Okay, low stakes here but it’s what I’ve got. Going to carve out time to figure out what we’re spending overall plus sort out the business spending vs income (we do have good records, just no time to step back and see where things stand). I think we’re going to have a little profit even in Year 1.
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I’m in! I want to put some more cute stickers in my journal this year.
Goals:
- find/create a new method of tracking my spending
- spend less than $3,000 total for the month
- expenses that I will be reimbursed for don’t count
- spending goal is much higher than last year’s because I have more expensive health insurance and I’m paying off a medical bill
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Okay, my biggest area for improvement are groceries and planning ahead. keeping my goals achievable but high impact:
- Meal plan each week by Sunday
- One big shop each week (rather than half and half)
- only one nachos night per week
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The restraint!!
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Count me in 
My budget goals are around spending on food (takeout & groceries). Planning in advance to curb some of my impulse purchases at the grocery store.
My favorite thing about the Halloween season is seeing homemade costumes that people have poured a lot of time & love into!
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I am going to try and keep our grocery spend to $50/week. We have a very full pantry and freezer situation so I think this is doable. This is for fresh produce and hopefully no meat (we have plenty!) I have a hard time saying no to a good deal and because of that we have been accumulating food faster than we eat it.
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Okay based on the month of september my goals are
- track spending
- stationery low spend
- limit buying coffee & lunch to once a week
I’ll be at a conference at one point, but that shouldn’t interfere with my goals too much since theyre mostly focused on building the habit of tracking
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Goals!
I sat down with YNAB to come up with a loose goal. There are some unknowns for October. Most notably, the Boy is planning to buy a pair of plane tickets to take the cuckoo to visit his family in OKC.
So the goal is, including the plane tickets and barring unforeseen circumstances*, my goal is to keep the total spend to $7K or less. More importantly, my goal is to check in weekly and see how much I have spent in each category. I have certain amounts dedicated to each one but I can move those dollars around as needed.
*I’m not going to consider it a “failure” if the cat needs to go back to the vet or the water heater breaks down or something.
$7K should be a reasonable compromise between “we need a low spend month” and “I want to set a goal we can comfortably meet.”
This is my preliminary breakdown:
| Home maintenance and repairs | 0 |
|---|---|
| Mortgage | 2079 |
| Home supplies and furnishings | 100 |
| Groceries | 1200 |
| Restaurants | 200 |
| General kid spending | 300 |
| Subscriptions | 100 |
| Misc. bills and services | 0 |
| Utilities | 350 |
| Health | 297 |
| Cash | 0 |
| Gifts and holiday | 150 |
| Shopping | 100 |
| Cat | 0 |
| Donations | 20 |
| Travel | 1000 |
| Out and misc. entertainment | 50 |
| Car payment | 452 |
| Auto maintenance | 20 |
| Taxes/insurance | 158 |
| Gas | 60 |
| Parking, transit, etc. | 0 |
| His clothes | 100 |
| His misc. spending | 100 |
| My clothes | 50 |
| My misc. spending | 50 |
| 6936 |
10 Likes
I’m in! I’m going to be tracking all my categories in YNAB like usual, but for this challenge I’ll focus on keeping my dining out spending to $50. I’ve overspent in that category almost every month this year 
I might exclude our anniversary dinner from that limit since it’s a special thing.
Beyond that, this will be a good month to do a general budget check-in. I’ve been in my new place for about 2 months and I have a good sense of what expenses are like here. I also got a bit of a raise at the end of August, so I want to look at the various savings piles that I have going and decide if I want to move anything around or adjust my contributions.
I’m looking forward to the cooler weather in October! I also love halloween decor 
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I’m BACK after a really long time away from the forums and in for this challenge!
I want to track my fitness related spending and got a little behind with a credit card and want to take care of that before it escalates.
Best thing about the season for me is the weather, and I love fall foods and flavors.
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Hellooooo how have you been?!
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Fun fact, I implemented a « nacho night » after a livestream where you were talking about your nacho nights!
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I’m too lazy to budget or to challenge myself, but I’ll be here cheering all of you on!
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Things are decent! Rough summer in one area of my life but thankfully not in all, and I’m excited about fall!
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I am IN!
Three goals:
-
Do an income and expenditure spreadsheet again (not done one in probably a year, and the sneaky spending has been sneaking up).
-
Use said spreadsheet to cancel lingering/hidden subscriptions and limit unnecessary spending on Pokemon Go and Pokemon Sleep, so I can save again.
-
Improvise solutions for things I need to do rather than buying any new tools, materials, items, doodads or widgets for the entire month.
This includes items for hedgehogs. Except if I need to top up their food. That’s allowed 
13 Likes
I’m in!!
I intentionally set a budget and tracked my spending last October so that I can have a baseline to use for this October to better understand and plan for how much our new addition (flanlet: 9mo) costs us!
Plus, I’m a sucker for stickers. Let’s just be honest about why I’m here.
I am going to exclude some one-time medical costs as those belong in more the “emergency/planned large expense” category rather than a monthly budget.
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I’m in!
I’m going to actually assign money in YNAB to categories ahead of time and check in on those balances before spending money. I haven’t assigned money at the beginning of the month for ??? months and I don’t know that I’ve ever checked in with categories before spending for a whole month. So.
Fave part of the season is pumpkin spice flavored everything.
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New to the forum and I’ve been working on tightening the budget a little bit in advance of a trip in December. I’m focusing on the food and the “fun stuff” spending, like is this purchase actually something I will be glad I did/bought in a month or is it junk that will become clutter.
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Me! I’m in. I’m a full on middle aged adult with no budgeting skills or experience. Things a good place to start. I’m looking forward to the fall weather, because I am over 110 degrees in Fresno.
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I’m in! I’m also new here! My biggest goals with this challenge will be working to overcome my lifelong money anxiety and learning the basics of budgeting. I am tight with money as I am in the market for a new job, so I feel now is the time to face my money fears front on.
My favorite thing about Halloween season oh that’s a tough one…I love seeing decorations in the neighborhood. I hope it gets colder soon
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