Welcome @Monicasutopia and @kaydee and @bobsburgersyum let me or the other mods if you need any help to settle in
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Welcome new folks! 
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I am in! Need to decide on goals, but something related to:
I’m currently a SAHM and the way my spouse and I deal with (share) money is kind of dysfunctional. I would like to move toward a more regular “allowance” (cringe, I hate that word) model rather than me just stealing money from our savings whenever I want to buy something and the money is not in the joint account. IDK if that makes sense. But in order to propose this to my spouse I need to have an idea of how much I’m spending, as well as think ahead to future purchases that otherwise tend to surprise us, particularly gifts.
Last year I focused on grocery spending. I may do so again because now that I’m not working a regular job, I find myself at the grocery store way more often.
ETA favorite thing about this season is candy corn; fight me!
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Me too!
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I am working on a budget to pay significant amounts to my credit card bills so that by the end of the year I have one or two paid off and then am down to just on or two.
I am also working on reviewing subscription services and eliminating those so that I am not duplicating costs.
In addition I will review charity giving so that I am still giving where I want to and not where I don’t.
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Welcome @Lelaprincessa21 @bobsburgersyum @Monicasutopia @kaydee
Goal is to keep coffee shop/snacks at work spending to $40. Tracking in YNAB as usual.
But real goal is to interrogate my spending and figure out what the heck has caused my average monthly spend to go from $6118 in Q1 to $8790 in Q3. Ugh ugh ugh. So annoyed at myself right now. We have been spending more than we earn every month since April. Ugh.
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Woohoo! Budgetober season again!!
This month i’ll be paying extra attention to my ‘discretionary’ spending of fun stuff. I have an increasingly troubling habit of seeing something i like and buying it. As my needed expenses have increased (car insurance, utilities, groceries) this has started eating into my savings and i really need to stop this. So that will be my focus.
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Ok, finally getting through category stuff…last minute, but not technically late yet 
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My spending-type categories, ignoring those that aren’t really changeable at this point, are:
Home (non-mortgage), Bills, Auto, Food, Sports/Hobbies, Travel
It doesn’t make sense for me to look at Home, Bills, or Auto more than usual right now…I’m finishing up some home projects but don’t have much left to buy at this point (amazingly enough), Bills aren’t fixed but are holding pretty steady based on previous years, and Auto…I don’t figure it much matters if I do the winterizing appointment in October or early November so I’m not going to play games putting it off if the shop has an opening earlier.
Which leaves:
Food: Groceries < $200, should be easily doable given the state of the pantry and the fact that I’ll be out of the country for a week. Eating out <$100, although I’m giving myself permission to ignore the part where I’m out of the country if I need to (theoretically it’s LCOL, but a couple people I’m going with have more expensive tastes and I’m not wasting my vacation arguing).
Sports/Hobbies: A little over for the year, but given I’m going diving on vacation may end up needing a few odds and ends before we go or doing an extra couple dives beyond those included while we’re there. Targeting <$100
Travel: Way over for the year. Way, way over given that I was considering quitting my job and got a couple trips lined up in preparation for that. However, despite prepayment for those trips (still taking them, even though also still working), I need to book flights to visit parent for the holidays. I’ve got a $100 flight voucher incoming and have various airline points floating around too so targeting <$200 actual dollars for the flights.
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Brand new here 
(she/they)! Joining up because I saw this challenge in the newsletter. I’m brand new, but found OMD recently when looking for ADHD/dyscalculia friendly budgeting sources. So I hope to make it through the challenge and stick to my budget.
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Welcome!!! Making and sticking to a budget for all of your spending can be difficult and overwhelming. Don’t hesitate to just work on one category. I am a longtime budgeter/expense tracker and I am just doing my coffee shop/work snack budget for this challenge.
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Hi,
I am new here! After 2 years of being a student and starting my brand new career, I have been in the work force for 3 months now. Thankfully after having next to no budget for years I (excitedly) have an income again, have replenished a lot of basic needs but have not been budgeting very intentionally and I don’t want to fall into old patterns.
My goals will be simple because I’m just getting started:
Create a SIMPLE budget.
Save my tips for October (put into a savings account)
Money education and deep diving into Oh My Dollar and its resources.
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I do not care for stickers, but I care to excel.
I’ve had quite a few derailments of my 2024 savings plan due to so-called one-offs.
Change of command was $3,000.
Once in a lifetime art that had to be mine, $5,000.
Then the iPad suddenly “needed” replacing for $1,000.
Paying for a friend’s travel, $1,500.
And don’t forget another friends wedding that I will be at come hell or literal high water, that’s $1,500 for clothes and travel.
Suddenly $11,000 is converted into goods and services. I can cashflow it, but the spending is starting to feel wanton.
Tomorrow I’m going to get a visa card with $500 on it, and that’s the budget for October. Nothing more, and hopefully something less.
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Hi! New to the forum, new to budgetober, happy to be here.
After a few successful years, I’ve now been struggling to track and budget for the last year or so. My goal is simply to stay within my overall budget for the month.
My favorite thing about the spooky season is creative costumes.
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Okay: Jumping on in for the Q3 reset and recommitment to my cooking at home and mending goals, both good fall things. Looking at an overall total low spend month (minus the siding repair which i saw someone else is going through omg the dry rot!) My favorite part of October is my quince tree being ready to harvest 
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I’m in.
Same as last year, track all the regular monthly expenses and see if we still come in under £1500. I’ve got last year’s spreadsheet so at the end of the month it will be interesting to compare year on year numbers.
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So many new people here! Welcome!
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Yes. Great to see so many new people! I wish you all success in getting your financial life under control.
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I’m in!
Things I will track and try to stick to:
- Food delivery 2x max in October (no set budget for now lol but only for like… sick days or one particularly shitty day)
- Weeknight dinners max 200 4x/week (except burrito bowl Thursdays)
- Stationery 500 max
The goal is to cut back on food spending and stationery excess in preparation for a very spendy Q4 (travel, obligations, fun spending).
I already had burrito bowl Monday but that was September 30 :)) For Oct 1 my weeknight dinner was 126.
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Going to be trying this out using Fireflyiii, a pretty neat open source software for tracking your finances. Here we go!
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Oooo! I love open source stuff. Welcome!
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