I feel like Iāve already been excessively spendy this month.
Groceries: $85.38/500 - not bad, but our trunk freezer just fucked off, which could up our costs.
Restaurants: $65.29/200
Fun stuff: $18.68 spent, $30 earned (spent must be < earned). Most of this was that I had put my audible account on suspension, and didnāt realize it was already October and so the suspension period was over.
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Week one check-in: Iām tracking my spending and creating a budget, and am not optimizing just yet. What Iāve learned and done so far:
- Iāve calculated some numbers for monthly expenses that I didnāt know previously, like my dogās monthly medication expenses.
- I still need to sit down with my wife and get some numbers from her for areas that she manages: e.g. her retirement contributions and car insurance.
- Even though my beauty spending is much lower than it was a few years ago, it still exists and should be included in my budget.
- I used to be pretty frugal by normal people standards (not online frugal standards), but Iāve loosened up over the last 2-3 years. Iād like to get back into those good-for-me habits, like bringing food to the airport instead of buying it.
- Budget updates: raccoons have started using our backyard as a bathroom, so that will trigger some unplanned spending on our end. Living in the country is all fun and games until you have to shovel a 6 inch pile of raccoon dookey.
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Week 1:
-Food: $178.78/$500
-Clothes: $-19.45/$300 (I returned some shoes and then bought a different pair, and this is the difference lol)
-Recreation/health: $87.65/$300
Not too bad so farā¦
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Week 1 update:
I set up a budget! I donāt know that Iām actually following it yet; Iāll need more data. But it is making me more aware of my spending. So I set it up and Iāve been dutifully putting every transaction into its correct category in Mint. So far Iāve realized that I spend far more on my daughter than I thought I did. āYouād like me to meet your every whim, teenager? OK! Letās do that!ā So Iām going to have to do some hard thinking on that.
Sometimes I donāt know how to categorize things for her. Like clothing. Sometimes itās necessary, you are supposed to clothe your kids, but sometimes itās more like a gift. Something she wants but doesnāt necessarily need. Do I categorize it as a gift, or clothing? Same for fun things. I have a category called āKids Activitiesā that I was sort of thinking would be for things like piano lessons or soccer. But if I buy concert tickets for the teenager, is that an activity or a gift?
I donāt know. I spend a lot on her lately but sheās also had a very hard year and has been sick and Iām just willing to do anything to make her happy/give her things to look forward to/keep her going, I guess. I didnāt used to be so indulgent and she didnāt used to be so expensive. But she got sick and sad and I got desperate and the budget I think I should have does not match my actual spending. Iām not sure if I should just accept that and adjust the budget or make a plan to reign in the spending. I donāt really care much about saving but I care everything about my kids so I guess thatās why Iāve made the choices Iāve made so far. She at least recognizes that Iāve been spoiling her rotten lately, doesnāt think itās normal or expect it. Can I keep her humble while also giving her the world? Does optimizing your money even matter if your baby is ailing??
Sorry, this got a little off-topic. Iām terrible and staying focused on finances. You know me. 
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$75.50/$100 remaining. So I guess weāre on track!
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Most of our budget categories are either set bills (ie water/electric/internet) or sinking funds. So, Iām only checking in for the categories that I have some control over.
Date night: $0/$50
Household: $0/$50
Groceries: $92/$600
Books: $14/$30
Dining out: $30/300
Personal care: $0/$75
Baby supplies: $0/$150
Home improvement: $389/$2000
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27/62 of budgetober folks have checked in and gotten their cute week one Bat Budget!
Good job! I still havenāt checked in 
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week one check in:
I decided to focus on three categories in my budget, where I seem to be overspending the most, and Iāll just be doing the weekly updates on those rather than the whole thing. Iām also tracking my no-spend days.
hobbies: 50/130 - bought stickers (planned) and fabric (unplanned)
house: 0/50
personal hygiene: 0/100
no spend: 3/8 (it might be 4 but i think iām going to get takeout for dinner tonight)
so far so good!
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Original Post
Week One: 3 bubble tea drinks, $14.41 (22.5% out of $64)
I ran into some unexpected considerations.
Talking about food, comfort eating
Human nature/economics: restricting access to something promotes substitution. I had alcoholic drinks or other treats in lieu of bubble tea because I havenāt eliminated my need for ingestible comfort and pleasure.
So whatās my highest aim for this budget challenge? Less junk consumption or less spending at an overly indulgent level on junk? I think some daily food comfort/enjoyment is needed and reasonable, so I think the more important aim is that Iām not spending a ridiculous amount on fancy sugar drinks. By a dollar-metric Iām on track. 
I had to think about how I counted loyalty discounts and app credits, with regards to tracking spending. Iāve decided that discounts that are specific to a store (e.g. the discount could only be used at the bubble tea house) are fine to include as part of spending (so they reduce how much of the budget Iāve spent). Credits from take-out apps (that could be spent at restaurants other than bubble tea houses) do not get included in spending (so even though Iām not out-of-pocket for an order I still count the expenditure as though I am, so I deduct the pre-credit spending from the budget).
I understand that I am taking all this very seriously and thatās just how I am. 
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Week 1: 114.87/300.00 grocery budget. I didnāt keep great track of what items we bought, but we are going on vacation next week and some stuff wonāt be consumed until we get back (like coffee beans because Iām not coming back to no coffee!)
(Since we will be on vacation next week there will be no grocery spending.)
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I also have the same issue and over think this way too much. I actually split my ibotta cash outs proportionally into the budget categories that the original coupons were for 
cw alcohol/food
On the substitution question, itās a good question. When I quit drinking alcohol for (mostly) budget reasons, I craved sugar a lot more. It took awhile for that to kinda peter out. it helped the budget because sugar is cheaper when not fermented but was a trade off
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I decided that the $18 I spent on a roast chicken Thursday night didnāt go into the spreadsheet because it was part of the gift card my MIL gave us. We wouldnāt have purchased takeout instead, if we hadnāt had the gift card I probably would have made eggs or fritters.
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Checking in on October 8: On track! Currently drinking, though, which will be the test. Wish me luck! 
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Week 1 update before I forget/fall asleep/etc.
Food $108/350*
Some stocking up (meat), plus a happy hour. Will get $30 back from a friend shortly, but Venmo hasnāt cleared yet.
Clothes $0/$150
Still need to deal with this
In-progress projects $82/$100*
Technically I got $36 back on a refund card which was for some reason FedExād to me rather than just having the money refunded to me on my credit card. Not sure what Iāll use it for, but I still had to go buy stain elsewhere so itās kind of annoying.
Sports/Hobbies $24/$10
Oops, but theyāre doing one more play-in-the-park this year so I bought a ticket.
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Still at $52.18 for groceries. This early in the month keeping to a $300 seems very possible.
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Week 1 check in (Iām only tracking food):
65% of my budget is spent. That includes prepaying for food through the 17th, plus or minus a couple meals. So, 65% for 54% of the month. But I think I can still come in on budget, I front-loaded some costs by ā¦ buying some pantry staples for the first time in months and actually cooking and freezing some stuff!.. itās been a rough pandemic yāall.
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Week 1 check in. Goal is taking at least two hours time on all things cash flows.
Itās been about 3.5 hours this week! A solid start!
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Week 1 check-in:
~$65/$300 on food spending, most of which is being generous with my share of takeout orders as I tour my way around the Midwest visiting friends and family.
Upcoming weekās expenses will be a grocery stop of some kind to get road meals/snacks to minimize the amount of places I have to go inside/interact with people, and a grocery shop when I get home to restock perishables/dairy for coffee.
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Week 1 checkin ā Today was my move-in day for my new apartment, so I almost forgot. (oh no!) But! This week Iām much, much closer to figuring out my baseline for my rent/utilities and I got a good-enough deal on internet. Electricity is going to be a mystery until next month, but I can live with that.
On the stay-on-budget-for-moving-costs front, I found that a local friend is helping her dad downsize. Iām buying a lot of the furniture I need directly from her in the coming weeks. I decided to buy a costco membership to help buy new-apartment staples in bulk (toilet paper, dish soap, laundry detergent, trash can liners, etc). No move-in expenses to report other than the costco membership.
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Week 1 Check in: not gone over any planned categories yet. We have bought some planned purchases from our wishlist.
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