Iāve managed to update my budget sheets and Iāve also started the Catās Guide to Money and the first thing there, which is to hand-write expenses (Iām doing income too) as you go which Iām hoping will solidify a better habit so Iām not catching up every week/month. So far so good there and Iām feeling rather confident with my budget sheet updates and some changes I made to help me feel a bit better about my inconsistent income. Woohoo! 
5 Likes
Food basics -241
Walmart delivery - 67.83
Hakka delivery - 104
Food= 413
Clothes = 303.19 (outer and midlayers for kids)
2 Likes
Saturday Check in,
Spent a good chunk of the Misc already with my friend visiting but going to hunker down and be as stingy as possible the next couple weeks to make up for it. Was planning on going to the MA independent comics thing in a couple weeks, I think Iām going to skip it, or if I go Iām not going to buy anything, just go to be in the atmosphere and write down the name of new books I want to read and get them piecemeal over the internet, still buying from the indie shops not Amazon so they get their money, but one at a time.
Grocery bill is on track, savings goal is on track, everything else is on track!
5 Likes
Iāve spent $543 on groceries and household stuff. Definitely more than I wanted to spend in a two week period. Iāve kept on budget for going out to eat though. Only spent $93.33 out of $100 budgeted.
5 Likes
Saturday Check-In
Iāve realized going whole hog into budgeting from my starting point of absolutely ZERO wasā¦too ambitious so Iāve set a realistic goal to set a budget for my personal discretionary funds which is where I have the least visibility and have the most agency over. If I get in the habit of reining in that spending I suspect itāll be easier to increase my savings rate since this category is the most unmonitored black hole for me
SO my budgetober goal is to set a personal allowance for the month which I am capping at $500
Week 1
- Target $30.69 (paints and acrylic paint sealer)
- Overtone $37.99 (color depositing conditioner for spoopy witchy black hair)
- Scrap PDX $40.00 (donation + wire for needle felting + leather scraps + tonsss of letraset letters)
- Spindelicious roving to spin $33.00
and within week 1 I have spent $141.68 meaning Iāve got $358.32 remaining which is mostly spoken for considering Iām going to OFFF (oregon flock and fiber) & have a sugaring appt scheduled before the end of the month
Iād ideally like to not spend $500/mo on random things but feel like Iām taking an important first step here in actually examining things and asking myself āis this really worth it?ā or "can I borrow or rent this equipment instead? soā¦progress 
9 Likes
My goal was to track my october budget which I have been doing but I wonāt post it today as I do not have access to it currently (visiting grandparents and left it at home, tracking paper-style!) Will post the first 2 weeks next check in instead.
3 Likes
Eating Out: $41 this week to cover ordering my sick dad some curry, and then getting myself a workday sandwich and two kolaches
Groceries: Around $45, includes a six pack of beer and the weekly dinner with my brother. Also, I found out that I just needed to toss some of the hurricane stock.
Transport: $0! Iāve managed to walk to where I need to go, or hitch some rides (one of which led to me reconnecting with old theatre bud)
Non-budget goals: ā¦ No progress. Iāll try and knock one of those goals out this weekend
But I do feel good about avoiding buying a new video game before the steam sale next week.
4 Likes
Well, the good news is that because weāre babysitting this weekend Iām not going on the local yarn crawl, which I totally would have done otherwise.
(And I doubtless would have spent more than I did applepicking!)
6 Likes
IāM HERE CHECKING IN IN-TIME FOR STICKERS YES!? 
| Week 1 non-food, non-house, non-essential spendings: | |
|---|---|
| gym membership | $73 |
| video game | $64 |
| charity | $44 |
| hair ties (the invisibobble power ā LIFECHANGING for me), eyebrow pencil | $14 |
| subscription to the NYTimes | $9 |
| TOTAL | $203 |
this is not terrible so far! the gym membership only happens once, and I plan on selling back the video game on the used market after Iām done 
6 Likes
Week one: no chips bought. I did eat the leftover popcorn DH bought the kids when they went to a sporting event but I think thatās within bounds.
7 Likes
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.
- Last month I decided October would be a good time for a no spend on stationery/art supplies. Well my brain interpreted that as āyou need to buy ALL THE THINGS NOW since you wonāt be able to next monthā. Ridiculous, I know, but I didnāt realize that was happening until it got out of hand. I rarely do well with all or nothing type things, so rather than commit to the no buy this month Iām just going to focus on the above two goals and 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.
Hope everyone else had a good first week! I feel refocused and ready to try again this week.
13 Likes
Week 1: Total spent (including rent/large one-offs): $2435. Total spent on Travel: 342.23, consisting of 2 plane tickets (one bought with points), one bus ticket, and vacation food. To be bought in the vacation category this month, food over the next 3 weekends of visiting people, and one more bus ticket.
Most painful expense: paying to fix my e-bike for a battery issue and discovering the manufacturer has a 1/5 rating on the batteries specifically.
5 Likes
okaay.
tracking has been going good! after spending the week thinking about it, the two areas iām struggling with are impulse treat purchases (coffee, pastry, ice cream, coffee, coffee, coffee) and hobbies/clothing/fun stuff i want right now. So impulse purchases large and small.
so my goal number one is going to be to not dip into my travel/emergency savings to pay for impulse purchases stuff. So far so good!
this weekās challenge was that I really want a new pair of shoes. But Iām re-dying my hair in mid october (bleach, fashion colour 
) and getting a medium sized tattoo in early November, so I really should be saving that money for that. I donāt need new shoes. My mom gave me a bit of cash last weekend that would cover half the shoes and Iām currently using that to fuel my online window shopping, but hey, I could also use that money for my hair or tattoo.
goal number 2: less impulse coffee/etc treats. only two treats this week, which is good, compared to other weeks this past summer. I think I will try to stick to only 2 treats per week.
5 Likes
Week 1 Check in!
I did pretty good this week. My budget was Rent - 750; Food - 75 (Groceries - 50 / Eat Out - 25); and Gas - 100.
I spent 750 on rent, only 16.36 on groceries (woot!), 29 on eating out, and 70.19 on gas. My victories this week are spending less than expected on groceries & gas [shout out to my parents for letting me use their fred meyers fuel points!!]. My challenge was the impulse milkshake I got as a reward for grocery shopping. I try to keep my budgeting around eating out vs groceries somewhat flexible, but I am trying to reserve eating out as a more social activityā¦
For Week 2:
Food - 75 (again, groceries 50 & eating out 25).
Cat Food - 25 (my house is running low and itās my turn to buy)
A trip to the Japanese Gardens with a friend - 20 (for admission fee)
I predict that my grocery bill will be larger than expected, but I will remain optimistic! Also slowly realizing I need to actually go buy clothing that I can wear in autumn weatherā¦ hoping to put that off another week though.
4 Likes
I hope itās ok that I checked in a day early 
3 Likes
Are you not adding in the tax on your food categories, or is Oregon one of those civilized places Iāve heard of that donāt tax groceries?
1 Like
Oops, I forgot to check in yesterday because I have only done one grocery trip this month and I couldnāt find the receipt. So far in October we are at:
grocery: 21.98
pet - dog food: 12.90
pet - cat medical: 730.26 (dental surgery + 2 doses Bravecto)
As I have a work trip upcoming I am thinking of trying to limit grocery spending and eat down the fridge/freezer, just in case there is a power outage while I am gone. So grocery might be artificially low until thatās over and done with.
The feline dental was $$$ but expected. It will push up my monthly spend, but it is a lumpy expense, so thatās ok.
I expect there will need to be a propane delivery this month too ($$$ 
). Last year my first fill was Oct 1 and I havenāt had one yet this year. Iām still above 50 on the dial but this week I started having to run the heat in the morning for a few hours each day, and last night we had freezing temps for the first time this fall.
1 Like
Oregon doesnāt tax ANY purchases. No sales tax at all (well I suppose gasoline, but no clothes, food, restaurants, anything like that). Balanced by the high income tax though- one of the highest in the country.
ETA this leads to people driving down from Washington to shop btw- Portland has a huge cluster of stores and restaurants right on the border, on an island in the middle of a river lol.
7 Likes
Well I just went over by $4 on my out to eat budget. 
1 Like