Some years I use Budgetober to track exax spending. Some years Iām just flailing about a new system. The baby has honestly made things more confusing. Daycare is so expensive and drafts from our checking account near the end of the month, but there are also a bunch of necessities-reups that happen in the middle of the month.
Honestly I think I need to do something to help with having an easier time understanding my fixed-ish costs each month before spending money on fun.
One thing Iāve heard of others doing is lining up when bills are due closer to the beginning of the month as to reduce mental load on having to keep track of how much money to keep in the checking account to make sure thereās enough for the bills and credit card payments. I am starting to think I want to do this ā trigger a payment of all the things a couple of days after my first paycheck of the month (Iām paid bimonthly) so that after the 5th or so, I KNOW how much Iāll have left for the month (leaving $2000 for daycare that has a set draft date that I canāt change).
We plan the whole week but then twice I have gotten informed about something at my kidsā school and Iām like, too late, we already went to the store!
Weāve all had COVID and the kiddo still has a cough, so weāve spent more on convenience than expected. I think weāre still on track for the budget though.
Week #2 Check-In:
Total spend: 2198.42
So I forgot a kickstarter where I spent over $400 was going to charge my account this month, so we might not make it for the month. I still have ~500 left, but ~200 of that will be spent on food, so weāll see if the miscellaneous category falls under that.
Week 2 check in:
Iāve decided how to manage my hobby/garment sewing budget. Iām hoping this will keep me accountable for using fabric and instead of building a stash. When I buy fabric, it will come from the hobby fund and when I use it Iāll move it over to clothing as a sorta credit buy back for the fabric budget.
Iāve hit my spend limit with a couple of classes for quilting, and tied garment fabric purchasing to health goals. The rest of the month will be interesting to see if I can stick to it! I think I can!
Still resisting spending, and cancelling subscriptions as they pop up in notifications, etc.
Cancelled my NFL Gamepass subscription today, because while I do enjoy watching the games, itās hecking expensive. So. Iāll manage.
Ditto for my Cricket subscription. I enjoy listening to that on the radio as the commentary team for it are amazing, and cricket is one of those games where if you know it, and the action is well described, you can visualise whatās happening. Listening is free, and you can do other stuff at the same time. Plus the commentators have lots of running jokes and funnies. Which means I donāt need the visuals. All good.
Managed to dry out the hedgehog trail camera, and made an over-box for it out of an old small airtight food container, when previously I would have bought something. Been cutting up free wooden pallets to make a hedgehog house. Hopefully can make something warm, dry, and secure for them.
Also have resisted spending anything above 99p on Pokemon Sleep and Pokemon Go. Proud of myself for that because my spending on both was getting to be a lot. Probably quite eye-watering if I were to add it up.
Which brings me to the fact that I still have not done my spreadsheet. Wriggly brain just does not want to.
Overall Iāll chalk this week up as a win though. Slippery slope of frivolous spending has been interrupted, and itās kind of fun finding free solutions for things.
Thanks to a gift from my mom, my fun money budget categories are fat and happy. I preordered a book for $37.75, and it was within budget. Going strong!
Food: $817.80/$800. At least this week I shouldnāt need anything beyond maybe some fresh fruit.
Household: $1357.35. Not just house repairs, but things like - our pillows are horrendous and so trying to make it so we get better sleepā¦hoping that if Iām a little better rested Iāll start making better decisions??
Here to make everyone else feel good about how theyāre doing
Mid budgetober check-in live tomorrow. With a donut.
Itās halfway through budgetober and Iām not doing as well as Iād hoped. Iām so so busy at work and this is exactly when I start to fall apart in meal planning. Despite teaching 8 workshops this month about budgeting!
How about you? Letās check in! Plus, a donut.
Live tomorrow Tuesday October 15 at 4:30 PM PDT, 7:30 PM EDT, and Weds 7:30AM AWST, 10:30AM AEDT.
Check in #2: fun budget is about halfway gone, but could have been less if I remembered to bring the gift card I thought was in my wallet
Food budget is less than half gone, I did less eating out/ delivery than expected in the first half of the month and may need to adjust that to the grocery budget, but tbd.
I discovered today that I left off preschool tuition when I set my goal for the month My big goal was āunder $7000ā and I thought I had built-in wiggle room because the individual categories only added up to $6243. But in reality they add up to $7243, which means we have to be super careful if we are going to make the budget. I donāt think itās going to happen, but weāll see. Weāve had 3 months this year under $7k and two more that were just barely over, but none of those month included the preschool tuition. Oh well.
Okay, so I have put all the business income into the spreadsheet and most of the expenses, but not the mileage to get to his main site for several weeks, and thatās going to be a big deal. Trouble is he has one set of spreadsheets and I have another - this may be worth doing a shared Google sheet.
On the Roth, Iāve realized the IRS hasnāt yet released the 2024 forms. I wish theyād hurry up. Iām looking at the Vanguard Roth conversion calculator, but I canāt do much with it until the tax forms are out.
On the spending, well. I took my lunch to work all last week, so thereās a plus, but then ate out Friday night and we both ate out Saturday lunch. Social time, though, so probably worth it.
I think I need some sort of system for tracking expenses, and I donāt know what it should be. For many years, we put everything on one card and that was pretty much it. But now thereās a business card as well, plus all the grocery spending is coming from the stupid debit card that is the only way this state does unemployment (which he collected over the summer). So how to manage three streams, especially when one is very different (the business)?
Anyway. Iām a little overwhelmed with it all today, so hereās the report so far and Iāll maybe try again tomorrow.
Check in: husband doing the budgeting this month has been pit aside to more urgent things. I am not going to step in and fix the problem.
I am taking stock of all the little half dont projects around the house and will be working on those, which will reduce my spending just by keeping me occupied.
Poor kid sleep will result in more takeaway than planned though.
I contacted all my utility companies to try to sync up the bill date. It was 3/5 successful! Iām sure Iām gonna find more as I keep an eye on our spending this month. It was a bit annoying that I couldnāt move some of the dates, which makes it feel a little pointless, but it is still less to remember than before.
food: 371/600. might do a recast next week because my mom gave me a grocery store gift card, so now I think I can swing a restock from Costco on top of regular groceries. Iām out of everything I buy from Costco so itās going to be a big trip
hobbies: 195/200. no spending for hobbies this week and I deleted a bunch of phone games that I kept spending money on (which I donāt include in my hobbies category anyway, but still felt like a win)
Ok! Iāve been procrastinating on this because I just donāt know how to budget this month. I got a big raise earlier this year but then the city I work for sort of retaliated against us for the raise and has been making work so difficult that Iāve gone on FML one day a week and am only working 4/5 days. But not every week! So things are quite variable, though my income is still very comfortable.
So Iām really focused on eating out less (as always) partly because I really value cooking and am trying to use my time to do more home cooking, and partly because I want to save as much as possible so that I can have the option to quit my job if it gets worse. Weāve been doing a good job of this as a household but I want to to even more.
This month Iāve already put aside $1400 into various savings including my personal Roth, and Iād like to put aside another $400.
Iāve spent $161 on going out with friends to eat, mostly because I covered a big meal for a friend who will then reciprocate next time Iāve got $104 left for the months in that category.
And Iāve spent $52 on what I call ācomfort foodā which is when I eat out alone. Iāve got $98 left in that category, but at this rate i might come in under budget!
Iāve also started my Christmas shopping and Iāve spent about $200 on that and am more than half done. Iāve got another $60 left for the month if I find any other excellent gifts for folks.
Tuesday October 15 at 4:30 PM PDT, 7:30 PM EDT, and Weds 7:30AM AWST, 10:30AM AEDT.