I’m scared to look on my YTD analysis for my credit cards and see what I’ve spent so far this year on restaurants.
4 Likes
I feel ya. The fear is real! Restaurants have definitely been a huge problem for me in the past.
(the sad thing is that my food totals for this month only include two coffee shop visits and no other restaurants- my partner and I went out to eat about once a week this month and he paid…so I’ve just been overbuying on a shit ton of groceries lol)
3 Likes
Week 4 Updated total: $140.42
Monthly Total: $596.95
Had to get more milk from the local farm shop. That should be the last of things until November 1st so I’m pretty happy!
7 Likes
Still holding strong on restaurants, though it’s been touch-and-go at a few moments – deeeefinitely would have eaten out if it weren’t for this challenge.
Working on pondering through some thoughts-and-feels about restaurants and cooking. Some of them are not particularly fun.
6 Likes
I have a feeling that next month we’re going to do much better on food spending, because due to some decisions we’ve made about our eating, going out for food will basically be a non-option.
4 Likes
Week 4 (through 10/28, cumulative):
- Food: 130.13/+150 (50 in protein)
- $10 of this is protein (tilapia) from week 1
- Spent $18.52 on food in week 2 but no protein
- Spent $44.31 this week on food, $4.11 on protein (smoked salmon on closeout)
- Did not buy any general groceries this week (though I need to the next couple days) but spent $41.70 this week on protein powder - this brings my protein total up to $55.81; I will probably be buying some shrimp or fish the next grocery shop as well
- Health: 0/+100
- Misc: 0/50
- Home: 0/200
- Education/Prof Dev: 0/100
Literally nothing has changed since last week except buying of protein powder. I need to make some decisions the next 4 days. ← this is the challange (as it always is).
2 Likes
Grocery: $49.46/50 heck yea.
Work food: approx 45/80 (may revise for exact when time)
Other food and stuff: 0/0
Vacay: approx 300: 100 gas, 110 eating out, 90 groceries to cook dinner.
Total: approx 405/480.
This week:
Eating out with sister in town: 200/300 (sushi last night for 3)
Grocery/other routine eating for 2: 150
Stuff: 3.50/20 (got soap, may get razor blades, conditioner)
Shopping: 150 (I sense a thredup order coming…work clothes wear fast at 5 days a week!)
Total: 620.
2 Likes
Hey folks, if you haven’t checked in for the final Monday of Budgetober, please do so! Badges will be granted today!
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 next 4 days.
We’ll also do a final check-in- and granting of stickers for the full challenge on October 31st (Thursday).
Would also love to hear about your big expected challenges for the week!
If you’re going to use the last week to “recast” (new budget estimate) feel free to state that!
5 Likes
As I explained in my original post and the challenge. Good thing, because I just dropped 100 bucks on dog and cat medication refills. Not the insulin, though, and that’s the expensive one. Itscost is ncluded in my previously reported success, actually.
4 Likes
Week four check in: $3,358.28 our of a $3,600 budget. With just a few days left in the month and only my utilities to figure out I should be just fine. Utilities are usually around $100 so I’ll have about $150 left over.
If another monthly budget challenge comes up I am definetly in. This challenge has helped me get back into tracking my expenses and I hope that future challenges will help me lower my monthly number more and more.
4 Likes
I forgot to add in projected spending.
Tomorrow: massage, $70
Groceries on Wednesday… Does anyone expect a realistic number from me? I have $13 left in my high budget. I’ve averaged $70-80 the previous four weeks. If I have a spectacular outburst of discipline and creativity, $40-$50. YNAB says there’s $60 left in the Things I forgot to budget for category. That would put my max at $73. (FWIW I estimated my number assuming four shopping days in October, and there are five Wednesdays. Meal planning suggests my list is short, but somehow that seems true every week and something happens…)
That’s all the spending I see right now…
1 Like
I’m only expecting to purchase supplemental snacks - soft pretzels or employee discount clif bars - so I’ll consider it going over budget if I spend more than $5 the rest of the week!
Sweaty is off work next two days and may take care of a couple more things with the car that we should probably do before winter.
1 Like
Spent a bit more for food - so that category is over the estimate a bit more.
Eating out and miscellaneous should be within the budget.
Hard numbers later.
1 Like
Week 4 checkin!
Grocery spending: still $6.85 remaining, Boyfriend picked up what I needed using his money while he was out buying meat. I don’t expect to need anything else before Friday.
Eating out spending - I have only paid for 1 meal out this month! That’s not normal and is completely because we had so much food ordered in (at no cost to me) at work this month that I overindulged in and thus lost my desire to eat out! On Halloween, my work has a cooking/baking contest that our “morale committee” actually charges admission to (it pays for other parties throughout the year since corporate yanked the committee’s events budget). I think that costs $4 or $5 and I’m going to log that under eating out.
All other spending: OK, technically I’m going to be a tiny bit over. I have $4.68 left, and I’m going to a dance class Wednesday that costs $5. That should be it for the month, though. It was REALLY REALLY REALLY hard to stick to my $200 limit. I find that kind of sad, honestly.
8 Likes
Week 4 Update:
Spent only $117.32 this week, so I’m feeling pretty good! And it’s almost Halloween. I feel like I spent more on food this month. There were a few times when going out to eat seemed more convenient than cooking a meal at home. I’m happy that my Restaurant/Dining Out spending was $0 this week.
Have an awesome week everyone! 
4 Likes
Goal was be realistic about my planning.
Update:
- Groceries: $1153/$1,100 (-$53)
- Ponder’s lunches: $341/$300 (-$41)
- Takeaway: $231/$240 (+$9)
- My fun money: $59/$50 (-$9)
- Christmas: $81/$400. (lots.)
Since last update, I did last week’s grocery shopping and this week’s grocery shopping. I couldn’t make it work without pushing expenses and a bit of stress into this week.
I also binge bought/read 6 books on my kindle (two stories written as a set of 3 novellas each). I kick myself lightly for not checking on the library system first, but also noted that they really improved my mood. I do wish I could read without binging, that is a habit I would like to address.
I also started xmas planning and bought the yarn for everyone’s “stocking filler” present.
Do I wave my wand? 
- Groceries: $1153/$1,200 ($47)
- Ponder’s lunches: $341/$400 ($59)
- Takeaway: $231/$240 (+$9)
- My fun money: $59/$50 (-$9)
- Christmas: $81/$400. (lots.)
I added $100 to groceries and $100 to Ponder’s lunches. Now I need to find time to ask him why his lunches cost $400 this month but only $200 last month.
7 Likes
Last week of the month…
Guess who didn’t get paid their full wage this fortnight? My wife.
Fuck contracting, it’s a shit life. The mob she contracts through didn’t receive notification from the company she is contracting for that they’d processed her hours sheet, so they just didn’t pay her, rather than contact the company and say “hey, have you got an hour’s sheet for us?”. Dicks.
So that makes things a bit tight until the end of the month, but to be fair we only need to worry about feeding ourselves and there’s enough in the fridge and pantry to get us through to the end of the week.
The pay stuff up should have been sorted today (Tuesday) with cash hitting our account on Wednesday.
The only thing we couldn’t cover was the auto draw from the CC for the insurance on our rental property. So when I looked the CC was overdrawn due to that charge, I’m not looking again until we’ve been paid as there’s no point dwelling on it.
Looking forward to the end of the month so I can crunch the numbers and see what our overall spend is vs what we’ve brought in and how that will pan out for future months.
6 Likes
I am reupping my biggest challenge for the week to be my desire for all takeout and processed food … Yet only $20 in my wallet. I could have 0 in my wallet by end of day…spend 0 tomorrow and then have Thursday go as planned. Mmmm on budget hedonism.
3 Likes
You have my sympathies. I just yesterday received a check from a September 20th invoice that was due immediately, and am still waiting on 2 months of fees from another contract. Sigh.
2 Likes
Week 3 check-in!
Restaurants: $179.24/200
Groceries: $245.37/300
So for week 4 we have:
Restaurants: $198.59/200.00
Groceries: $282.53/300.00
So we are basically all tapped out. The increase in restaurant was some grocery store prepared food we ate before shopping because I was quickly approaching hanger. I am super sensitive to not eating or crashing quickly. I get really shaky and angry. This is probably something to look into medically, but it’s been interesting to note this month as I have to explain my budget to you all. I think my restaurant food budget would be smaller if I could get a better handle on making sure my body has what it needs.
For groceries, I did promise my brother I would make roasted garlic and potato soup when he comes over for Halloween. I can get the ingredients for that and still be under budget, but the struggle will be only getting those things because the grocery store is like a giant playground for my husband and me.
3 Likes