🎃 Budgetober Challenge 22: Stickers Shipping🦇 Fill in Form

[chavala]

@chavala

Goals:
*Figure out an efficient system to track spending when 90% of it is in cash
*Actually track how much we spend this month
*Partner gets paid most of his new salary in USD and part (1/4 or 1/3, I forget) in Egyptian pounds each month, so see if it’s realistic to set a goal of living off just what he makes in pounds. We’ve been told a lot of folks in this job manage to, but that’s just for them and not for a couple

First steps completed. I spent a long time this weekend putting together a shared budget spreadsheet to try to track our cash spending, although we’ll have to see how it works in practice this month. Also tried my best to figure out what monthly recurring expenses we will have:

Rent: $700
Health insurance: $380 (I think the plan we have is more than we need and would love to lower this, but not sure if/when we’d be able to change plans)
Phone plans: $33
Storage unit: $100
Streaming services/subscriptions: Still need to add this up, maybe ~$80/month?
Gas/electricity/internet: Unknown!
Gym (for me): $28
Arabic class (for me): $120

I am roughly estimating that we spent $200 for groceries in September and $200 in transportation (mostly Ubers). Eating out I cannot even begin to estimate.

So very, very roughly I’m guessing that we might spend ~$2200 in October? Not counting two trips that are already planned but will come out of savings.

[Stormbrise]

Let me see I fall under been spending too much on planners, but this is money I get yearly and save for the planner season. So, my goal is to manage grocery spending, and to eat out less. Going to be difficult, since that will require meal planning and prep, since my husband is returning to the office everyday. Which means I will need to be up earlier to prep a lunch. I will try to limit my lunch money to 200 Danish crowns a week on lunch, which means giving up Starbucks and sit down restaurants.

[MagnoliaKnight]

Stickers!!!

October is the month I’m usually saving for, but there is some budget stuff I should consider:

This Budgetober:

• Eating out should stay under $120 for the month (ideally $90, but family is visiting, so let’s go with closer to $30 max per week)
• Groceries under $275 (It’s a restock month, but also need to eat down/refresh my hurricane pantry and reassess how much some meals cost)
• Transport should stay under $120 for the month (may have to get a lyft or two to the doctor’s office & for halloween events)

Non-budget goals:

• Return what needs to be returned
• Sell or give away extra desk
• Come up with & practice an easy cool-weather vegtable-centric meal prep or regular recipe
• Buy November bus tickets

[wholemilk]

Ok I know the checkin day is Saturday but I want to report in the budget that I have planned for the month, and then I’ll report in on Saturday (or maybe the following Tuesday, I’m on a long weekend vacay fri-tues this weekend :))

I make about $4100/check. My non-negotiables are $170/mo car payment, $552.93 loan repayment, $500 brokerage account contribution, $1495 rent, $107 internet, $350 therapy ($175 2x/mo), ~$300 annual subscriptions/insurance payments. The rest, like groceries, vacation, eating out, hobbies, entertainment, all get pretty wiggly and adjusted many times throughout the month. This month, I’m trying to truly estimate how much I need and NOT ADJUST, and ALSO, start contributing half of my monthly expenses on each check just to make my intake, in hopes of being better able to reaaaally aggressively pay off my personal loan, more reliable. The loan, which I took out about 16mo ago to pay off a 22k 14% credit card, is not bad at $14k 9.49% & is the highest loan rate I have (the car loan is $170/mo over 4y at like 2% interest, so I’ll ignore it til the loan is paid off & just pay min). For that reason, because I just want to dump money into paying the loan, I’m not trying to get further ahead that one half of a month. For financial safety, if shit REALLY went south, I would pull from my brokerage account at a loss.

I’ve taken the averages over the last three months, some are outliers (I went to Europe in August!), but it smooths out pretty well over this time. So that’s one column. The next column is October Overall. The next two are “1st check allotted” and “2nd check projected”. The reason that sum(1st) and sum(2nd) do not equal Overall is because I’m trying to sock away another half of half-able things for November. Ugh, I’ve decided I’m not going to post ALL the numbers because this already feels so long! I think I’ll just post some of my negotiables instead - I have like 30 categories so I’ll just pick out some of the wobblier ones. Groceries and Eating Out are definitely the wobbliest, but while $1100 for the two feels high, it’s the average, so even though I’m pretty sure I can do $200/check for both, I’m going to try to be realistic and NOT adjust this later!

CATEGORY                AVG     OCT ALL   1ST         2ND
Groceries	            $600.00	$600.00	 $212.00    $388.00
Eating Out	            $500.00	$500.00	 $213.00	$287.00
Transportation          $338.18	$125.00	 $123.00	$125.00
Hobbies 1 	            $86.50	$100.00	 $100.00	$50.00
Home Maintenance 1 2	$233.33	$200.00	 $100.00	$100.00
Gifts 1	                $282.69	$210.00	 $210.00	$50.00
Vacation	           $1,920.04 $500.00 $341.50	$140.00
Clothes	                $277.79	$320.00	 $320.00	$0.00
Entertainment 1 (2 $6)  $127.79	$200.00	 $150.00	$75.00
Health & Wellness	    $889.12	$185.00	 $135.00	$50.00

Thanks for reading!! Whew, a doozy!

[BrassCash]

Hello! My partner and I of 7,8+(?) years had our first ever budget meeting last week. So I’m feeling like I can declare being ready to participate.

I’ve always had an eye on my spending using spreadsheets and Mint, but never told myself I could not have something because it was not “budgeted” for. I think its time to get intentional because I want some big ticket items like:

• be ready to pay cash to replace our car
• take our first family vacation
• raise our kid (our son is 4 so we really have no idea how expensive his life, education, human growth will be now that we are emerging from the pandemic and putting him in school)

Also, our 6 month emergency fund stopped growing and even has started to dwindle since costs have started to rise. This was my alarm bell.

Thank you for hosting this challenge!

I’m looking forward to getting a better understanding on why our groceries are always a high monthly expense by tracking what we spend. I also plan to cycle through our dry food stores which will be a cost savings in the short term but I will inevitably want to replace… example. our 25lb bag of Bob’s Red Mill oats used to be $19 but I think is closer to $25 now. I imagine those increases will apply to our rice, beans and canned goods.

So my goal is to track our grocery expenses using Lilian’s grocery tracking spreadsheet above.
Then review our spending with my partner so we can decide on a budget and shopping cycle moving forward using groceries as our source of extra savings if we can swing it.

Bonus is finally engaging this forum! I have lurked some before but never felt I had the attention to spare to get involved. The sticker, I think, will somehow solidify I am part of a thing!

[Greyweld]

Oh Lord it’s the 2nd and I spent $30 on a cafe trip and friend gift yesterday and $25 on caramel popcorn today because I’m a sucker for adorable little kids fundraising.

That’s not even counting that I feel like I go to the grocery store daily and somehow spend $50 each trip.

I saw a meme saying “I’m staying home because every time I leave the house I instantly spend $100” and I feel that in my soul.

[rural]

Did some setting up and looking at trends today. Have my spreadsheet ready for Budgetober!

@rural

Finally will figure out if, as I suspect, we need to put a little less into retirement accounts . Or at least see if we spend more than we bring home in October as we did in September. I think fuel costs are getting us now that we’re driving in every day.

On the question of whether we spend more than we take home, it’s close - in August we spent $218.00 more than my takehome (100% of his check is going into retirement funds) and in September we spent $186.02 less than my takehome. That might be close enough for the moment except that we don’t get paid in the summer and so, assuming around a $2k monthly spend ($2080 average over the last two months), we need to be putting away $400 a month for the summer. Or, since we now have only 8 paychecks until summer, $500 a month.

Looks like I need to reduce my 403b contribution by $500 a month; but that would throw off my nice Budgetober comparisons. May wait until next month and reduce it by $575 instead (currently it’s at $1800).

@rural

Will also track fuel purchases, and, bonus points if I have time, figure out if it’s better for us to drive my diesel with much better mpg but much pricier fuel or to drive the truck or the wrangler (gasoline) to work.

On fuel, over the last two fill-ups (only one in October, yesterday) it costs on average 20 cents per mile to drive my diesel Jeep. I’ll get some records from his to compare if I can; his pickup is currently out of commission as he’s not quite through replacing a universal joint and is out of weekend.

We’re spending just under $70 a week on diesel, mostly for commuting. But the weather has cooled off enough in the mornings I’m willing to consider us taking one of his to work (we carpool, and mine is the only vehicle with AC).

@rural

I have no clue what groceries are costing us a month these days, so tracing that is first. Food for people and animals is “groceries.”

I bought groceries yesterday ($90.09 for three species of mammals) and should not need groceries next week, but our big annual event is then, so there will be eating out. And beer.

[katscratch]

I’m in for spending tracking.

Have a few big-ish events this month and need to figure out what the new normal is for $ on these types of things.

Plus figure out the real amount of regular spending, since last year’s numbers are not helpful.

[NewboldOne]

I like Plum. Obviously still getting the hang of it, but already considering one of the monthly paid options for the functionalities it offers, especially the savings pockets. My third bank account has its own version of this, which it calls savings pots, which I use and like, plus also better interest. But for the main two accounts, which is where most of the daily stuff ought to be happening anyway? Plum just makes sense.

I am yet to get back to my spreadsheet, which is honestly the next thing which needs to happen. There’s been a lot of change since I last did it, and I honestly have no idea what I’ve been spending.

In other good news though: I am really feeling energised today, and actually think I can start on the clearing and selling. There’s a posh keyboard I really want, but I know I need to raise the money to pay for it. So. I need to sell some things, and quickly, to get it. Simple as that. And that’s important progress in and of itself also. Just that mental switch. Yay!

Edit to add: Although I ought to be selling to save for the future, oughtn’t I? Not to buy things. But if I buy things to learn from? Hmmm… Need to use the motivation, for certain, but make sure my mind doesn’t trick me.

[natwren]

I am participating! While I’ve gotten better at finding a baseline for my budget, I’m hoping to see how that holds up with inflation (argh), and pay attention to the spending that exceeds my categories (it’s always washi tape and fancy pens…). My favorite thing about this season are the fun autumnal colors and getting to wear sweaters again!

[vlortega]

I absolutely need to join Budgetober!
I love everything creepy and fun! Halloween is my favorite holiday/season. I’m not into horror but I am into oddities, cooler weather and being creepy.

[regular_things]

hi all,

I wasn’t going to participate but just watched the livestream and got motivated to jump in again. plus, I really liked the sticker last year

I haven’t really been budgeting for 2022 and I’m starting to notice it, especially in my emergency fund. oops. So, I’m hoping this will be a good kick in the pants to get back on track. I also want to up my savings for some big trips in the next few years, so I’m hoping to see how far I can stretch my savings and still keep on top of everything.

so, mostly tracking, but I’ll look over everything tomorrow and see if I can put some numbers to things.

[agnm]

Hi! Joining specifically because of Japanese planner/stationery season :))

Tracked last month’s spending, vague USD conversion:
~70 on stationery
~80 on snacks (food outside of meals, like chips or bubble tea delivery)
~30 on gifts

Targets for this month:
~40 on stationery
~30 on snacks
~50 on gifts

I’m pretty good at tracking but need to cut down on spending because imported stuff is really expensive right now.

[TrisPrior]

I should probably do this.

I am uncertain of whether the goal should be sitting down, writing down all monthly expenses including down payment savings, and seeing if there is anything left for nonessentials? Or tracking what I spend on fun/krewe expenses/STUFF?

ETA: the latter might make more sense as my cat expenses are uncertain until I figure out a long term plan to manage Boy Kitty’s tummy issues. Since I don’t know yet whether I’ll be able to transition him back onto the nonprescription food.

[anomalily]

@agnm

Hi! Joining specifically because of Japanese planner/stationery season :))

[raydays32]

Hey hey hey, I’m late to the party but I’d like to participate!
My budgeting goals recently took a hit with inflation & some unexpected price hikes on my initial plan. I’d like to track my spending each week and reestablish a more realistic budget so here’s to hoping I can do that. I appreciate the grocery tracking spreadsheet & may take that into consideration for seeing how to balance my “food budget”.
Maybe not the clearest answer but I’d like to use this month to establish a budget & that’s my goal! I’ll be tracking my own “fixed” spending & be making changes to my “fun” budget based on what I find!
Yay stickers!

[Greyweld]

$25 at a cafe for a very important study sesh.

[cha]

Yes! Stickers!
Also, excellent timing, my partner and I set up a joint budget with its own account two years ago when we bought / moved into this house and recently have been trying to figure out exactly how it ought to be updated. We had a baby who is now in daycare and have also done some house projects and this was the month we were finally going to re-set.
My plan for budgetober:
→ a 6 month look back of our joint account and come up with averages for our big categories.
I did this last week when I should have been prepping for a class (do you want to see the whole thing? I can post it but won’t at the moment, this already feels long ). and the biggies that are changeable / ought to get tracked are:

• Electricity: because we put solar panels on the roof in July and this should be going down, but interconnection and net metering are taking forever to actually happen, so as yet our production is not reflected in the $474 average monthly electric bill :So I need to follow up w the utility again and check on this

• our joint credit card. this is mostly groceries and baby things but also turns out our internet gets paid with this? I lost the log in info and need to find it so I can dig into this more, though if it includes internet ( which I think is ~$125 ish a month?) the $957 average a month isn’t terrible (for the sheer amount of random baby things I have bought I mean).

• our mortgage payment. we should be able to have PMI removed in Nov when we’ve made 24 on time payments and I am so excited for that to happen. $1650 should decrease to $1550, but not in this month, so maybe not applicable.

• My personal spending / savings bucket, which is totally separate from our joint budgeting, but I have spent the last year not saving very much (nothing, pretty much, outside of getting my employer match for my 403b) and I would like to save at least $1000 this month.

[Meowkins]

I totally forgot to share a budget and maybe I should since that is the literal brief.

Current Spending Over Budget Total:

Survival Expenses: $235 / $4,805
Small Pleasures: $0 / $180
Outsourcing Drudgery / Buying Time: $95 / $120
Experiences: $168.15 / $274
Learning & Growing: $106 / $230
Irregular Expenses: $170 / $170

$774 / $5779

If I meet these I will exceed the amount I’m saving towards my e-fund!

[PinkTutu]

$10.34 for 12” pizza. It’s my birthday and we decided to try the new pizza place. It was 50% off!