podcasts and reading up on a lot of stuff related to handling the food and fuel price increase and my partner and I cooked up a weeks worth of food yesterday so we have less potential of fresh produce going to waste if we donāt get to it right away.
Itās been really crazy how much things have gone up and Iām still trying to figure out some alternative options to lessen our food spending and for now, just making sure we record what weāre spending on to be more aware of the food side of things and get a better baseline of how much weāre spending more specifically (we know aprox how much a grocery run usually costs, but we werenāt tracking it specifically, nor categories.) Being gluten free out of necessity (adverse health reactions) and have to avoid lactose limits a lot of our options but weāll get there.
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Checking in late because I was running a con all weekend 
(which is also why my spending on games is so high)
Level up: figured out how to add ātransaction clearedā checkboxes, conditionally format dollar amount cell to be green if clear
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yesss yea
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Shopping update! Survived the mall (barely) and spent almost all of my clothing sinking fund budget. I am reminded of how anxiety-producing clothing shopping can be for me-- between making decisions, spending money on myself and the dysmorphia-inducing changing rooms-- I am definitely exhausted. But I like everything I bought, and my cat is having an amazing time jumping in and out of the shopping bags now that Iām back home.
Proud of myself.
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Iām running in the Marine Corps 10k this weekend, which is going to be $$ in gas, tolls (hates), and eating out.
Week 4 goals:
Groceries: $70
Gasoline: $210 (4 tanks of gas)
Tolls: $60
Allowance: $150
Total: $490
Iām going to get that fuckinā finishers medal, and itās going to be mine, and I am going to wear it all the way home.
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Spent $9.99 CAD for KN95 masks today while getting my free flu shot.
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Used stamps I already had kicking around the house to mail an oversized letter mail item to a friend. This is so unusual for me that without thinking I asked for a receipt from the mail clerk. We looked at each other and laughed. No money paid means no receipt needed! Duh! 
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$45 for groceries
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Weāve heard from two different people at the utility that it should be all squared away and we should get credit at least from the beginning of Sept applied to our next bill!
I am still waiting on my partner to actually confirm my access to the bitdefender acct, so that is so far a fail. The baby has been sick and its sort of sunk us for the last week. Happily I have plenty of sick time to burn at the moment (I have worked here for 16 years and accrued a lot while not taking much, and it never expires because they donāt ever pay it out, but it is nice to have and one of the few bright spots about my job lately, so I am trying to be grateful for it).
I get paid tomorrow and should have enough left to round myself up to $1k of savings for this month, even though I have already overspent my allowance by $20 and I am not going to let it stop me from buying halloween candy when I go to the pharmacy to get my booster in an hour.
As a nod to having overspent my allowance I am not going to entertain halloween costumes I canāt cobble together from my current wardrobe. I think I can pretty easily either be a harfoot or a land girl without too much effort. even less effort is the fleece dino onesie I will probably wear to the daycareās pumpkinfest on saturday if it isnāt too warm to be dressed entirely in fleece. See, lots of options. Its just that a new costume I havenāt quite figured out yet would likely be even more fun, right? gah, I am terrible.
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Adding up totals for this past week early because we leave for vacation tomorrow morning, so this is it for regular spending through to the end of the month.
Week 4, 10/23 - 10/27 (for 2 people)
Groceries: $0
Eating out: $43
Transportation: $14 (including scheduled Uber to the airport tomorrow morning)
Other: $38 (surprise ER visit!)
Short, low-spend week. Although technically this week we also paid ~$700 for Novemberās rent and ~$1,400 for medical bills from July, so in another sense not a low-spend week at all 
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First two paychecks came today. I went grocery shopping this morning. Last two paychecks come Monday. I think Iāll call a halt to Budgetober, because from here on Iām working with Novemberās money. I donāt anticipate any spending between now and Tuesday anyways. Maybe $5 for the collection plate if I go to church.
So hereās the final tally for October ā¦
Total October expenses = $3286.37
Totally within income for the month. Very happy with this.
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Saturday, October 27th is the fourth weekly check-in, but you can wait all the way through November 1st if you like, and do the whole month at once. 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, an admin will get you a special-edition week 4 budgetober badge.
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Me first! Iāve spent $605 on my business this month. Iāve gone through a printing process for greeting cards, I have enough packaging to sell them at markets, i just need to look at posting options to put them up on Etsy. Iāve ordered items from a POD site that Iām using to check how the designs look on t-shirts and stickers.
I have $395 left. I think I have just enough time to maybe get some prints done ahead of some markets, so i will focus on that over the next week. (And if I donāt, well, I have prints to sell next year.)
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Goals for Budgetober:
- I want to track what Iām spending in order to see where I might be overspending or can cut back to make sure Iām ready for student loan payments to start back up.
- I want to physically write down what Iām spending. Iāve noticed I tend to impulse purchase more when Iām anxious. I think stopping to write it down will help curb some of that- Iāll be forced to stop and think for a second.
- try to avoid unnecessary spending.
Week One Check-in
Failed miserably. Itās be a rough week and anxiety has been through the roof. I forced my self to look at my statements and Iām so embarrassed. I think checking in to day has been a good wake up call because I donāt want to have this feeling next Saturday. I also realised yesterday that I should probably be saving my receipts while i try to figure out where my money goes, particularly at the grocery store and target. Having one total isnāt helpful when you bought beer, snacks, cleaning stuff, shampoo in addition to groceries. Also going to start carrying around a separate tiny notebook for this. Part of the reason I wasnāt writing anything down was because I didnāt want it in my bullet journal/everyday carry.
Week 2
Slightly better this week. Saved all my receipts this week, but havenāt looked at them yet. Spending $20 on matcha powder last week turned out to be a better investment than predicted, not only saving money not buying coffee when I go into the office, also not stopping anywhere else since āwell Iām out alreadyā. Still doing unnecessary spending, I think this week Iāll focus on unsubscribing to promo e-mails and taking a look at my patreon pledges. Most of my unnecessary spending came from seeing a promo e-mail about a sale. Last Sundayās live stream was very helpful for me, I want to go back, listen again, and take some notes. I watched a few Hannah Louise Poston videos too on impulse spending/doing a no buy that gave me a lot to think about. New goal for this month (in addition to the existing ones) is to set rules for a no spend in november.
Week 3
I was sick pretty much all week and had zero energy for anything. Sucks for being able to do things, but great for budgetober. I still havenāt gotten into the habit of writing things down or setting up a new budget in ynab. I had one big purchase this week, but it was planned- the new AnniePlans x AuraEstelle A6 planner and the zippy covers for the weeks. I have been saving for a wallet that could fit the weeks in it for almost a year at this point! I found a good writing prompt/exercise that I hope will help with avoiding impulse spending (from a fellow journal lover, the notebook therapy example really hits home).
Week 4
Posting early since Iām going out of town for a few days and wonāt be able to provide an update before Tuesday. Another okay week, used the journaling prompt I mentioned last week to help with impulse spending though I did make 4 unnecessary purchases. I did resist a few big ones though (new Archer & Olive Journal, stickers, and makers) so baby steps I guess. Between checking my account, watching the packages come in, and reporting here, Iām thoroughly embarrassed about my current anxiety spending and am to take some actionable steps (no buy, accountability, journaling). I want to think about what those steps are over the weekend, but I will report back on Tuesday once I figure out where in the forum something like that could go.
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and when I say embarrassed I mean deeply ashamed and donāt want to talk to my partner about it. They havenāt said anything and itās not that theyād judge or be mean about it, Iām just too in my own feelings about it. Might be worth noting I was raised catholic- bring on all the guilt and finding it easier to confess online to strangers than face to face lol
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I spent Ā£42.94 on more keyboard things yesterday and today. Bugger 
Sundayās livestream is just me carving a pumpkin and talking about economic stuff maybe
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