Iām always in for stickers!!
Last year was my first budgetober and it was a big eye opener. Hopefully no surprises this year since iāve been keeping up with YNAB. Main goal is to eat in more often and keep my restaurant budget in check. I do not enjoy cooking that much, so weāll see how i do.
Iām starting a little late, but my goal is to re-do/update my current budget sheets, and stick to it, updating it weekly for the rest of the year so I have a better baseline and start ingraining the habit better. (I also just paid off a source of debt, so while I have dreaded student loans still, Iām starting with a cleaner slate than usual and am trying to turn the celebratory mood into motivation to review everything.)
First general household spends today. Kleenex and panty liners, what thrilling purchases 
$20 even.
Going to have a hard time updating Saturday since itās both our big annual event and the Womenās March. Does it have to be Saturday or just sometime over the weekend?
Finding it tough to stop spending money. Each time I think Iāve sorted it, it sneaks back. Itās been a busy, and not an easy week, so I havenāt yet updated my spreadsheet. I do think doing so will help me face reality. That said, I have managed to put some savings into the Plum account, as well as my usual savings place. So thatās good. Just need to be strong, and sustain the effort as much as I can.
hello hi Iām checking in right now because itās when Iāve got time for it
Budget:
Campus food: $56.50
School payment: $500
Little treats: $12.50
total spending:
Campus food: $26.05 (did super great this week because of Yom Kippur and not being on campus 2/4 days this week)
School payment: $552 (was more expensive than I anticipated AND I had to pay a $15 fee)
Little treats: $0! Did not even succumb to the intense after YK-service McDonaldās urge (there was a potluck break fast!!! we brought bread)
I tallied it up and itās a shock. 7 days into October and we have already spent $410.18 on groceries. Under $1000 isnāt going to work for usā¦
$410 has us at $58/day (and I am not including eating outā¦ 
). Maybe we can target $45/day?
There are 4 humans + 1 cat. We have some work to do to make up for week one 
Letās make that official.
Grocery Budget: $1395 for the month of October
I was going to track the grocery spend in more detail but we are also doing a challenge this month in our home to try and keep the kitchen bench clear and I left the receipts on the bench so Mr Pancakes tossed them.
We have spent $640 on groceries and $200 on cafes and takeawayā¦ At least 
$270 was a āsnacks, frozen food & nappiesā run
$50 was blueberries. No regrets.
Iām unsure how to deal with eating out because it seems like a cheat way for me to come in under budget for groceries but just spend more the money elsewhere 
We spent $200 on a dinner out on the weekend which doesnāt count because it was a planned dinner out but if we spend $50 getting takeaway mid week because we are too tired to cook, that should count right? Then there is all the lunch foods. When Mr Pancakes works from home he goes out to get lunch and Iām not going to be thrilled eating leftovers on toast when he has delicious Japanese take away or bahn mi so I get food tooā¦
This has happened to us and has made Ponderās cafe run turn into 3- 4 drinks and snacksā¦ 
Hi hi. I am here. I paid for cleaners and take out due to the stress of an emergency medical situation in the family. So I am going to try to account for that in other places! For exampleā¦ doing my laundry in my parents house! HA. But also chipping away at the āSmall Pleasuresā category, because having a cleaning person was pretty awesome. I donāt want this to count as a budget redoā¦ for me, the budget re-do is if I have to change the [MAGIC NUMBER] that goes into e-fund. So that would mean the ātotalā number of expenses overall changesā¦ Is that okay?
I also used my budget and didnāt buy the video game I wanted to play. I have so many video games. I do not need another video game.
Um yeah so here is the check in I guess:
Total spent:
Survival Expenses: $3,652 / $4,805 (That rent and that daycare lolz)
Small Pleasures: $41.34 / $180
Outsourcing Drudgery / Buying Time: $368.74 / $368.74
Experiences: $168.15 / $274
Learning & Growing: $151.74 / $230
Irregular Expenses: $0 / $170
$4,381 / $5779
ITāS ONLY THE END OF WEEK ONE, EEP (Oh - i know Sat is check in day but Iām usually with fam on check in day and dont wanna do this if its not actually procrastinating from work)
Checking in early because Iām doing this tech sabbath thing tomorrow. I found a baby costs calculator estimation tool thingy. I think Iām going to sit down and look at it in more depth with DH this weekend so we are at least working off of a baseline expectation and maybe we can even mock up a few ranges. Posting here in case this is helpful for anyone else!
Using that calculator i would spend about 350 a month on baby stuff minus daycare cost. I have a lot already and baby is 1 month.
I think this month i will be under.
No expected diaper costs and we have most of the newborn supplied so the one time expenses wonāt be for a while.
Medical may be more but will be tracked separately.
So far i have spent zero.
We got take out once this month so far. We will again tomorrow but with a gift card.
All Iām tracking for this is baby, medical, and number of times eating out.
We did a big grocery stock-up at TJs. Because we were planning to host an event on Tuesday, we bought a ton of snacks. And thenā¦ the event was canceled because of Shenanigans. This means that I have been eating salmon dip on crackers as a substantial portion of my meals this week. I expect snack proportionality to go somewhat down as the month carries on.
| Category | Cost |
|---|---|
| Produce | 41.41 |
| Pre-prepped meals | 51.77 |
| Meat | 33.72 |
| Snax | 68.03 |
| Dairy | 12.27 |
| Pantry | 31.24 |
| Coffee | 17.98 |
| Wizard booze | 39.96 |
| Dia booze | 10.99 |
| Beans-n-grains | 21.12 |
I have not yet touched wedding budget or literally just PRINTING AND SENDING FORMS TO THE FTB. whoops.
This is very similar to my goal for budgetober- I want to physically write down 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. Good luck- excited to see Iām not the only one highly motivated by stickers!
Saturday, October 8th is the first weekly check-in. 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.
For most of you, October 8th is tomorrow! (If youāre in Australiasia, then today is check-in day!)
After you post your check-in, myself or @Smacky will get you a special-edition week 1 budgetober badge. If you still havenāt gotten your badge by Sunday, please bat signal me (@ me) and Iāll make sure you do!
Challenge: trying to decide how to categorize the costume purchases I made for bday and Christmas gifts for Latte. Usually I use āgiftā for gifts for other people? And stuff for her has traditionally been dumped into āgeneral householdā, but I also havenāt usually gotten her gifts for those events because she was so young and I just wrapped random stuff for her (and she was showered with stuff by grandparents). And Husband and I donāt do gifts for each other so it never came up I guess Iāll do it under gift? Thatās not cheating and avoiding spending in my āwatchedā category is it??
Iām lurking in the Budgetober thread
I think if this is your decision that you want to categorize this way moving forward, thatās valid. And if you try that and it doesnāt work well for you, thatās fine.
If you are planning to or think you will change your mind or would categorize differently if not for Budgetober rules you have set, then youāre being evasive. But I donāt think you are.
Thatās how Iād think about it.
Oct 7 check-in
I have received my first money from a contract invoice. Some moved aside for taxes, the rest kept in chequing so we donāt need to move more from the cash buffer this month
I have not invoiced the day from Sept for the longer term contract and Iām required to invoice monthly. So I need to figure that out this weekend.
So part of this month is figuring out how to manage with inconsistent amounts and 30 day net after invoice payments.
