You might not want this level of tracking, but I separate out “treats” from my regular “groceries” category. I put things that are pure pleasure/impulse in the treats category, like chips, sweets, and kombucha.
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Week 4 Check-In:
I’m starting a habit, ya’ll! I looked at my budget and checked my transactions lined up every day this week. Woo! I was even on top of paying someone back for spotting me food when I forgot my wallet in a 24 hr turn around (typically I forget and pay them back waaaayyy laater). Ya know, there might be something to this budget thing. 
I’m saving for my car registration, even though it’s not much it’s something. I need to use my magic wand this week because I totally overspent what I budgeted for buying cards for the holidays. Who knew holiday cards were so expensive?!
Next week’s goal: Try to stretch out my grocery budget for the full week with the inclusion of paying for making a birthday dinner. We’ll see what magic I can pull off with $20 and a taco bar for 5 people.
I’m not entirely sure what a badge is? So maybe I have it?
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Nevermind! I figured it out! Thank you! 
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Week 3:
- Grocery: $553.73/$800
- Baby: $2,007/$2,000
- Giving: $2,325/$2,000
I spent $150 this week on farmers market tamales, produce, bread, lactation tea, kitty tea, and chocolate almonds. Stopped myself from a grocery order yesterday – even though we’re out of milk, we have plenty of other things to eat. I need to remember this trick after Budgetober. Some of the slack in the budget will go to making soups for 2 friends who just had babies and have been a great support system for me (it’s like dominoes).
Baby gear purchased this week includes various slow-flow nipples and bottles, the formula supplement he’ll need, bassinet sheets bc the ones I originally ordered aren’t coming for a few weeks, and a Konny cloth carrier for indoors in addition to the more structured Colugo one I previously picked up on eBay. I’ll return the unused bottles/nipples if a certain type clicks immediately. Hopefully this is an unusually spendy month to get ready to bring him home. $7 over budget, I can live with that.
I have no words about this US election but decided to throw dollars at it instead.
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Whoops, no. We’re at $722.15. I don’t anticipate shopping any more for the month, but I’ll check in next Friday, obviously, for the end of the challenge.
In my defense, the Racho Gordo Bean Club opened up and I’ve been waiting for a year to sign up, so if that hadn’t happened, we would have been slightly under $700. But, you know, BEANS.
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Yes, worth it!
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This week I spent $44 on a large local produce box plus a good amount of local bread through our soon to open neighborhood food co-op. Also about $12.50 on vital wheat gluten and some nuts and seeds from the local vegan grocery store. Still under budget on groceries by about $25 and don’t plan to buy much if any more.
I also used my takeout budget to go in with Sweaty on Philly Vegan Restaurant Week takeout, which was a great decision.
All other spending was automated bills.
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We’re supposed to move the big furniture tomorrow. The contractor still hasn’t started installing the floors. They’re there now, all stacked up in boxes, but that is definitely unhelpful. I am so frustrated at the inefficiency of it all: We waited to move to try and get things done ahead of time, and decided to hire out part of it so we felt sure we could get it all done, and it is still going to end with us piling everything into the basement for at least a week and having to live in a construction zone. ugh. I did at least get the ceilings in the livingroom and kitchen scraped, and most of the first floor painted. We bought minimal groceries this week because we’re moving: time to eat all the weird things from the back of the freezer!
So, expenditures this weekend will include: day rental of a truck ( est of $150 with gas), paying our friends for a used washer and dryer ($400) and probably celebratory take out ($40? Maybe more if we’re feeding helpers as well as ourselves), and then a stock up grocery run, which will probably be at least $100. Its going to be an expensive few days, and I am bummed that I am entirely out of discretionary money already, but all of this can comfortably come out of my ‘spending’ account ( a savings account set aside for short term needs) so it will be fine, I am just being miserly and wanting to keep that account level and not dip into it.
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Title of book that was interesting enough for you to (presumably) purchase it in hardcover, please? (I like books.)
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Week 3: I had to dig around for records, but I have now set up a spreadsheet for the challenge, which should help. I get $25 credit back from Week 1 since Walmart refunded the useless plastic. Still need some clear plastic for that hoop house/greenhouse, but not today given it’s 80 degrees out there.
The pipe is for the greenhouse to protect the pepper bed once it gets cold. It should last a couple years at least, and the PVC frame part will last longer. It’s very moveable, too.
We’ve decided to invite some friends over for a socially disctanced bonfire on Halloween. Only brave sorts who don’t mind going pee in the woods because we’re not opening the house. So we’re supplying dinky flashlights. Don’t much want to share food, either, so thinking about that. Will offer pointy sticks and marshmallows at least; can’t think of a good way to do hot dogs without sharing germs. Definitely open to suggestions.
I did a second Walmart pickup because I did a full 12-hour glucose curve on the cat at our vet’s suggestion and used up all his test strips. But this also gave me a second try at chocolate ice cream, and I got some!
Finally: We’re paying by the month for Prime. Annually would be a better deal. But I keep thinking we’ll probably cancel. But then we don’t. What to do?
| PVC pipe | $56.23 |
|---|---|
| Insulin (cat) | $89.79 |
| Walmart 1 | $110.59 |
| Walmart 2 | $56.25 |
| Fuel | $26.91 |
| Vet appointment | $35.00 |
| Prime | $12.99 |
| Total | $387.76 |
Walmart trips
Walmart 1 breakdown
| People food | $103.07 |
|---|---|
| Hoop house supplies | $7.52 |
| Total | $110.59 |
Walmart 2 breakdown
| People food | $24.94 |
|---|---|
| Bonfire supplies | $9.82 |
| Diabetic supplies (cat) | $19.44 |
| Tax | $2.05 |
| TOTAL | $56.25 |
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The suspense, IT CONTINUES:
-$365.12/$400 food EEP
-$35.72/$50 clothes (unchanged)
-$72.23/$60 household (unchanged)
-$99/$150 recreation/health (unchanged for now, but I have an optometrist appt on Tuesday…)
-$41.25 misc (haircut! 7 inches off lolol)
This will be down to the wire - I think I have enough food that I can stay within the grocery budget and only get supplemental things 
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Week 3 Check-in 
| Spending | 2176/2327 |
|---|---|
| Grocery | 436/500 |
| Take out | 112/160 |
| Bills and Utilities | 617/617 |
| Home Needs | 200/200 |
| Home Wants | 436/450 |
| Pet | 375/400 |
This week I didn’t leave the house much. I got some cleaning supplies for the house. All my budget lines are pretty tapped. Luckily we’re pretty stocked with food so hopefully this week’s grocery shop will stay minimal. I better go when I’ve just eaten. 
Proud of keeping take-out under budget!
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okay. well. this month has been more of a “Lat At Least Tracks What They Spend” rather than “I MUST DO A BUDGET AND KEEP IT”
Oct 1st-3rd: $32.20. categories: charity, health, skool
Oct 6th-12th: $107.64. notable purchases: $37 on Pusheen, spent $20 on a hobby I have mostly stopped enjoying (possible depression, possibly just not into it anymore), and $35 on a purchase for work that will get calculated out at the end
Oct 13th-19th: $121.25. notable purchases: spent $50 on a specific type of box. also an unexpected $15 for OMD, which i am not upset about. and another $16 for work
Oct 20th-now: $54.59. notable: another big work purchase and another big skool purchase. also a small skool purchase (renewing the server I own). I also paid $10 for a crowdcast last night to avoid watching the debate, which went mediocre because it ended before the debate was over and I am a little peeved about it.
so i spent $315 total this month, and I budgeted about $500 total to spend until next year. so this isn’t… great…but I was very stressed… and am still very stressed…
BUT I also MADE about $350 from work and from selling things on Mercari and for running a conference (that I got to pay our very own anomalily to speak at!!!). AND I completed my “put 20% of your income in savings” challenge and have a very nice emergency nest egg for next semester. so TECHNICALLY, I made $35 this month.
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Week 3 Update:
Groceries: $537.11 / $600
Restaurants: $238.86 / $250
Today I sold our level 2 car charger to a coworker for $400 so that is another $400 in extra income that we weren’t planning on this month. We are at approx $1500 in extra income for the month, plus a 3 paycheck month. This is getting a bit crazy and Mr E wants to splurge a little bit on fancy expensive fish from the fish market and/or another date night from a pricy restaurant, so I am anticipating that we will actually go over budget. But we have extra income to make up for it!
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Week 3:
I reviewed our YTD charitable donations and was astonished to discover we are donating 10.9% of our after-tax income! My goal had been to work up to 10%, but I guess we are very much on track. We will likely have a final end of year donation or two in December, but otherwise feeling very happy where we are at.
Also I want to calculate the pre-tax percentage to see how that changes the number.
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Three weeks in I’m already seeing adjustments that I will note for future budgets. In fact I’ve started outlining November’s budget based on what I’ve learned from this past month.
I didn’t spend anything on my from my fitness category this week and I have roughly half of what I’m expecting to need for holiday gifts so far.
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[quote=“LadyDuck, post:220, topic:2456, full:true”]
Week 3
I’ve updated Ponder on what our spending looks like this month and the last 2 years. It’s really obvious from our food spending when I have been unwell and when COVID happened! I’m looking forward to paying more attention to what we’re spending and why over the rest of this month and the next few months.
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Ok, this week was just awful in terms of spending and I blew up my whole budget. This is probably been our highest spend month since Covid-19 hit. Also, I finally upgraded to the new YNAB so I don’t have comprehensive records for the month any more. So, it looks like I’m out for the month.
We’re still on track for dining out and birthday gifts, but way over in household as we have been tackling projects. We also got flu shots, did home maintenance, did car maintenance and got a Lovevery subscription for the kids because he keeps learning all the toys quickly and we wanted an easy solution to make sure we were keeping him stimulated with developmentally-appropriate toys.
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I was at work all week, it was my turn to buy beers at the airport on the way home so I spent $22 and then I also took my friend out for dinner for her birthday, another $35. Im still under budget for the month. So im happy with it.
I have also updated my budget and direct debits and increased my monthly charitable donations and increased voluntary superannuation contributions.
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Actually updating on time, ish…I took a long nap this afternoon so I’m still conscious and am still calling it Friday:
Groceries: $103/150
Restaurant: $23/$100 (will go up when the food I ordered today shows up on the cc statement 
)
Hobbies: $34/$50
Home Improvement: $0/$50
Charity: $1000/$1500 (this was originally tracking 501c3, but a friend in a crappy insurance situation just found out they need surgery so the rest will likely reroute their way…not sure I’m going to bother recasting for that here since details are still very much TBD)
Bills: $59.95/$60 (done)
Auto: $28/$30 (still still need to get recall fixed, it’s a good thing I’m not driving much)
Travel: $0/$0
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