Week 3:
Groceries at $529.16/$400 (includes buying gift card on the credit card to save 5%, will carry over into next month although we’ve spent nearly half of it already on stocking up on cat food on clearance…)
Everything else chugging along nicely, will wait to see what eating out ends up this month and might shift some things around.
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I did the things! The bedtime is a tough one and I’m probably at a 70% success rate, but those have been due to plans, and not mindless phoning or falling asleep on the couch so I’ll give myself a B-.
Spending this month is going well, which is good because we’re probably ramping up for a spendy Dec/Jan as we get ready to move across the country.
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Okay, week 3:
Office 4/5 Went 2 times to office, it was nice because I had some contact to colleagues, all covid safe and pleasurable
Groceries: €220 / €250 got a lot of vegs at the farmers market and some expensive but so good cheese. Should bring me to the end of the month without further money spending
Eating out: €120/ €50 Okay, completely out of budget. Good thing: a friend helped me with a task which otherwise would have been outsourced (ca. 300 €) and the only thing he accepted as thank you was sushi takeout from his favourite place for both of us. So I had a splendid lunch today 
Splurges: €55 / €50 bought an ebook
Today I got my cars tires changed and summer ones stored for the winter plus an update on the GPS (110€ for all), I budgeted this, so everything is as planned.
Jellaba
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I am looking at lamps, and actually have several tabs open on my laptop right now.
I don’t understand how people buy house things online, and I especially don’t understand how people buy things when they have partners. How do you pick one thing that you both like? And then how do you visualize it when you can’t even see it in person?
I am starting to understand that the true draw of IKEA is that you have a good but limited range to choose from.
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Week 3 Check-in Late
So - goals are:
- Saving $1,665 - no progress to be made on this, all money comes in last day of month
- Making at least $50 from selling clothing online - have not listed but did list two electronics and will net $160 from that
- Launch new OMD product - done and sold out and shipped!
No indulgence spending this week
Spent month to date October 23th below cuty
Household Essentials: $726/$736
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Rent: $615/ 615
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Electric: $45.01/$45.01
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Water, Commons, Trash: $40/$40
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State Fees: $26/$26
Health: $204/$277
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Health Ins. Premium: $204/277
Giving: $60/$200
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Political: $50
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Charity: $10
Food + Drink for Home: $144.58/$175
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Groceries: $119.13/$135
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Treats: $15.98/$20
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Coffee For Home: $7.99/$20
Food and Drink Out: $7.25/$15
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Coffee Out: $7.25 (reward for 15K/10 mile run)
Indulgences: $23.40/$10
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Clothing $23.11/0
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Pocket Money : $.29/$10
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- Credit card category: 519.79
- Family Fun & Festivals category: 34.09
- Stupid Work Stuff category: 4.01
- Babysitting category:
- Business category:
Is this late? Are we supposed to be updating on Friday? Well, Saturday is easier and makes more sense for me…
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Well, I’m extremely late to the party, but gods do I want a spooky forum badge. My goals this month were to spend the money I set aside for car repairs and medical stuff, and that got taken care of! My car is now much less likely to be cranky at me.
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Week 3
Goal: To allocate $30/week to my “just for fun” category. I can spend it how I wish, but I am not allowed to move it over to another line item to make up for overspending.
So far so good. No reallocations. Here’s what I spent:
- $14.00 on a boomerang patterned mask from an Instagram artist
- $24.50 on college transcript orders (Okay, I know it’s not “fun,” but I did consciously decide to spend my “spending money” on it and I did unnecessarily order extra copies for myself)
Honorable mentions from previous weeks:
- $14.70 OMTea Mocktail Purrbon
- $32.81 on a Monstera that is too big for my current apartment
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Week 3 update.
$315.09/$800 grocery budget remaining. We are even doing better than expected by eating more of our pantry foods we had overstocked. Yay!
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We’ve basically not been using a budget since Aug 2019 when the shadowy one was laid off, we just spent what we did and every once in a while moved the extra to retirement investments. Add to that the constant moving out of the date for us to return to the office, and I guess it isn’t surprising that we didn’t really have a plan or budget for my home work space.
So this weekend, I decided to add it up. I knew it was starting to feel like a lot, but I wasn’t expecting $850. And that was without buying the desk the shadowy one was pushing for. Half of it was on decor - the paint, a rug, an edison bulb for the broken sconce. The rest was split between electronics and actual office setup - a new chair (about half subsidized by work) and a desk light.
Though it is higher than anticipated, I don’t think it was a frivolous spend. I look forward to seeing the new chair in December or so. And I think I’ll continue delaying the desk decision for a bit longer.
October has been pretty successful from a financial steps perspective
- I figured out a budget and how much we could put into investments per paycheck, and reset the automation
- we got the investments mostly rebalanced and decided to go forward with a balanced approach even though it isn’t the most tax efficient
- the shadowy one put in the request to move their RRSP with former work to QT
- I figured out how much we received from dividends in the past 12 months, which is an important input for future decisions
- I know how much we spent on the office and how much we’re spending on other decor (plants, paint) so I can plan out what I’m comfortable with for the next few months (a painter for the stairwell, new ceiling lights and electrician to install them, but not replacement closet doors or new drywall to cover the textured ceiling or additional rugs)
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Ooop, late again. Is Friday the day? I tend to check things on Sunday.
Still not gone overdrawn. Yay!! I do need to see if I have a few ££ extra for a food item or two which I would like (not had butter or cheese for a couple of months now, cos the foodbank doesn’t provide them). So I ought to get into spreadsheet mode tomorrow / soon to check. I am still managing to resist little spends. And rewarding myself with a tick on a habit-tracker every time I do. Which feels great… 
Weight loss talk
Still logging all the food things too. Confess I am getting a bit… meh about it, since I’m cooking more from scratch these days, which makes it complicated. But okay. It works. Last week my BMI went down from obese to overweight for the first time in a while. Yes, BMI is a much-maligned metric, but it’s the one the Gender Clinic doctors are using. So logging everything I consume, while occasionally a drag, is working, and that’s the main thing.
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You guys, I did the thing! I spent money making my house a little nicer and more functional!
$172.03 towards three lamps. This solves actual daily annoyances in my life. My life will be better.
Now I’m just hoping that the lamps we ordered we really fit in our spaces and not only solve annoyances but be aesthetically awesome!
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I’ve just done my (late) accounting catch up.
Still within budget on groceries, which is kinda miraculous.
I need to wave my magic wand and recast my budget, but first I need to work out reasonable limits for categories where I still want to pressure myself slightly to spend less.
Biggest surprise of the month so far was a $750 hospital bill for Mr H’s gastroscopy.
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I hate surprise medical bills.
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Very very late with this.
Update:
- Rent - $808/$808
- CC payment - $275/$275
- Renters Insurance - $28.83/$29
- Life Insurance - $17/$23
- Apartment Utilities - $0/$17
- Groceries - $295.82/$300 - Chinese grocery store and regular weekly shop
- Donations - $12/$100 Regular donation to work + 1 test donation
- Subscriptions - $21.82/$72 - Apple storage
- Etc - $14.02/$45 - Resume template
- Laundry - $0/$40
- Gifts - $48.84/$40 - Chili crisp for brother’s birthday, jam advent calendar for Partner.
- Restaurants - $0/$30
- Alcohol -$24.75/$25 - Wine and tax that I forgot about Taking $5 from etc and putting it here
- Snacks - $8.64/$20 - Iced coffee and hashbrown, chai, and chocolate croissant
- Pets - $496.54/$500 Dog inhaler mask and 1full payment for medicine and 1/4 payment for another bottle of the same medicine.
- Car - $10.57/$300 - Oil change was prepaid and brakes don’t need to be done!
- Medical - $24/$100 - Wellbutrin
- Retirement $150/$150
- E-fund $400/$400
Also spent $75 on charitable solicitation renewal for work, but will be reimbursed so doesn’t count.
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| Goals | |
|---|---|
| Studying | 2 hours/day |
| Duolingo | 30 min./day |
| Yoga | 30 min./day |
| Water Bill | $100 |
| Week 3 (again) Check-in | |
|---|---|
| Studying | 4 hour(s) 05 min. |
| Duolingo | 1 hour(s) 38 min. |
| Yoga | Oh man… 0 hour(s) |
| Water Bill | 0/100 |
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Week 4
$419 on 2 people on food so far! Granted, we still have the most dangerous spending days to come. This is a really low number for us. Maybe being mindful of food spending Actually Works. Who woulda thunk?
Groceries: $236
- $30 Instacart
- $149 HEB
- $51 Jeni’s (yes, this is “groceries” AND I DON’T REGRET IT)
- $6 dumplings
Eating out: $183
- $23 hot chicken
- $20 samosas
- $105 sushi (yuuuuuup… )
- $14 hotdog + mochi donuts
- $8 wontons
- $13 chicken in a cone
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Closing out the month a bit over budget. Total spend $4188. The good: driving less with new job saving gas money. The bad: Spent $253 in the “household” category (a good chunk from Lush). I kept coffee under $50 at $42 but groceries crept up to $148. I’m hoping to continue to save more as my income increases and focus on debt repayment. Will look at an average of my last 6 months of groceries and going out to eat to find a happy medium that i’m comfortable with.
Spent my donation allocation on places I thought would matter this close to the election, so that’s a win. I’ve also come a long way in my crash course on finances this last week (13 podcast episodes down and three-fourths through “All Your Worth”).
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Um JK looks like I’m a rebel who really doesn’t like being told what to do (take that, me!) because I immediately just spent another $137 on restaurants so I am up to $556 on food, $319 of which was on restaurants. I’m still below the $610 target and may even sneak in one last grocery order this weekend!
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