Week 2:
Food is going well! Weāre about to go to the farmers market and buy lots of tasty food but we have plenty of money left in the category.
Iāve been working through my wishlist. So far so good, everything bought is improving QOL. Ponder threw a big one on there - new Mac laptop. I canāt cashflow that in one month, it has to come from savings. Dang.
Week Three: 2 bubble teas + 1 a friend bought for me, $35.68 so far this month (55.8% out of $64)
I ate a lot of ice cream bars as a substitute this week due to the greater convenience and the apartment being very hot. My favourite bubble tea place was also closed for two days.
The different bubble tea houses each have their own quirky menus and I am embarrassingly knowledgeable about several of them (compared to my bubble tea friends). Oh well, everyone is good at something! 
Oct 22 check-in, month to date
total food spend: 404.12/525 (2 apples unaccounted for in the spreadsheet)
just restaurants: 101.34/125
I am setting up lunch with another person on the 29th (todayās was postponed), so it will still be tight.
Third Week:
Okay, with some adjustments, doing fine.
Groceries: $182.99/$300 (This included a picnic and weekly cooked dinners with my brother. I think this is working!)
Eating Out: $56.97/$60 (Kept this at about $60, since Iām counting feeding my brother as travel now)
Mattress came ok but the bedframe I ordered from Wayfair turned out to be a sketchier company with a bad reputation. Butā¦ I donāt know if I care enough to return it. I guess I just have to assemble it and get it all together now. Almost doneā¦!
week three check in:
had a rough week due to getting my quarterly biologic infusion and a doctors appointment with a new diagnosis, therefore just overall not feeling great emotionally and physically. i felt very conflicted about some unnecessary stationery purchases but ultimately made them (damn you new release season) and my food budget went out the window because I had no energy to cook (which I could have seen coming, but I forgot). So officially waving the magic wand and re-casting my hobbies, household, and food budget for the rest of the month.
hobbies: 148/130. upping to 150 which will definitely get me through this week
household: 0/50, decreasing to 0 to account for hobbies and food spending
food: 367/400, increasing to 480, need to do a big grocery shop this weekend so that should be enough
personal hygiene: 109/125. yay a category that Iām happy with 
natural dye class: 382/400, ran out of alum and bought some more spoons. shouldnāt have to get anything else this month.
no spend: 8/22, kind of surprised by the high number of days (for me) tbh!
Week three:
-Food: $515.18/$700
-Clothes: $254.03/$500
-Recreation/Health: $768.42/$750. Iām over but whatever SUE ME (aka I forgot I needed protein powder lol)
well, the draining things didnāt lighten up so I only did 0.5 out of 2 hours of my goal this week. Iāll try to make up some of that tomorrow and then make the time on Monday/Tuesday to ensure I get there.
Week 3 check-in. This week was expensive! I was actually expecting to go further over budget than I did. For the categories Iām tracking:
Iām waving my magic wand and adding another $50 to the local food budget. I just canāt with this month.
So now we have $55.76.
Due to 2 unforeseen things happening (had to buy new business sneakers as one of the soles of the old ones broke; To be able to save 400 Euro for a vacation condo at the beach next year I had to book and pay 310 Euros in advance) I have not cashflowed as planned the phone and concert ticket. I 
Otherwise I am on budget, I went to Amsterdam for a week on work, food was party payed by company and colleagues. Today I was treated to lunch by friends while I am helped them with some financial stuff, so I was not spending much this week on groceries.
I am curious how this month will end up in terms of spending ā¦ 
Week 3 check in:
10/16 torta $10.88
10/19 wrap $6.78
10/21 tacos $8.62
Total: 3 times eating out 
$26.28 spent
Lmaoooooo thanks for the laugh!
Finally got the rest of the tracking done. We are officially over budget for groceries (because Iām restocking as I can since itās getting hard to find staples again) and fuel (I think this is mostly the trip to get the engine and then the driving home at night from the big camping event). But I just set goals at our yearly average. Itāll be ok, Iām thinking.
| Category | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Cumulative | Goal | Notes Week 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grocery | $109.69 | $40.72 | $175.61 | $326.02 | of max $300 | Liquor! Plus a freezer restock - itās getting harder to find everything, really. Was not able to restock a few staples. |
| Fuel | $36.20 | $114.20 | $96.45 | $246.85 | of max $230 | Well, prices are up a bit, but the drive to get the engine and the weekend event have upped this above average |
| Shopping | $58.06 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $58.06 | Just monitor this | |
| Puppy | $37.43 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $37.43 | Whatever they need (or āneedā) | |
| Eating out | $9.36 | $65.99 | $18.35 | $93.70 | Just monitor this | Chinese takeout so I had hot/sour soup for a sore throat |
| Home/Hardware | $0 | $0 | $0.00 | Just monitor this | ||
| Auto | $650.00 | $450.42 | $1,026.00 | $2,126.42 | Just monitor this | Jeep is running! Insurance for it is going to be cheap - $33 total on top of our preexisting policy through March. Have not yet gone to the tax office to reinstate the registration. Think that will be $20-$50, but wonāt know until we get there |
Week 3 check in. Car and vet bills put a wrench in my budget but Iām able to put my extra Rover funds into savings to try to make up for the spending.
Week 3:
Getting my head around less frivolous spending at the book store and online (just cuz something is cute and right up my alley doesnāt mean I need to throw money at it) and feeling pretty good about that. Had to rework my budget big time last week to make it sustainable for multiple months, but Iām pretty happy with making my finances more visible for me.
Week 3:
The new current account I needed is now fully ready to go. The switch from my old account has begun, and should complete on the 28th of Oct, which is before the Nov deadline. Have also verified all the info for their app, and activated the card. Good to go! (Proud of this one as old me would have waited until about now to sort things, found out it takes several weeks, and settled for a default option). 
Also finally put my main current account onto credit scoring. Few more days for that to go through. 
Lastly: I have been paying attention to energy costs now the new boiler is fitted. Someone suggested logging what the spend was on my Smart Meter against what I was using. So have done that for this past week, and now have some interesting info/data to work with. New boiler does seem to be saving me money. So thatās good. 
Oh, and my phone was having issues again, but I seem to have fixed it, and have also backed it up now, so am less worried if it does die. That said, glad not to have to buy a new one. 
Tasks for Week 4:
New current account has a savings account with better interest. Looked into savings stuff a bit, but things are obviously still in flux with the house, and thereās a lot to consider. So think I am going to move my savings there for now and park them for slightly better interest. 
Have also been jettisoning subscriptions for my business, since thatās on hold, so I need to reduce the Standing Orders which go out to my business account. I also need to cancel some stream subs sadly, I think. But this is a last resort. 
Lastly, I want to continue looking into my energy costs. The cold weather is here, and I donāt want the energy debt to increase further, so anything I can do for that, is good. Some more silver stuff is coming for the radiators (also sorted that this past week). The heating is off for now, but I need to turn off a couple of radiators before it goes on, so thatās another little job. 
Week 3!
This week was complicated!
One of my goals was to lower my take-out and delivery eating ways! And Iām happy to say, we ordered once this week, went out Saturday for a well-deserved visit to our favorite rice bowl place, and ordered a few groceries, primarily fresh veggies, and managed to cook every day except that one busy day.
Then the stationery purchases, which was good, made my hobonichi order and placed it on hold (waiting for my friends to confirm what theyāll order) but other than that managed to stay out of cute stationery. so win
On the random purchases, though I got some cards for a game, thatās pretty much it! So I think it wasnāt super bad! I also had to re-order some sneakers I got at the end of last month and didnāt fit. They wouldnāt do exchanges, so I had to return the ones that didnāt fit and purchase the ones I think will fitā¦ but I kind of saved on that front since the sizing I ended up going for is for āteensā so technically, I got them cheaper 
so far Iām doing okay, my goal for next week is to contact my friendās sister who will help me out figuring out how to invest my money
Check in: Iāve now spent $55 of my $40 budget. Still a big improvement over my fast food spending for the past several months.
Got a bit fatalistic about money this month, so fast food has not been my only severely busted budget. Oy.
Have a good week everyone. Weāve got thisā¦ 
I appreciate this. I think I have good intentions at the beginning of the day or week and then the day brings me down and I donāt know how to get things done. I keep beating myself up for not doing all the things I said I would do. These check ins are nice boost though.