Well…I have this sitting in my drafts, so I’m guessing it didn’t post haha! This was week 3:
Ack forgot to check in yesterday for week 3! I have been tracking everything I spend and staying in my overall budget. Not related to budgetober directly, but I also made an inventory and plan for paying off debt, AND I talked about it with some trusted friends.
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FINAL BUDGETOBER UPDATE: I loved this challenge! I kept the bar low – I just wanted to keep my spending under my overall budget. And I did!! I even ended the month $75 under budget. But mostly, I’ve been diligent about tracking every transaction and learning how to better use my budgeting app of choice (YNAB). I also had multiple conversations with friends and family (shoutout to my mom) about shame around debt, learning more about financial planning, and other money topics. Thanks @anomalily for inviting me to join the challenge and being so encouraging!
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4th check-in: late because I had to send my computer to be repaired! An unforeseen expense that happened to be paid for on November 1st… so I think I am making it here on a technicality.
Grocery goal: Achieved! I spent $397.98 on groceries.
Under $4000 goal: I made it! I spent $3552.89. I think the meal planning and staying home more really helped, but also I definitely had some splurges toward the end of the month.
This is not a full picture of our finances, but it really helps me to know how much I spend in a typical month. And maybe I could even spend less…
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Final check-in:
Groceries 727/800
Baby 448/500
That was by the skin of our teeth! but we did it. Baby equipment included pump parts and bottles and jammies; hopefully we won’t need to mess with any of those supplies for a little bit, since they’re durable goods and we’re currently well stocked.
My medical supplies for postpartum recovery (eg witch hazel, padsicles, etc) are not counted in the baby gear.
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Just an FYI in case you didn’t know but all pump stuff (including nursing bras) are FSA/HSA eligible purchases!
Not that this changes your budget for what was spent but it makes that tax free spending if you have either of those accounts!
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If I weren’t using all the $$$ from my FSA on the birth…
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final number for the month - we have spent 118% of our clothing budget for the year.
We are tracking at 81% of our day-to-day spending with 83% of the year done. I’m trying to combat the IBL by pointing out that we increased our budget intentionally in keeping with our values.
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I didn’t know this and I can probably still find receipts from 2 years ago for anything I bought from Amazon/Target at least! Thanks! (I have an HSA so there’s no time limit.)
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Final check in 
On my overall budget I definitely came in way under for this month. In my tracking categories:
Comfort food: $132 /$150 
Eating out with people: $273/$266 
Gifts/fun money: $625/$580 
I went over on two of my tracked categories, but that was because on the last day of the month I was so far under on other categories I wasn’t reporting for budgetober (gas and groceries), that I let myself get takeout with Husband for Halloween and also bought some new pajama pants and my planner for next year (refill for a past Mossery cover I loved and would like to use again in 2025).
So even though I went over on my tracked categories, I feel really happy with my budget this month. There’s a new train line in my city, and I’ve been using that to get to work once a week, so I’m saving on gas! I’m also under on my “comfort food” budget for the first time in months. Usually I have to move money into that category from somwhere else. 
I’m excited to Snackuary this year since food tracking is definitely something I’m focusing on overall 
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Final Check-in!
I achieved my goal of staying within my dining out budget! It’s nice to remind myself that I am fully capable of doing that if I just actually think about it.
October was an expensive month, just because some big planned purchases happened to fall in this month. I’m happy with my spending overall though and I’m considering this Budgetober a success! 
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final check-in:
categorized like a boss and have vowed to keep doing so twice a week. It’s much more manageable for me to spend 5 min 2x/week than 10min 1x/week (though even that isn’t an unreasonable fallback on occasion - but I will never go through an entire month in one sitting!)
Nearly all of my “fluff” this round was restaurants. I just gotta start eating in more, and not “go grocery shopping and spend $100 to make a single meal that takes 3 hours” kinda eating in. I did well at eating lunches in (simple sandwich) but I think I need to come up with some simpler cook-at-home meals (e.g. frozen lasagna rather than making my own). This will both be less daunting - I don’t need to schedule an afternoon to assemble and then bake the lasagna so I’ll be more likely to do it more often - and much less expensive (esp considering that making something like lasagna often leads to wasted partial vat of ricotta and other ingredients that I struggle to use on their own).
Challenge: partner is gluten free so frozen lasagna that she can eat is hard to come by. But I think the idea is sound even if the implementation might end up being a little challenging. And maybe buying salad makings that can more easily be used for multiple meals is a good cost saving idea?
Anyway, I’m thankful to all of you for helping me stick to this exercise and maybe turn it into a habit? And thanks to @anomalily for getting me over here in the first place 
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I did not do this 
I forgot to stop for lunch on my way back to school.
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I fell off the wagon at the end of week 3 i think it was? I’ll gather up the data and post it here, but after i realized that DH was done cooperating and I one more week to go, I stopped posting/paying attention. It would either disrupt my home life to unacceptable levels, or I’d drop it. So I dropped it.
I’ll update/edit this post when I gather all the data, so as to keep the posting to a minimum.
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Sticker shipping commencing. If you checked in for 4 weeks, please fill in this form to get stickers anywhere in the world.
STICKERS SHIPPING ON November 11th, 2024.
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Week 3 correction-
I was looking through my expense tracking sheets and realized that I had recorded a grocery expense twice. I wrote it down when I ordered it and when it cleared my bank account. So I was at $526/$700.
Week 4- I am at $859/700 after doing some Farmer’s market shopping this week.
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Oops! I had that message hanging because my account got locked out from posting after week 3. Thanks for all the advice everyone!
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Hmm do you need mod help? I don’t think you should be locked from posting
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It kept saying because you are new, you are limited to 3 posts per week. How do I reach the mods in the future?
@moderators or dm! I just upgraded your trust level
I couldn’t @ since I couldn’t post. I also couldn’t figure out how to DM, I’ll play around again and see if i can navigate it.
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