Spent $9.45 on groceries today, just some odds and ends we were out of.
Spent $25.32 on Halloween costume pieces and $15 on a ticket to a Halloween event. Discretionary spending fund now has $36.27 left in it and it’s only Oct. 6. This isn’t going so well…
Budget win today with making my own bagels (usually $11 for 13, ingredients likely less than a dollar for 15) and tortillas (not as much savings in magnitude, but cents rather than dollars). And of course both reminded me how much better homemade is, reminding me why I cook.
Edit: Greyman also hasn’t found the Halloween candy I actually bought before Halloween this year. Maybe I won’t have to buy it twice…
As expected, recasting after the cat’s dental, unexpectedly also having to up the home repair budget because I’ve got a leak in one of the outdoor faucets that’s going to require full replacement of it and part of the piping going into the house rather than just the gasket replacement that I was planning on/ already had parts for.
Home improvement: $0/$300 (and very much hoping to spend this soon, just a matter of when I can get a plumber out)
Bills: $30/$60
Auto: $0/$40
Food: $81/$250 (but big Costco run done, so not as bad as it looks for 6 days into the month)
Sports/Health/Hobbies: $0/$25
Travel: $0/$0
Cat: $360/$400 (extra kidney function tests also done, though, so this should be back to food and litter for another 6 mos)
Rent:1577/1617
Food: 21/800
Transit: 13/300
Coffee: 5/75
Games/dev/stuff: 0/84
Tech: 0/25
Travel: 184/450
Social: 20/150
Giving: 106/250
Health/home: 52/400
Still on the road so this’ll be brief. Doing pretty good! I’m pleased with how little expensive garbage food I ended up having to eat this weekend.
ETA: the week ahead
I anticipate another ~ 100 of travel expenses from the hotel incidentals/getting home/stuff I forgot to record. Getting my hair recolored next weekend, so that’ll be $$$, but it’s a known cost. Biggest challenge will be actually eating the food in my freezer instead of pressing the FOOD button on my phone.
This is really, really hard. I just found out that a band that almost never tours is touring. In April, but tickets go on sale Friday and almost certainly will sell out. Last time they were, I believe, $40-something before fees and that was at least 10 years ago. And… I can’t go. Because that puts me over my spending limit for the month. Before the month is even half over. DAMMIT.
Just write how you’re doing relative to your prediction (numbers or no numbers if not necessary), and what you think your budget will look like for the coming week.
If you’re going to “recast” (new budget estimate for the month) feel free to state that!
Flexible spending this week out of monthly goal:
Electricity: $33.16/$33
Household Goods: $7.18/$10
Groceries: $35.42/$130
Treats: $5.79/$15
On track for everything right now, though I did have to replace my toothpaste and my deodorant this week, which almost took over my entire household good category. Also electricity was $.16 over my prediction, but I had some money left over from previous months so that was fine 
The biggest issue this upcoming week will be reigning in my skating spending, as I plan to do a freestyle session out in the suburbs when I’m out there for a work meeting and I need my skates sharpened.
Utilities - 355.67 – paid & under budget
Food - 761.90 – under budget so far!
Transportation (gas for car) - 37.81 – under budget
Household - 37.99 – under budget and I have not bought any Halloween decorations!
The wiggler - 0 – on track
Car insurance - 450 – Not paid yet but it is scheduled. I checked compare.com for other quotes and didn’t get any that were even close to what we are currently paying, so that’s good (especially since we have a multi-policy discount with our homeowners’ insurance)!
Pet - 200 – Still under budget but will probably recast at some point.
Family Fun & Festivals - 60.96 – I thought we had only one ticket left to pay for, but I actually forgot to input one ticket into the budget last month (realized that when reconciling on Saturday). Thankfully, Past Clare budgeted well, and that still comes in under $60.
So, it looks like we’re on track for the month so far, and more importantly, we have a much better picture of what the last two years have looked like. We also determined that, though we are saving some extra money because of husband’s grad school stipend, we don’t need that money. So, he has all the choices without fiscal constraints. Pretty good place to be.
Edit: not recasting, so still shooting for under 2K of spending for the month, same exclusions. May end up being well under. Last month was $1,743, so if we make two months in a row, that would be very nice.
WEEK 1 STATUS UPDATE:
Groceries^: $69.21 / $220
Eating Out: $11.53 / $75
Gas: $0/$35
Utilities*: $0/$120
Miscellaneous: $0/$100
^ One big-ish shop - got a lot of protein
*It is getting cooler, especially at night. I am resisting the urge to turn on the furnace.
My goal for Budgetober is to start tracking spending and be mindful of it, and see if what I think I spend monthly is anything like what I actually spend! So no numbers right now, but I’ll share what’s gone well and a challenge for this coming week:
On the plus side:
– Inspired by @anomalily, I cooked an InstantPot full of dried black beans and have been eating tacos for lunch most days! Gonna try it again soon to hone the recipe.
– I’ve been getting iced tea and cheaper drinks when I go out to work in coffee shops, just being mindful of how many $6 or $7 fancy matcha lattes I’ve gotten into the habit of drinking.
– Been cooking more and planning for when I’m out and about – I brought a half peanut butter and jelly in my bag the other day as a snack, also keeping energy bars handy in my bag.
– I’ve gotten back into the habit of going to the library – only a block from my house!
Challenge for the upcoming week:
– This weekend is my partner’s birthday. Trying to balance celebrating him with the sometimes expensive presents we’ve gotten in the past.
Full Week 1 recap:
Since I went over in a few categories, I’m taking money out of Clothes and Food and adding it to Gym/Health, Household, and Misc, hence the revised figures. Old monthly budget total: $580. New: $614.80 (edited because I can’t math jeebus)
Had an eating out fail and need to wave my magic wand.
We had a Very Hecking Busy Weekend (literally scheduled the entire weekend with no time to myself, as we had two big social commitments, an Ikea trip, and a friend staying with us for the weekend). In between spending time with the visiting friend Sunday morning and heading off to Ikea (which is over an hour from our house), I completely forgot that I should actually eat lunch. I wasn’t hungry or thinking about food at all. Now, that’s a nice mental place to be. However, cue us getting to Ikea around 1pm… and realizing that there was no way I was going to get through an Ikea trip on an empty stomach. I get hangry at the best of times, let alone when trying to keep up Wizard’s spirits during an Ikea Adventure™.
So, we ate at the cafeteria. It was cheap (cool) and not bad quality (also cool), but this is a fail that strikes right at the heart of what I’m trying to do: slow down and make enough time and care in my life to eat at home.
I therefore am waving my magic wand to add in the cost of an Ikea meal, because a girl cannot be relied on not to murder anyone if she’s hangry at Ikea.
Groceries spending this week: $104.81 out of $400 for the month. This is really good since $30 is fancy coffee syrup that’ll last until Christmas.
We didn’t buy any premade food. Success! And I bought all 8 containers of on sale mushrooms and stocked up the freezer.
We didn’t spend any going out money ($50 for the month). Looks like in two weeks we are going to the pumpkin patch so will spend money for that. But should be way under budget.
Successes:
Spending in Categories I’m Watching:
Can I just throw out that I LOVE being able to bookmark posts here?! So much easier in threads like this!
Groceries
$13.24 King Soopers salad stuff & soap
$149.12 Costco
$20.47 trader joes
Restaurants
$15.77 JJs for R
$19 pizza RR
$17.97 tong tong
$5.90 Starbucks
Home Improvement
$18.64 home Depot
Other
$30.70 gas
$160 utils
$30 prescriptions
Food budget rapidly depleting, and self control is not… Happening. I should have enough food to get through the month buying only veggies if I can get a hold of myself.
Going to need to fill up our other car with gas, which will probably end up in the misc overflow category, since I only expected to need to fill up one.
This week:
Will spend probably $20 filling up car 2 this week.
Gonna guess $20 for misc groceries.
Don’t think my iud insertion is supposed to cost me anything. Should plan ahead and assemble a lasagna Sunday to pop in the oven Monday in the event I’m whiny about doing cooking after getting that put in, so I have comfort food that requires no work.
Epically failed so far with my no snacks at work $18
Eating out $0
I have been doing better at tracking what I am spending, but it hasnt changed my spending habits
Knowing where the money’s going is the first step to changing your habits. You’re only just beginning.
Baby steps - collect the data, then decide if any actions are needed.