šŸŽƒ Budgetober Challenge 22: Stickers ShippingšŸ¦‡ Fill in Form

Iā€™m in! This will be my first challenge. My main focus is going to be grocery spending. I know we end up spending way more than we should at the grocery store. Our extra cash should be going to pay off credit cards (we are sooo close!) but we keep using it for groceries, I think. So I am going to write out a budget, keep track of spending, and hopefully get the husband on board.

My favorite part of the Halloween season is the fall leaves and the chill in the air. And getting to watch Hocus Pocus on repeat.

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OK letā€™s do this. I will track baby costs. If baby doesnā€™t come til November, I can still track baby-related purchases made in advance, of which there will be many.

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Looking forward to participating! Iā€™ve been pretty good about sticking to my budget, but hoping to make it through the month without ā€˜WAMingā€™

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Part 2 comes out tonight!

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HOKAY, Iā€™m going to do this. Because my emergency fund is getting rapidly depleted by my FUN instead of just emergencies.

Goal 1: Donā€™t touch the e-fund for one friggin month and put savings in it.

Goal 2: Put [Meowkins magic private dollar amount] into it!

OKAY LETS DO THIS.

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Most of our stuff is on auto-pilot right now. However, I too am in because STICKER.

We are all so predictable, yā€™all.

For earning said sticker: I would like to do detailed tracking for our groceries. That category has been so chaotic this year, and I want to get a better sense of what weā€™re actually spending on. Once I find my category tracking I did previously on groceries ā€“ I know itā€™s somewhere on this forum, where the heck is it? ā€“ I can do a comparison on categories too, to see where weā€™ve had changes.

I. um. also want to look through our wedding prep spreadsheet and make a better budget for that ā€“ I penciled in initial amounts with very little research, and I would like to nail more of this down.

Um. I also need to actually send in my California tax forms instead of just having paid the tax.

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Eeee Iā€™m getting the budgetober excited. Welcome back @Arya506 and welcome @Cltice and @jweed and @wholemilk

Let me know if you need anything in these forum parts

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Definitely willing to try some changes . But I want the ā€˜oldā€™ stickerā€¦ :slightly_smiling_face:
I took a pay cut and pay $180/mo to park (v. $30 at last job). Somehow that worked out in budget without reducing retirement savings. I need to get a realistic split between groceries budget & entertainment (eating out). I also need to work out a realistic amt to set aside for vet bills in the bi-weekly budget. Based on past year, that would be $347/check, which is not possible. Currently use a savings set-aside for vet, but that 5k wonā€™t last forever.

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Iā€™m in :money_mouth_face:

I am about to start a new job and am in the process of starting two businesses and combining finances with my spouse #allthethings :sweat_smile:

For Budgetober my goal is to get a baseline of where my money is going now and figure out how much money I need to reliably bring in via the 2 businesses to be able to quit my full-time job
(also realllly want that sticker)

re: spooky szn faves has got to me putting on my clompy boots and stomping around after the leaves have fallen to hear that special crunchy autumn sound :leaves:

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Ooooh so many new people. Damn I really need to get it together and clarify my goals here :sweat_smile: pre-goal goal: discuss goal with husband, come up with a plan. Stop simply rolling with :sparkles:panic vibes :sparkles: And make a goal.

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This is possible to arrange :black_cat:

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Oh i forgot my favourite thing.

Small children all dressed up. SO CUTE. Pets also.

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Hiiii! I signed up for the forum just for this, having a dedicated event is such a good idea!

I told my partner that the cat-money-book-person was giving out stickers for a budget-thing in October and they were like ā€œHavenā€™t you been talking about wanting to budget more?ā€ So this is perfect!

Iā€™m not exactly sure what to set as a goal though, I almost always take on too much work for myself. A reasonable goal might be just tracking groceries/food/coffee to get an idea of what Iā€™m spending, as itā€™s definitely the thing I spend the most on per month.

Happy to be here (and hello from XOXO @anomalily)!

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Correct, that is my official title.

Hi @xtinak Welcome to the forums and let me know if I can help you find your way around at all.

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Iā€™m in. I stopped tracking expenses maybe August 2020 and am a little scared about what Iā€™ll find when I try to again so Iā€™ve been putting it off. Iā€™m going to track everything this month and decide I donā€™t need to keep tracking in the future if I am comfortable with what I find.

And maybe this year is the year my cat dresses up in the spider costume I bought her 3 halloweens ago. At least I will dress up the toddler as a pumpkin in her hand-me-down costume :rofl:

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Okay okay okay. Iā€™m in! Iā€™ve been spending a lot recently, so I need to have a frugal month. We will not talk about how much money I have spent on bicycle related items this year. :grimacing: ANYWAY. Besides normal bills, I really only want to spend money on groceries and gas this month, but it feels like something always comes up. Hoping to keep that category to a minimum.

Groceries - $300
Gas - honestly, it is what it is. I have a couple of short backpacking trips planned with friends, so weā€™d split gas in those scenarios. Iā€™m going to take a stab and say $100 for the month? But really I canā€™t control much here.
Misc - $100. Because, ugh, life.

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Hey @anomalily is the first check in next Saturday the 8th?

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Yup but feel free to use this Saturday to state any goals!

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Did anybody else buy a bunch of things youā€™ve been meaning to get yesterday so it wouldnā€™t be in October? :blush:

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Iā€™m inā€¦holding my breath. Hubby and I sat down and drew up a proposed budget this month. We are actually going to be in the hole because of anomalous expenses. That is, expenses that happen irregularily or just once a year or in our lifetime.

The budget looks like thisā€¦

$2250 dental scans and initial payment for tooth implant
$250 for once every four months meat & poultry stock up
$1500 car maintenance
$200 paint metal front door
$250 have heat pumps serviced
$1400 one of our twice annual property tax payments
$400 personal allowances
$7.95 bank charge
$500 groceries ( + the $250 above for meat/poultry)
$350 utilities
$350 medical insurance + copays
$100 dining out (itā€™s our anniversary this month)
$150 transportation

Sub-total = $7707.95 CAD. BUTā€¦we already have money saved up for most of these expenses. In fact, $5600 is already in savings and earmarked for these expenses. Soā€¦

$7707.95 - $5600 = $2107.95 to actually come out of this monthā€™s paycheque. We can manage that just fine.

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