Week 4 has been alright. The recast to have more money to play with in October was good. I definitely should have known better than to do a ton of Christmas shopping early in the month before all the Fall/Halloween events and shopping type things.
We went to a pumpkin patch today and I spent too much money on fudge and pickles and a hayride/corn maze ticket but I don’t mind giving my money to a family farm.
Gifts and fun money: $558/$580
Comfort food: $121/150
Eating out with friends: $253/266
I know we only technically get one recast, but I think I’m going to borrow a little bit from the comfort food category to cover a dinner out tonight because my husband’s college friend is in town and we’re going out with him.
I’ll do one more check in at the very end of the month since I’m not sure I can declare total success/failure yet. I suspect (as long as I don’t do anything silly in the next few days) that I’ll feel like it’s a success with caveats. I do wish I hadn’t done the early Christmas shopping and I should have been more careful with takeout with my husband (which I count as eating out with others), but overall I think I’ll have stayed under budget even if I needed 1.5 recasts.
Only spent $30 this week on eating out (I’m so proud of myself). I think choosing which day I’m eating out for my work lunch in advance and treating myself to that made it feel like a reward and not an impulse purchase.
However, I will have to recast my grocery budget. Just did my shopping for W5 and between that and W4 I’m at 348.91 / 300. I don’t mind recasting that budget to $350 though given how much more successful I’ve been at reducing my eating out costs-- it makes sense that my grocery budget would go up to compensate.
Week 4 update (slightly early, but I don’t expect further spending this week) to close this out:
And I was right and this was where I need to recast, but it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought. Splitting between two different airlines and with points and reimbursements all factored in as of the end of last week, travel spending comes out to $254.58.
Week 4! Only one grocery shop last week. I used a $20 Safeway reward so that helped keep it lower. I also took home a ton of free food from work that was going to be thrown away (6 free pizzas mid month and a bunch of meat/beans/lettuce/cheese last week). $160.39 is the total for the month and I am flabbergasted. We normally spend $700-1000/month on groceries and it seems we have quite the stock pile. It barely even feels like we made a dent in our freezer/pantry. I think we will keep going for a bit on a low spend grocery budget and maybe target $300-400/month going forward.
I really struggled with not stocking up on good deals (this week chicken thighs are on sale $0.97/lb and I haven’t seen it that low in months) but we didn’t stock up! I also spent less time scrolling Ibotta/safeway app and trying to maximize coupons. I deleted social media so this has been my “scrolling” vice lately and I think I’m getting to a better spot overall! I’ll keep going into week 5.
Hi everyone. I’m into Week 5 and spent the last of the Christmas budget. In fact, I went over by $3, which I took out of one of the savings challenges. It was good planning though, because I have everything I need for the Christmas baskets.
My Christmas budget for November and December will be put towards charity and email gift certificates, which I can order from bed if need be. That’s good, as I have surgery coming sometime soon. I just don’t know when.
Unfortunately I need the recipients of the gift baskets to come pick them up. I can’t travel atm.
I spent today analyzing our yearly expenses and creating quarterly reports. Then called in Hubby after supper to go over everything and draw up a proposed 2025 budget. There are a lot of potential financial changes happening right now. Thanks to Budgetober I found the incentive to deal with some of it!
I have cancelled/reduced more subscriptions. Still no frivilous spending, apart from one item I just bought for the waterproof box I made a few weeks ago for the hedgehog camera (5.99).
It’s actually been fun working out ways to make do and mend. My Nana would be proud!
Goal before month’s end is to actually use the app I downloaded. Needs a bit of setting up, and that’s been enough for an ADHD stall over it.
But I have more squirreled away, and more left over at the end of the month too. Going to try not to dip into savings like I usually do, until the next lot of money comes in. Fingers crossed.
One, this picture is totally adorable, and two, I’ve thought of a suggested title (as asked for somewhere above) in what is now the last week. Typical me.
My check in is that husband did ynab twice this month, which means we can have a much more productive discussion on how we can save money now he feels like he understands it more. I might have him do November too!
Been making some progress on looking for jobs. Updated resume and found new job boards that seem better than the others I was using.
Found out that I qualify for a government assistance program so I applied and will hopefully be getting some help soon
I did buy a couple things for the apartment, despite saying I wouldn’t buy things like this…lol…but it was only $7 total for some christmas lights and a sheer curtain that will both bring some warmth and light into my dark apartment. Also bought a couple items, $8 total, for a last minute Halloween costume because Halloween is my favorite holiday and I’d be sad if I didn’t do a costume. I struggle with feeling guilt for spending on these kinds of “non-essential” items when I don’t have good financial cushion, but at the same time, I hope the things I got will lift my spirits a bit after a rough year.
It’s been nice to see you all share your updates — good job everybody woot woot!
food: 720/725. I got take out and coffee too many times, but I seem to be coming down with a cold, so I probably won’t have anymore food spending this month. yay?
hobbies: 210/200. I bought a knitting pattern that was more than I expected.
Oooh I feel you on this. I’m like a thousand dollars deep into a chin infection that my cat developed and may or may not indicate a serious underlying problem.
and I spent too much money on fudge and pickles and a hayride/corn maze ticket but I don’t mind giving my money to a family farm. 
I suspect (as long as I don’t do anything silly in the next few days) that I’ll feel like it’s a success with caveats. I do wish I hadn’t done the early Christmas shopping and I should have been more careful with takeout with my husband (which I count as eating out with others), but overall I think I’ll have stayed under budget even if I needed 1.5 recasts.
but at least it’s not going on a credit card.