Well, between cat food, expensive litter that someone recommended to encourage my cat to use her litter box, more cat food, more litter (we had a coupon), and cash for the cat sitter, we are almost at the $200 I had budgeted for the cats—and we haven’t even taken them to the vet. I think the litter may have worked so I cannot regret it. I completely forgot that we would need a cat sitter when making the budget, so that’s a mistake. I think we will have to go ahead and move money from another category for the cats, but I’ll do it when it comes up.
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First of 2 restaurant meals bought, for me and Boyfriend. (We alternate paying for 1 meal out per week). $43.53. Goal was to stay under $50. Yay! That’s a lot easier to do if you don’t order drinks, it turns out. Which, this is takeout due to the sudden downpour outside, so I can just drink at home. I have wine and I have some pumpkin cream liqueur I got at Trader Joe’s a couple weeks ago.
Also, I’ll have massive leftovers as this place’s portion sizes are enormous.
I just remembered! Next week we have this companywide volunteer initiative thing, with various volunteer opportunities all week long (paid!). And they feed us if we’re doing a Thing - so I have my lunch covered on Monday. Also, there will be free snacks all week long, some of which will be healthy-ish (nuts, dried fruit, popcorn). So this should help a lot with unplanned food spending due to Hangry.
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Do you need a catsitter due to vacation? I usually charge that to the travel bucket, not to the cat care bucket, YMMV.
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Ok. I finally sat down and entered transactions for the past three months into YNAB. This is the first time I’ve not tracked in a few years, and it was incredibly liberating!
I’ve procrastinated doing any computer work at home since my laptop has an LED going out and the screen flickers or is black, but it’s working ok today with just a slight flicker, so:
With adding a second dog to my household in September, I need to make sure I’m not overspending since I’ve added some $$$ regular costs (dogwalking daily) and some $$$ one time costs (food bowls, harness/leash, different treats that she thinks are all boring, etc).
Last week ran away from me time-wise and probably money-wise - a birthday gathering, another social event, a casual friend needing a one-on-one outing at the last minute, and another impromptu friend outing.
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My goal for this challenge: to make sure my spending is in line with my overall values, and to track/adjust my budget categories as needed.
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The budget categories I’m especially watching are
** Food, Clothing (I rarely spend here but it looks like I need different fall/winter gear than in the past and I have no clue how much I’ll need to spend), Pets, Fun Stuff, Vacation/Camping -
My biggest challenge this coming week will be sticking to a meal plan and meal budget with working four long days in a row instead of having a day off in the middle to re-shop
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My fave thing about the beginning of autumn is crisp air for days as the leaves change - which is decidedly not happening this year. We are in full Portland winter over here. Sob.
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I decided to estimate / budget for all of my discretionary, non-fixed spending. I wasn’t going to update until the week was over but since others are I will do so too. A lot of this has been documented in excruciating detail on my journal.
- I did not make a category for bicycling. This was obviously a foolish oversight
- The gasoline estimate was based on filling up on Monday, Sept. 30. I was tired. I didn’t.
- I shop on Wednesdays. I didn’t realize until Oct. 2 that there are five Wednesdays in October. Oops again.
- I completely forgot about the email telling me my professional registration is due by Oct. 30 or pay a late fee. I paid it.
- I didn’t include tips in the massage budget.
This is where I’m grateful for the nicer vibe here. Instead of beating myself up, it was more like, I’m learning a few things and I will be able to do MUCH better in November!
So with spending so far:
Groceries: $82 / $275 stretch, $325 more realistic.
Gas: $26 / $55
Eating Out / Entertainment: $29 / $75
Household: $-18 / $75 (took stuff back not needed for a project, got a refund)
Supplements: $60
Cat: $21 / $60
Therapy: $ 0 / $300
Massage: $0 / $120
Lawn & Garden: $35 / $40
Blinds: $0 / $300
Bus pass: $0 / $20
Gas & Electric: $0 / $5 (saver’s switch credit drops this month, yay)
Professional Registration: $94 / $0
Curiosity about the bigger picture caused:
- I got into YNAB for the first time ever and budgeted like crazy. Lumpy income, big expenses coming up in first half of year, anxiety about how to handle those addressed
- Looked at what I’m actually earning, not happy, leading to soul-searching about my path forward and making some bigger changes
- Questioning how much I’m spending on therapy. Resolve to make every session count or quit going.
- Downloaded Toodledo today to try and get a handle on my time management problem. Feeling more anxious about budgeting time than money.
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This is often me. I’m going to look up Toodledo!
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@MonkeyJenga gets the credit for introducing me to it some years ago. It’s the only app I’ve seen (I looked at a couple of others today) that let’s me estimate how long things will take. I’m going to start timing things and updating my estimates with the actual times to help my planning. (It allows the user to set a priority of negative (-1) which I’ll use for recurring tasks that aren’t on the list but I’m not deleting because I want the record of how long it takes.)
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Results:
Failure: This week I had a kidney infection that limited my ability to meet goals. I went to the gym once instead of 3x and got take out/ ate out three times instead of the desired twice. I entirely forgive myself; I did pretty well, considering. If I can go to the gym twice extra this month and have one less weekly meal out it will even out.
Success: I booked massages, physio, house cleaning, therapy, and appointments for my kids. I took the kitten to the vet and booked his neutering. I did a bunch of admin stuff that moves me towards achieving my goals.
I also bought a roomba, which took floor cleaning off my to do list and made it possible for me to get other stuff done. I have very limited capacity for getting things done, so finding a way to reduce my workload means a lot.
Overall it’s a win.
Week two plans:
Go to the gym/ yoga at least 3x
Eat out/ get take out 2x or less
Get a massage then go straight to the gym, to see if that makes working out less painful and decreases the chances of injuries
get my house cleaned
vote
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- Budget categories, all for the month:
Groceries $260: spent $25.97 so far
Clothes $35: $0 so far, and I’ve even been to my two favorite thrift stores for clothes!
Date money $50: $0 so far
Miscellaneous $80 (this will include a breakout of my spending on decorating my spider plants as spiders for Halloween): spent $12.69 for spider supplies
Plants $20: spent $22.25 - Biggest challenge this week: Staying on track with food spending while also tackling some things around the house including trying to pinpoint the source of some water we had in the house, which a plumber was unable to figure out.
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Whoa, I’ve even forgotten about this app! Hope it helps. 
Week 1 so far (flex expenses for just me):
- healthcare copays etc: $0 / $158
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transit & gas: $4 / $60
- $4 parking meters
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groceries: $38 / $150
- $22 subscribe & save from Amazon - this is all my stuff (coffee, creamer, snacks)
- $16 (half of the bill) at the grocery store
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restaurants & bars: $69 / $250
- $11 takeout bc sad and lazy after work
- $19 (my portion of a group outing that did include mr. flan)
- $14 desperation tamales
- $9 snacks at happy hr for visiting friend
- $16 krav friend retirement brunch
- clothing/personal care: $0 / $100
- hobbies/entertainment: $0 / $100
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non-fixed costs misc.: $13 / $150
- $13 gift for friend undergoing surgery on her bday
TOTAL for flex spending portion of my life: $124 / $968 for flex spending portions
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1st weekly budget update:
Groceries: $153.68 out of $460 ($306.32 left)
Gas: $21 out of $240 ($219 left)
CC’s (interest bearing): $65 out of $205 ($140 left)
CC’s (no-interest): $40 out of $80 ($40 left)
HSA:$40 out of $80 ($40 left)
Gym: $45 out of $45
Personal loan: $80 out of $191.38 ($111.38 left)
2nd personal loan: $80 out of $80
Out to eat: $80.59 out of $240 ($159.41 left)
Car maint./taxes/tag fees: $73.03 out of $300 (had to adjust for oil change/tire rotation ($226.97 left)
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Update: I’m still here, have the sense that we’re on track to stay under 2K spending this month, can now report that we stayed under it last month, so that’s a good sign. I did get the property tax bill this week, but it’s not due until December. Good news: it’s only $1100. I should see if I can get a new rewards card in time to pay that. Probably can.
Today, rather than figuring out our spending so far for the month or by the week, or whatever, we’re going to take a look at the bigger picture. Do we have a net gain or loss based on his graduate school and stipend +2nd household? It’s close enough that we’re not sure. He found out last week that he’s at the point where he can fill out paperwork and have a masters degree, and he’s trying to decide if a PhD is really worth another couple of years of this. My mission is to support whatever he decides at this point. For him, though, the finances are a factor even though it’s close either way. So We’ll figure it out.
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Still have not eaten out. \o/
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Restaurants: $75.54/$200
Grocery: $31.18/$300
So… restaurants is not great. Especially because in my mind the second half of the month will probably be spendier for us. This week was:
$14.00: Two beers, one for me and one for my husband, with my boss and other people who helped put on a work event. $2 tip.
$9.00: Two beers at a brewery, one for me and one for my husband. Includes tip but I don’t remember how much of it that was. We went to this brewery so I could check out a food truck I am writing an article about.
$24.00: The food from the aforementioned food truck. It was two “garbage plates” (upstate NY thing). They gave them to us two for $20 instead of the $24 it was supposed to be, so I gave them the rest as a tip. This was kinda unavoidable since I had to check this place out for my article and also to get to know the food community around here. I am wondering now if this could be a freelance write off, but I haven’t explored any of that yet and my contract ends this month.
$28.54: Brunch at a butcher shop near our new apartment where we signed a lease yesterday. This was one sandwich, one order of amazing pancakes, one soda, and tip. Seems very expensive so while I liked the place, it doesn’t seem like somewhere we should frequent.
Groceries are weird right now since we are living with my parents. Different people just end up paying for whatever is needed. Our bills have been stuff like picking up milk and ice cream for my brother and also getting local cider and apples and stuff like that for the family. It’s not until October 15 or so that we will need to buy staples and things to make real meals. (We are very lucky in that my parents are generous and also my mom has SO MUCH FOOD so I usually only have to buy vegetables to make dinner since she has everything else around. I make 99% of the dinners for the family to thank them for letting us stay.)
An okay picture of very good pancakes:
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Groceries: $60 / $250
Home goods/misc: $0 / $50
Utilities: $47.29 / $320
Internet: $49 / $50
Alcohol: $0 / $30
Fun money: $5 / $25 (Patreon)
No travel expenses yet, that’s in 2 weeks…
Wedding gift: $46.97 / $100 The registry was down to the $200+ dream items or the small $10-15 items, so I got a couple things on the lower end. Might supplement with a check.
I overestimated the car insurance reimbursement- we’ll be getting back $55.
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Oh yes. Let me show you our travel bucket 
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So far so good. I’m at $793.35 out of $2,000 for the month and this already has my mortgage and health care costs so I’m in really good shape. 
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Doing well so far, only spent:
Groceries: 25.96 / 400
Personal: 34.45 / 120
Health: 251.2 / 4500 (yearly insurance being taken out today though…)
Pretty pleased with our progress so far in the month
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Results:
On track with rent, security deposit, transit pass, credit card payment, dance tuition and voice lesson.
Under with electric and internet (roommate hasn’t posted yet), and copay ($25 left).
Over with food. I ended up eating out and buying groceries today (Sunday) for upcoming week’s meal prep. About $100 total (have to finish updating YNAB).
And I did get my security deposit back this week, so all’s good on that front.
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