We donāt have sales tax on anything.
Incidentally, our schools arenāt great.
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I donāt think sales tax usually goes to schools? Thatās typically property tax.
Property tax goes to school capital projects and some operations, but sales tax usually contributes to a statewide general fund for other parts of school operations. But also, every state does it differently.
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todayās budgetober livestream is all about how to stop overspending. Live at 11:30 PDT/2:30 EDT
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My slightly late check-in:
Iāve been extra sick this week (Iām in seattle and itās been smokey outside for what, like a week now? and thatās maybe affecting my already feeble health poorly) and my tracking of my food budget this week was ā¦.rough but here it is in all its glory:
- Oct 1: 3x.xx, Vita
- Oct 2: 9x.xx, Shwarma King (doordash, 25 back in cash and 25 back over cashapp)
- Oct 3: Markettime (???)
- Oct 4: Toast, rubinstein bagels: 68.30
- Oct 4: Milstead. 10.xx (psl plus tip)
- Oct 6: Milstead. 9.27
- Oct 7: Milstead. 9.66
- Oct 7: Fred Meyer, 59.80 (dinner, nuun tablets)
- Oct 8: 31.70, Vita (cold brew for week plus mocha)
- Oct 8: Milstead 8.44
Iām going to try to clean this up next week when I get a little more time and actually determine the total amount I spent last week. What I recorded doesnāt cover the ~150ish Iām spending a week on a premade meal service that is the majority of my meals.
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Checking in while the livestream is on!
Yāall I am failing at not eating out alone. Itās been a rough start to the month at work and Iām already almost halfway through my budget: $44/100. I need to plan ahead better for lunches and such the rest of the month so I donāt stop at Taco Time (they have a burrito with pepitos in it!). But also work is calming again so hopefully Iāll get less caught in the āOh crap Iām so hungry and I still have an hour drive homeā trap.
Eating out with friends Iām at $76/200 mostly because it was my chosen brotherās birthday so I paid for a really awesome big dinner for both of us yesterday. I knew this would happen this month so Iām right on track.
Gas went up 
Iāve only filled up the tank once and it was $62. So $62/200 goal.
In fun spending news: I bought my dream slippers and played the coupon code game so I got them for $30 off with 3 codes! I am proud of this.
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Iām not actually following the rules, but I am making an effort to actually track my spending this month, in google sheets because apparently I need my budget app to be Turing-complete 
. And so far Iām keeping on top of it!
I just figured out how to get google sheets to auto-calculate my spending category subtotals (tldr: the function is SUMIF), so thatās already a huge win
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wow i just found this dope place and have been watching livestreams on 2x speed to catch up (also cause my brain wack and I can only watch things on 2x now lmao).
I made a YNAB!!! Iāve been avoiding my budget since I just get a lump sum 2x yearly for grad school (and I donāt have an actual job). Things arenāt as bad as I thought! The ADHD budgeting streams have really helped, and I am trying to avoid impulse purchases. Wish me luck! Idk if this counts as budgetober, but itās significantly improved my quality of life, so i just wanted to say āthank youā somewhere haha! My family has been low income my whole life, and I have never learned about finances formally, so the education Iāve been getting from these streams and the associated content have been invaluable! Will check in next weekend! :0)
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Late Sunday night checkin. My goals are to keep my restaurant spending in check this month and so far Iām on track. Using this as an added incentive to not go out, or pay attention to prices of where to go, has been super helpful for the week.
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Aww your post made me tear up! You are exactly why I do this stuff. feel free to check-in so I can send you stickers!
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Was traveling over the weekend, so very late check-in here 
I donāt think spending was too bad this first week, minus the long weekend trip which counts as vacation spending not regular spending and I feel better splurging on. My main goal is just tracking expenses though whichā¦ is not going so well. I did make a spreadsheet and a Google form for inputting expenses and tried to put in what I can remember, but it doesnāt include a bunch of stuff that partner paid for and some is just estimated amounts since itās still so flipping hard to keep track of cash purchases!
Best estimate of non-vacation spending (for 2 people, 10/1 - 10/5):
Groceries: $27 (not including some beer, amount unknown)
Eating out: $48 (not including takeout Z got, amount unknown but not a lot)
Ubers: $4
Other: $3 (impulse buy of a plant 
)
So, not too bad but then I think we spent ~$400 mostly on food over the long weekend + $300 for flights +$200 AirBnB
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no dude youāre gonna make me cry!!! your livestreams are seriously so helpful (wtf was I doing before, literally none of this needed to be so stressful?!?). I canāt believe your content showed up in my recommended because of your hobonichi streams!!! so grateful I fell into a 2023 hobonichi content hole and that the (occasionally) merciful algorithm goblins directed your stuff my way!!!
here is my 1st (?) check in after much deliberation:
1.) I am trying to form a habit of putting in whatever I buy into YNAB directly after Iāve purchased it. Iāve already set it up with my estimated rent + utilities + essentials for each month, so I should be able to use the rest as discretionary income. I am attempting to save $300 by Januaryās disbursement, just so I know that I can! The rest can be used for miscellaneous fun things >:D Reminder for later: make a savings account! In case itās not painfully obvious, Iāve never saved money before in my life (Iāve been in grad school for a loooooooong time and am a disbursement to disbursement kinda gal) but I think itās important for me to figure this ish out before I hopefully have a Real Job in July.
2.) Iāve learned that I am EXTREMELY SUSCEPTIBLE to a perceived āsaleā. I mean, everyone is to an extent, but three purchases Iāve made this week were based me feeling like I wonāt be able to purchase an item later.
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a small business is closing down and therefore having a closeout-sale (donāt worry, the owner is retiring! v. happy for her!). I ended up buying a fountain pen case from her, which I definitely didnāt need considering at the time of writing, I have two (2) fountain pens. But it was so pretty!!! And I was delirious at 4am so really, this was a lesson in not making purchases in the middle of the night (morning???).
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the yen is down, and is the lowest itās been in a long, long time. this is responsible for the purchases of three otome games that I know for a fact will not go on sale (digitally or otherwise; there is no physical NA/EU release), and I convinced myself that it would be Responsible to use some of my $$$ to buy 'em now! I donāt actually believe this is the responsible choice (I should probably spend it on interview clothes or something?), but now that I can predict how much money I will have in my account after I buy them, I feel much more relieved and not as terrible as I usually do after impulse purchasing things. That said, Iād like to work on curbing this!
3.) Iāve needed to make two "emergency purchasesā in the last week, which Iām hoping wonāt happen again. As above, itās nice to know I can cover them. Before, I was just praying that my credit card would have a stern talking-to with my checking account and they would figure everything out in a cage match or something.
For the rest of october, I am going to attempt a low-buy. The only other expense I can foresee this month is the cost of shipping my goodies from Japan (including my hobonichi haul from last month) ā USA (hopefully ~$50?)! Will check in during the actual check-in time next weekend! :0)
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The yen exchange rate is seriously so dangerous for me because I love clothes and stationary from Japan. I have resisted this far butā¦ mmm there are some nice looking bags there
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Checking in today to admit that I totally fell of the āno spendā wagon yesterday, and back into the evening before. There is a plan emerging in my mind for something I want to do. And these things were for that. And yet they were also quite expensive. What I am telling myself is that I think I remember reading somewhere years ago when I was trying to work on accepting abundance and etc., that money needs to flow, like energy does. And I have just come out of a two-plus year time of a lot of stress, with everything on hold. So I am also telling myself that this might be the time now to actually sell off things, so I get money coming in, as well as sometimes going out, instead of just trying to only āhold onā. But this might all be a nice big delusion. Hm.
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OTC meds and Kleenex are really running up my general household budget. Colds are expensive!
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Iād recommend trying a waiting period for new projects before hitting ābuyā., and a āone project in, one project outā. If you form a new plan and that requires getting things, identify an old project you didnāt finish or are done with, and get rid of (sell/donate/etc) the parts for that, prior to purchasing. You get excited about new plans often, but make sure that you arenāt adding to the stuff in your life that brings you stress and that your investment will actually turn into a new plan.
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This is excellent advice! Thank youā¦ Will print these ideas in big letters and keep them beside my monitor, to remind me. The horse has already bolted on the things from yesterday, but yes, I need to take time, breathe, and close the gate. Thereās a lot going on right now. Need to calm my jets (to mix metaphors).
Thank you!!
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Feel better soon!
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You can also increase the barriers to spending money. Freeze your credit card (wrap it first) in ice, so you have to melt it. Delete your card numbers out of your browser, ebay, or any websites you regularly spend on. Change your password to paypal to something you canāt remember, and stick it in a hard-to-reach place. Just make it that many more steps to curb the impulse spending.
While you wait for the new stuff to arrive, maybe you find any identify ONE project that youāre ready to let go of and actually get rid of it. Even if that means giving it away. Release it, rather than hold onto it for a future day.
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That doesnāt damage the card? Cos thatās a genius plan!