Exactly this! It’s always something. Yes, October is a high-spend month because Halloween. Winter has high-spend months because I’m buying more booze to drink at home because it’s a million below zero out and/or a snow-covered hellscape. (And if I’m being totally honest, I do more online shopping to cope with not being able to leave the house because it’s miserable out.) Spring is high-spend because of garden needs. Summer is high-spend because there are more outdoor events that cost money, and we eat out more and buy more prepared foods because who wants to waste a beautiful warm summer weekend stuck in the kitchen cooking? Oddly, Xmas isn’t really an issue; we’ve stopped exchanging gifts with just about everyone in our lives (except for FIL and Boyfriend is in charge of that), we have more than enough holiday decor, we usually go to the Christkindlmarket where we get some food and drink and that is about it.
Now, what to do with the fact that I don’t actually have this money available to spend, is an entirely other issue. Historically, I have used profits from my Etsy shop/Amazon shop/craft fairs as free-to-spend-on-whatever money, but my sales have totally tanked since, hm, around June, I think? so that’s not really an option any more. I have a very small show on Saturday that a friend’s running, but it’s so small that I’m not really expecting much.
This thread is becoming impressive. Congrats to everyone for the impressive budgetting skills.
Due to some personal problems I was not in the spirit of budgeting the first few days of October. But life continues and I’m seeing everywhere that it’s not too late to join so I’ll do my first 3 posts (goal for wk1, recap week1 and goal for week2) at the same time.
My favorite thing about the beginning of Fall is the changing landscape mostly the yellowing leaves.
I have one global goal with this challenge and four specific goals:
Main Goal: start tracking again and see where our money is going
Specific goals:
Reduce our restaurants spending: I’ve started having both breakfast and lunch out and I spend around €350 on meals out. We eat sometimes out as a family and while it’s not high, I’d like to limit it. MrGeek should be spending as much as me eating out and that is a lot for our family.
Reduce Uber spending: I’m also spending a lot on Ubers to drop the kids at school. When it’s raining or I’m late or reasons, I take an Uber. It adds up fast and I’m at €150 for September.
Keeps Grocery spending low. With so many meals out, we don’t spend much on groceries but I’d like to keep an eye on it if we eat more at home. This is mostly MrGeek going to the grocery unnecessarily and buying things we don’t “need”. I can’t control it but I can send him what we’ve spent each week.
Keep my personal spending as low as possible. The goal is to not spend more than €500. This includes my lunch out, my transportation card, books on amazon, my mobile, etc.
My categories and monthly target amounts are:
Restaurants: €250
Restaurants GeekyGirl: €150 – this is my lunch out on the 15 days I’ll be at work in Oct
Restaurants family: €100 – I’ll be on vacation with the kids for 6 days so I better budget it
Groceries: €250
Family Groceries: €250 – this includes diapers for BabyGeek, household utilities, etc.
Ubers: €80
Uber GeekyGirl: €30 – When it’s late and I can’t wait the bus for 30 mns
Uber family: €50 – Going to the swimming pool with LittleGeek or at school
Personal Spending: €500
Perso GeekyGirl: €500 – ie €350 for everything else I have to pay from my debit cards.
WEEK1
My biggest challenge the first week was reducing the meals out and the Uber. I didn’t feel good and didn’t want to cook or meal plan or wait endlessly for buses.
WEEK1 RESULT
I did eat out every single day but I went to places that were cheap and I had breakfast out only one day. We didn’t eat out on the weekend so that was a win and I did a big casserole on Sunday for the second week.
Restaurants GeekyGirl: €51.34/150 – waiting until next week to reevaluate
Restaurants family: 0€/100 – no eating out this week way
Family Groceries: €85.83/250 -– we’ve got meat and kids snacks for a month
Uber GeekyGirl: €6.05/30 – Once per week is good by me
Uber family: €0/50 – Missed the swimming pool with LittleGeek
Personal Spending: €132.91/500 --Might review this; I’m sending 100€ back home
Overall I’m really happy with my level of spending. Even though I wasn’t monitoring, I was aware of my resolve to spend less. Hoping that next week will be better.
WEEK2
For this second week I am trying to stop eating breakfast out. That’ll automatically reduce my eat-out budget. Stretch goal is to bring lunch for at least one day but it’ll be hard as we have PrincessGeek this week and since MrGeek has to do school pickup and drop off at another town, I do more childcare.
I was late to the leggings party but I’m now passionate about wearing leggings with pockets. The pockets on my leggings hold a lot more than the pockets on my lady-jeans ever did and sometimes I stick things in my pockets just because I can. I’d consider it a pretty essential purchase
I don’t think they carry any winter weight leggings but these are great for spring through fall for me. And they have more colors than when I ordered mine! But I’m not buying any because it’s Budgetober and I wasn’t planning to get any clothes for myself this month.
OK, even I have seen these - I have seen leggings with a pocket on one outer thigh - usually active wear or exercise leggings (phone has got to go somewhere). I see them on Zulilt all of the time.
I like Athleta leggings - they’re mostly recycled materials and they have a variety of materials as well as different types of pockets depending on the legging. I buy them used on Poshmark so they’re $20-$30 instead of $70-$100.
Just to get it out of my head I am going to make a list of everything that I want to buy this month (and add to it as more stuff pops up) but am holding off in case, y’know, my “spending money” ends up going toward toilet paper or whatever.
stuff I want
A bottle of raspberry vodka from this distillery in New York that we encountered at the NYC farmer’s market while on vacation. Couldn’t take it home because you can’t carry on that much liquid onto a plane.
Various pumpkin scented/Halloween-themed bath/body goodies from a handmade seller that I buy from often.
Some new leggings, mine are threadbare and I had to toss 1 pair because the elastic waist died. I’m down to 2 pairs of plain black and 2 pairs with skulls.
New pillows; ours are disgusting.
New bedsheets, ours are rough and pilled.
An umbrella that doesn’t leak and actually keeps me dry - why is this difficult and expensive?
A second microwave heat wrap to keep at the office for frigid days.
I bought the concert ticket. $83.48. OUCH. Well, they haven’t toured in like 10 years and they’re old so this is likely the last time. With the recast budget of $200 for all spending, that leaves me with $52.79.
Oh, and, friends we haven’t seen in forever invited us to brunch Sunday. It’s now my turn to pay again because Boyfriend decided randomly to take us out for dinner last night, and pay for it, because, well, we’d had an argument that morning and he wanted to make it up to me. Since the argument centered around his lack of spending time with me and taking initiative to make plans, I didn’t want to shoot him down, you know? So, this will have to be our last restaurant meal for the month that I pay for. If he wants to go out more than that, he’ll need to pay even if it’s technically my turn because my budget is spent!
I was offline for like a week, so here is the update as of Oct 7:
Food: 26.24/+150 (50 in protein)
$10 of this is protein (tilapia)
Health: 0/+100
Misc: 0/50
Home: 0/200
Education/Prof Dev: 0/100
Kittens’ vet visit was less good than hoped for. I am not sure if I feel mentally ok spending on prof dev/glasses given the impending, potentially very expensive dental in 1 weeks’ time.
Did part of our grocery shop today so I’m checking in with my totals so far:
Aldi - $80.07
Trader Joe’s - $33.27
Wegman’s - $3.16 (last night we needed an essential ingredient for dinner)
Total: $116.50
Pretty good, well under our $150 limit. I still have a few things neither store had to pick up but I think that’s doable within the budget.
This week’s check in:
The category (eating out)was raided already, Saturday I had to move things around in my budget to add money again because I wanted to order. Then Sunday I remembered what I was doing before and how I could manage that category in the past:
I bought plenty of finger foods and other treats at the grocery store. Yup, simple as that! So this week I had this in mind, and it was under control!!
Finished shopping this morning, updated total:
Aldi - $80.07
Trader Joe’s - $33.27
Wegman’s - $3.16
Wegman’s - $31.57
Week 2 total: $148.07
This included some household/medicine items like dish soap and airborne so I’m happy with the total. For the month that means I’m $310.70/$600 which isn’t too shabby.
I have significantly underestimated the number of unplanned expenses that are arising.
I budged for the dinner out for a friend’s bday but not his gift ($25-$50).
I already used up my entertainment $ so there’s nowhere to put my friend’s birthday Afternoon High Tea ticket ($30 + tax + tip, probably)
We’re (FINALLY) getting a cold front, and now I want to buy ALL THE (like 5) FALL SEASON dresses on Poshmark. I only need ~2 for my Nov conference, so this SHOULD all fit within budget, but it sure feels like I want to buy every dress. And they’re all secondhand and used so I’m already frugal, right?
I’m gonna have to double what I put aside for Mom’s medicine. The clinic she used to get it at will no longer allow her to fill them there since she’s no longer a patient there.
First grocery shop of the month, just needed a few things as I did some batch cooking last week and also had lunch and snacks provided at work every day this week since we had Events going on. Not great for my weight but great for my budget! It also “helped” that yesterday’s work lunch didn’t really agree with me so I skipped dinner last night. (I’m fine now, I think it was just too creamy and heavy and carby, I don’t normally eat alfredo pasta.)
Spent $40.09 total between Aldi and Whole Foods (WF was just tofu and rice crackers which Aldi does not carry, and coffee because I find Aldi coffee to be foul.) $49.85 spent so far out of the $80 allowed for this pay period. And… I don’t think I’ll need much else until the next pay? Maybe if I run out of a staple like almond milk?
Lunchtime poll: does wine that will be drunk at home count as a grocery?
