I slipped/struggled a little more this week, but I feel completely justified about everything, and overall this month I’ve done a great job curbing spending impulses.
Here’s where I’ve landed — ~$135 for groceries out of a projected $150. Spent about $11 this week on a sandwich and chocolate and Clif bars. $25 out of a projected $10 on eating out/takeout, but that balances with the deficit in groceries and it was an extremely limited menu option from one of my favorite restaurants (and REALLY good!).
$80 out of a projected $75 for the “other” category, where I did itemize spending. Most of the breakdown was Sweaty’s birthday stuff and houseplant stuff, with all other transactions $5 or under. The $5 over budget is on a face wash, which I counteracted by cancelling a $12 monthly skincare/beauty subscription.
Here’s where I “went over budget” this week - $10 donation through GoFundMe for vehicle repair for a local activist doing jail support, $8.67 tax and shipping for a BUNCH of hand warmers I “purchased” with my REI dividend I had completely forgotten about (they will be shared out through a local mutual aid group). I did not budget for donations at all this month, but given what’s happening in my city right now, I feel more icky for not doing more than guilty for spending what little I have so far!
I’ll check back on the 31st or 1st with the more macro “year of budgeting in roughly the same format” update I promised at the beginning of the month!
Went over in a couple categories, but am more than enough under in other categories to shift things around and still be under budget in every category. Total spending $2755.97/$3274
We haven’t done any more shopping and I don’t anticipate needing to go anywhere tonight or tomorrow (I’ll certainly update if I do), so ending the month at $722.15. Pretty happy with that, overall.
Spent $52 this week on a small grocery shop and will come in under budget for the month. I learned some really useful things from Budgetober! (1) We have a big stockpile so I can wait until we actually need something to buy it, and (2) stop adding “just in case” items to shopping trips because, again, stockpile is big.
Baby stuff: Bought doctor-ordered formula supplement and a whole bunch of slow-flow nipples. Formula is expensive and all those $15 bits of silicone add up! Also bought a stroller now instead of in the spring since I finally found one that works for both infants & onward without a super bulky/expensive attachment. I suspect that if I could know exactly what this baby wanted/needed I could have skipped some purchases, but it has been comforting to have options in place and I’ll give/sell stuff that turns out to be wrong or unnecessary.
One more $50 donation to a state rep candidate in a nearby district.
Pretty good. We’ve been ordering about once per week and all from little chain places. Saving money by NOT ordering anything for my kid who always rejects everything anyway. (I still feed her, just with food from home - FYI).
Done - gave $175 over average this month.
Doing ok. Bought pants for myself that I really needed (only 3 months along but none will button anymore, wail) from FB marketplace. Have not purchased anything for myself on Amazon.
Fail. Or at least a D. I fell asleep on the couch twice this week before getting up and stumbling to bed. The problem is that I’m ready for bed at 7:30 but if I go to bed then I will wake up at 3am, and that’s not ok either. So, I’m trying to keep myself awake for another couple of hours and I end up falling asleep. Oh well, pregnancy blows. I will just keep trying.
Whelp, I came out $85 over budget. Not bad! I caved and picked up tacos & fries/queso last night for dinner which put us over in our take-out category. This month, I also spent more on cleaning and organizing than normal. But if I think about things holistically, I consider that a win!
Thanks for this challenge, @anomalily ! It was about time for me to track my spending again and this helped me get a grasp on how it’s shifted since lockdown lifestyle changes.
My life is still in a bunch of boxes, and hilariously despite moving into a larger space since the only furniture is still the bed we ( myself, partner and 3 cats) are all hanging out closer together than before
Somehow the moving truck ( actually a van) ended up being cheaper than I expected: $85 total, the washer and dryer were the expected price ( $400, still haven’t hooked them up but they’re in our basement now!), celebratory / thank you for carrying things pizza was $33 and before we packed up to move I roasted all the veggies in the fridge, soaked beans, and made baked oatmeal, so I only spent $13 at the grocery store. We did get Thai takeout on Wednesday when partner broke the kitchen sink. It isn’t fixed yet, we’re washing dishes in the downstairs bathroom. Hopefully it will get fixed this weekend, and we will get to move some furniture into the first floor and stop hanging out solely in the bedroom. The floors are finished in the living room and kitchen, but the stair treads won’t get installed until Monday so we’re not quite done being a construction zone… so we haven’t paid the balance on that yet but it is coming. All told, I didn’t save much in Oct ( basically just my pre-tax plus employer match amount) but I didn’t overspend and hopefully next month will be on the whole less spendy.
I liked this as an exercise, I think it made me more reflective about why I was spending what I was spending.
(or I’m assuming this is the final check-in? Details, details)
-$409.22/$400 food. OK I’m technically overbudget BUT I’M CALLING THIS A VICTORY. My second-lowest grocery spend month this entire year woot woot
-$35.72/$50 clothes (unchanged)
-$72.23/$60 household (unchanged)
-$321.60/$150 recreation/health. This spiked from an optometrist appointment in which I splurged for the fancy lenses because my eyes are terrible and I stare at a screen all day. No ragrets (well, yet, at least. I don’t have the glasses yet haha). At least now I know what to expect with my current insurance (I didn’t have vision insurance before), and I was way overdue for glasses anyways, so now I can budget eye stuff better in terms of money and time.
-$41.25/$50 misc (unchanged)
Total: $880.02/$710 budgeted. A little over, BUT I’m lucky it was a 3 paycheck month, so I was still able to throw over $2400 at debt
Week 4: monthly donation to national social justice charity, $51.43.
Feeling really happy about where our charitable donations are at! Will review any final one-offs in December when we have a more complete picture of our income for the year.
The last three bills were actually Week 3, or maybe the electric was Week 2. Anyway, forgot bills once or twice, so there they are.
The mystery Walmart is something Husband bought while looking for plastic sheeting, but I don’t know what. Likely it was hardware-y.
The Amazon card goes in the “charity” slot. That money and some Amazon rewards went in ecard form to a student in need of school supplies.
The Walmart pickup is actually tomorrow
… but I didn’t want to do this again for one day. Hopefully they have everything. There may likely be beer as well (have to go inside for alcohol) but I’m not taking out the $25 refund from the non-clear plastic sheeting, so that should more than cover that. Close enough.
otc meds
$2.64
Tissue
$1.32
Food
$33.94
Monthly spending totals:
Total
$1,205.18
Groceries
$265.77
Fuel
$60.13
Pet food
$14.38
Vet
$144.23
People medical
$72.30
Household
$164.25
Utilities
$346.29
Charity
$46.22
Gift, etc
$89.94
ETA: seems about right that veterinary expenses are about double people medical expenses. Over the course of a year, it’s likely an even bigger difference, but I’ve been peaked this month.
I successfully bought three lamps and I would not have bought them if I hadn’t said on this thread that I would do something to make this space better.
So, success. And pictures of lamps to come once they arrive. :3
Did great at reconciling spending in my app and chatting with Mr H about spending each week. I need to establish those as regular habits.
Garden spending did exceed $50 + gift cards + cost of soil and mulch… But it was Mr H who wanted to spend on the garden?? So I dunno. I tend to think of him as not caring about the garden, when he does care about whether it’s aesthetically pleasing, so I should bear that in mind when budgeting for it.
We juuuuust went over with a total spend of $815.66. And that required EFFORT. So this needs to be an area of ongoing focus for us.
I’m ashamed to admit this.
Large, embarrassing number
$761.18.
Total fail in this category. We had some expensive meals for birthday month, and also relied on takeaway a lot while ill.
Biggest single expenses this month, included for anyone who enjoys that sort of detail:
Daycare $904.94 for 3 days a week.
Mr H’s 40th cost $800 - $1000 depending on how you do the accounting (does leftover alcohol get reallocated to the alcohol category instead of the party category?).
Mr H’s gastroscopy hospital excess was $750.
Mortgage interest $590
Soil and mulch $492
Professional cleaning for our couches and rug was $304.5
Washing machine repair $226.5
Electricity bill $215.83
Vet bill $130.5
It was a super expensive month even by our spendy standards.
Final checkin since I just found out that work changed how they reported some numbers for retirement contributions and I missed it so I’m going to do a no-spend-except-charity/gifts couple of months starting now to hit a goal I thought I was ahead on (for the record, this is entirely self-inflicted and I could just say screw it for the year and try again next year, but I’m going to give it a try anyway).
Groceries: $182/150
Restaurant: $46/$100 (meaning food in general is below $250, so I can live with that)
Hobbies: $44/$50
Home Improvement: $0/$50
Charity: $1000/$1500 (rest ended up going to a friend, will max out the 501c3 match I was aiming for next month as part of the spend I won’t skip)
Bills: $59.95/$60 (done)
Auto: $28/$30 (still still still need to get recall fixed, it’s a good thing I’m not driving much)
Travel: $0/$0
Final week: I barely even wanted to look at my budget this week, not because of over spending, but because of almost no spending and covid feelings/fatigue. I did go over it though and think I have it all ready for next month as well. I haven’t set up my new bike or fitness area yet because the weather has lovely all week so I’ve been able to go for a couple walks and hikes. I hope to get that done this weekend.
End of the month! Succeeded in my budget goals, got my savings rate above 50%. Spent a bit more on alcohol than I intended but still came in under budget
Ok, so I started budgeting regularly in I believe July 2019, but I calculated my debts and assets and settled on categories and a format I’ve mostly stuck to as of November 2019, which means I now have a year’s timeframe with decent data.
11/1/19
Total Debt: $22,921,11
Total Assets: $2,660.46 (please note that $1600 of that is from a previous job’s pension account!)
Net worth: -$20,260.65
Since then I have paid off I think two credit cards and consolidated the rest of the credit card debt into a second personal loan, so the debt is now almost entirely two personal loans, with a relatively tiny amount the unpaid portion of my cell phone.
10/31/20
Total Debt: $14,334,06
Total Assets: $10,003.68
Net Worth: -$4330.38
So I’ve improved my lot by right around $16k in the past year, and non-negative net worth isn’t too far around the corner! Undebt.it predicts I’ll be debt free 9/22, but that will actually depend on where I decide to put any extra money in terms of general spending vs. debt payoff, vs. savings. If life stays on track I would guess that would actually be paid off a bit sooner, but it also feels at least a little less urgent to throw absolutely everything at debt given the personal loan interest rates vs. credit card interest rates!
Anyway, it was helpful to look at the numbers. Yay for tracking things somewhat long term!
how wonderful to now have a full year to be able to look back and really see the progression from where you were to where you are now, not just in the numbers, but the additional control and resilience you have in your own life
