They are savings challenges I want to reuse.
I discovered Staples does laminating for a reasonable priceā¦about 15 cents CAD a sheet. That might be a better way to go. I might have 15 sheets total if more than one savings challenge is put in a standard 9 x 11 1/2ā laminating pocket. Iāll check it out next time Iām in Staples.
I love categories so I do make new categories for things like that - like I donāt put āclothingā in the same category as ācostumesā and I make a separate category for āfancy tea for homeā vs ācoffee outā because I like to track with granularity (not for everyone, for me I find it fun!).
But, when itās not a regular expense, I often just do a split based on how I feel. I did a craft room session with a friend, which was entertainment but I also got some home decor out of it. so I split it 40/60 between āentertainmentā and āhome decorā
Iām pretty good at at least understanding our fixed costs, but Iām having trouble accounting for our rare-but-recurring (e.g. eventual roof replacement) or one-time (e.g. urgent, uninsured medical procedure) costs.
Last year I tried amortizing them to fit them into a āmonthlyā budget, which worked well for the recurring annual stuff, but this year so many one-time/emergency stuff happened that it shook my confidence in my ability to project future costs, especially with an unknown child.
So far this month, this has been:
This is more than the planned fixed costs for the rest of the month, combined, and makes me feel disgruntled about monitoring my āregularā spending when itās the semi-unplanned stuff that really gets us.
I need a better mental model for how to plan (?) for this. Or have a giant emergency fund, which maybe isnāt unreasonable.
Week 1 Check in:
| Category | Goal | Week 1 Total |
|---|---|---|
| Rec Center | $50 | $0 |
| Charitable Giving | $100 | $24 |
| Life Insurance | $80 | $87 |
| Student Loan | $535 | $0 |
| Mortgage | $2,653 | $2,653 |
| Electric / Gas | $175 | $0 |
| Internet | $55 | $0 |
| Subscriptions | $80 | $0 |
| Costco ann fee | $120 | $130 |
| Home Improvement | $0 | $28 |
| Enrichment | $150 | $15 |
| Medical | $300 | $45 |
| Cell Phone | $60 | $36 |
| Service and Parts | $200 | $0 |
| DH Fun Money | $25 | $52 |
| E Fun Money | $25 | $4 |
| Coffee Shops | $50 | $25 |
| Household Items | $50 | $0 |
| Date Night | $100 | $0 |
| Clothing | $50 | $0 |
| Books | $30 | $0 |
| Toiletries | $30 | $0 |
| Hair/Massage | $50 | $0 |
| Baby Sitter | $0 | $0 |
| Baby Supplies | $100 | $0 |
| Uber | $50 | $0 |
| Gas | $75 | $0 |
| Groceries | $800 | $14 |
| Dining Out | $250 | $60 |
| Total Spending | $6,243 | $3,173 |
I realized that when I put my plan together I included a student loan payment, but since Iām on the SAVE plan this is yet another month when I wonāt actually be making a payment. Which really sucks because it is another month of delay on PSLF 
One category that I hadnāt planned on was home improvement. However the blind tax strikes again because DH didnāt see D1 pull the hose into the driveway and then I backed up over the spray nozzle, destroying it. He took a walk while I was working to buy a new one at Ace Hardware and I didnāt realize the one he bought was $28?!?! He just got one that felt nice. He canāt see prices so itās not his fault, but I never pay more than $10 for one 
Quick, mostly boring check for week 1:
I also just kind of go with how it feels. If I am legit making something that I will wear as clothes, then I probably count it as clothes. If itās for a gift, I count it that way. Sometimes I just count it as āother personal spendingā if itās not for something crystal clear (eg, practice materials or something like interfacing that I will use for many things).
Not sure if you have these near you, but a nationwide copy shop chain (Fedex/Kinkoās) has laminators you can (pay to) use. Iāve had good luck printing my things e.g. 4-to-a-page, laminating a page, and then chopping in 4 using their (free) paper cutter. Theyāve remained solidly waterproof for well over a decade now.
You can also buy lamination sheets that you can use at home. I used something like these, about 20 years ago and the one thing I can still find that I made still seems to be waterproof:
amazon link to sample product
Good luck!
thank you all for sharing your experiences! Youāve given me helpful input to mull over.
Not sure how you budget, but in my case I have subcategories for stuff like thisānot quite the same but I have a āsports and hobbiesā budget, but then under that Iāve got a āgeneralā for things that arenāt expensive enough to be worth splitting and then āskiing,ā ābiking,ā and āscubaā as individual categories because those can get expensive/have gotten expensive in the past when I wasnāt watching them. For yours maybe under āclothingā you could have a āhomemadeā and āotherā so you can see how much is actually going to the clothes you make?
Thank-you @fool ! I phoned Staples and they are charging $3 per sheet now!
Iām going to check the dollar stores for the sheets you just press onto the card stock.
I know there have been some other suggestions but depending on what you plan to use it for, what about plastic sheet protectors? Like the kind you would put in a binder?
I donāt think that would work @BiblioFeroz i need to fit them in small envelopes to hold cash - bills and change. But a good idea otherwise.
First check-in
Okay I have decided my goal is to spend less than $4000 for the month. Last month a huge (and I mean huge) portion of our spending was groceries. If I watch our spending Iāll spend between $4-500 on groceries. Last month it was near a thousand.
So far I have spent $120.89 on groceries, which means Iām already on track to overspend on groceries.
This week I have planned several meals with food we already have. Making leftovers right now. I can do thisā¦
Blockquote
You can do it!!
Yes we can both do this! Iām going to try to get two days more out of leftovers/creative usage in my house, too. 
Tomorrow my plan: leftover scones for breakfast
Lunch: fried rice to use up two-day old rice + random fridge things
Dinner: leftover dumplings
Tomorrow morning: fresh rice in the rice cooker + mushrooms
Lunch: leftover ??? + mushrooms + fried egg if I need to round it out
Dinner: final serving of leftover dumplings.
Thanks @anomalily for mentioning the USDA food plans in her last stream. lt helped me pick a grocery budget of $700 got the challenge. We only allow ourselves to eat out once a month and otherwise we eat all of our meals at home so I feel like this is a reasonable starting point. Iāve updated Rocketmoney with this goal and Iāll keep checking in.
Very big grocery spend for the first week because I finally had time to do a bit of an inventory of my larder and some major restocking of the staples was necessary.
Then there was the discounted rib roast of beef that we splurged Ā£30 on yesterday and had our first proper full roast dinner for about six months - absolutely no regrets on that one!
| Item | Cost | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Broadband | Ā£40.00 | Monthly |
| Electric | Ā£302.00 | Monthly |
| Council tax | Ā£238.00 | Monthly |
| Mobile phones x 2 | Ā£20.00 | Monthly |
| Property insurance inc public liability | Ā£85.00 | Monthly |
| Netflix | Ā£11.00 | Monthly |
| Kindle unlimited | Ā£9.50 | Monthly |
| Groceries | Ā£179.00 | Week 1 |
| Takeaway | Ā£29.00 | Week 1 |
Running total : Ā£913.50
I looked these up and the website throws an error saying i ācanāt view it on this serverā. Are they unavailable to view outside the USA? So weird. Would love to see what theyāre like!
Iām Canadian and the website works for me!
Someone else said they donāt work for them in the Philippines! so weird