This ended up waaaaaaayyyyy more than anticipated due to the vet basically saying “let’s do some blood work to make sure she doesn’t have diabetes” and me going “I WILL PAY ALL THE MONEY TO MAKE SURE MY BABY IS OKAY.” And apparently cat blood work is expensive. 
But it’s all good as long as I get that witch hat badge…
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I was sure that I had done an interim update - but I cannot find it.
FINAL STATUS UPDATE: (subtotal/month goal)
Groceries: $279.11/$220& (Uh-oh)
Eating Out: $48.23/$75
Gas: $25.39/$35 (got a 30¢/discount saving $3.67)
Utilities: $103.57/$120
Miscellaneous: $29.80/$100 (ship pkg; dog meds)
TOTAL: $486.10/$550
& - grocery overrun due to getting a load of junk food specials at Costco ($100) which included a few normal things.
No recasting - I’d count that as a fail as well (not that others should - my own “rule”)
Learnings:
- This encourages me to update my tracking spreadsheet more frequently
- Tracking expenses has given me a REALLY GOOD sense of my monthly expenses - otherwise I would never have gotten so close on the utilities estimate for this month
- I don’t clip coupons from papers, or get them online - but I will use the coupons that one store mails to me, and sales items to keep costs down. No local stores do double coupons.
- I haven’t “had to” budget for decades - but the skill is still there, and I can still do it!
- Doing the challenge did make me pause when thinking about spending money. Obviously the call of junk food ON SALE won - but it didn’t all get eaten in a week, so that’s OK, and some is for Christmas.
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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.
- 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
Spending in Categories I’m Watching:
- Food: $324.42 - This is higher than I usually average. But also a normal fluctuation for this time of year as I try to figure out what the heck I can eat without feeling sick.
- Clothing: $234.95 - FINALLY ordered shoes for work. Fully zipped rain pants 70% off (by buying men’s). Clearance merino long sleeve shirt. Thrift store sweater-knit skirt, scarf. Had money set aside (a lot. which is scary) for Patagonia jacket and puffer to go on sale - finally, probably the first time ever, that I’ve watched for a sale and caught it at the right time. Bought a packable puffer vest 60% off. Ordered a jacket 50% off but charge hasn’t shown up yet. Was very expensive…but researched to death for the past three years and my current Columbia jacket is 12+ years old and has holes everywhere. I feel good about the choice of items, will see how I feel about the spend in a few months.
- Pets: $620.99 - food for dogs/cat, dog walking punch card (I think it’s good for about five weeks of walks), jacket for New Pup and one that fits Oldster over harness so he doesn’t get grumpy with dog walker.
- Fun Stuff With Other People: $187.49 (nothing since the first week)
- Vacation/Camping: $0
And this is why I’m watching these. Eegads.
ETA - my spending on just these categories is more than I made per month a few years ago. This is mindboggling to me. Some categories, like the pet category and clothing, are things I’ve very slowly added to over time (pets especially as Oldster got older). Vacation/Camping also gets money regularly shunted that direction. But spending it in big chunks is SO INTIMIDATING.
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Regarding your 12 yr old cost - I thought Columbia had a guarantee on their items - maybe I am confused?
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I hadn’t even thought of that! It has minor damage, but the bigger issue is that it’s not wind/waterproof, which didn’t matter back then when I drove everywhere but does now that I bike/wait for transit. It’s been ok to keep me from getting cold injuries but isn’t great compared to being able to layer properly.
I ordered the new coat through REI so at least I could return it easily if needed! Thanks Gdogg 
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Update: We have officially entered “this is what money is for” territory. She doesn’t have diabetes, but the vet is concerned that she may have lymphoma, so she’s getting X-rays tomorrow and who knows how much that will cost. But I don’t care, it will come out of the emergency fund and we’ll rebuild the fund over the next few months!
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Crap. I hope whatever the diagnosis is - the path forward is clear.
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Oh no, poor Ophelia! I hope she’s okay, and like Gdogg said, that the path forward is clear.
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I went way overboard on restaurants in the last week. I regret at least $30 of it (ordering a not great expensive entree when already full on appetizers). Ugh. Full report incoming when I get home and get situated tomorrow.
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- Groceries $260: My final spending clocked in at $261.92. $2.99 of that was for a basil plant, which should help reduce our long term spending. I was debating which category it belongs in, but I decided to put it here since I’ll be eating it eventually.
Clothes $35: Still at $28.77
Date money $50: Now at $45.02. We had desperation burritos Monday after two consecutive weekends of trading off house projects with friends, plus hosting overnight guests. - Miscellaneous $80: $16.93.
- Plants $20: Still at $22.25.
- Biggest challenge this week: I feel like I could sleep for 14 hours straight but my husband just had an orthodontic thing inserted and he’s in pain so I need to get it together and cook the meals that I bought ingredients for.
So overall I think it’s a win even though I was over on food and plants? Our miscellaneous spending was great this month because all our house projects left us without any time to go places and buy things. We spent a lot at home improvement stores but that wasn’t a category I was tracking.
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Final grocery tally is… $391.57 out of $400!!
I think this means that $400 is something that we can stick to without too much sacrifice as long as we don’t buy processed food junk which is something that we shouldn’t be doing anyways. This total does include some premade food and fancy coffee syrup so it isn’t only the bare bones (Halloween pun).
Going out final tally is $19 out of $50. Usually this is $0, but there were lots of festivities this month, but we ended up not going to some of them and still had lots of fun with just the free ones.
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There is 3.65 in my wallet. And I will probably spend some of it this morning as well as withdrawing tonight’s money tonight. So I win!
My biggest win is that I had about 700 billion times less money stress this month. So I’m carrying over the cash strategies into November. While I’m thousands of times (15+) richer than at my poorest, I have been carrying stress and guilt of my poorest times. And I was never this stressed or guilty at my poorest because I was using cash. So I’m back to team cash! Maybe for good! I can also change my reward categories for my credit card on November 3rd. Restaurants doesn’t get to be in that category because I’m not spending credit card money at the restaurants
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I spoke too soon.
8.34 on litres bottles of Coke Zero and apples
477.62
Which means that a ballpark of 500 is going to feel pretty tight on an ongoing basis. We didn’t eat out together during October, and that is something I want to be able to do within our budget.
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The final tally!
Um… I eat out a lot. It has potential to make me really happy, but sometimes I order shit that I don’t actually want, and that feels really wasteful.
I probably should’ve gone to the drs more, but I’m cheap when it comes to wanting to save up my medical needs for next year once it counts towards next year’s deductible instead of this year’s, because I am filled with sadness that I switched plans halfway through the year.
I’m drawn to stress-buying clothes & makeup in addition to eating out. Stress stress stress = ^^^ these types of spendings. Some of this is OK. Some of this is probably not as useful as if I just spent more money on actually doing things to fix the stressful things.
I’m terrible at sticking to tracking, and almost didn’t report on week 4, but thanks to this challenge, I came and committed to finishing up the month. It was a useful exercise as my spending behaviors as I got more stressed and as the month passed!
-
healthcare copays etc: $69 / $158
- $69 - appt
-
transit & gas: $39 / $60
- $9 parking meters
- $10 - half of the gas to drive to Austin
- $20 tolls. because time is more valuable. and I get carsick
-
groceries: $258 / $250
- $34 Amazon snacks (coffee, creamer, snacks)
- $130 half of grocery bills
- $6 lemons & chips
- $52 (half of a bill) - had a change of heart and decided to buy more expensive groceries for eating goals
- $36 nutrition supplements
-
restaurants & bars: $249 / $200
- $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
- $20 dinner + dessert with visiting friend
- $14 delicious BBQ where I also got yelled at for bringing water into the restaurant… worth it?!
- $5 froyo
- $11 dinner after yoga
- $14 driving food
- $26 emergency lunch + afternoon snacks when friend got bad news at the drs
- $30 fancy dinner for no stupid reason
- $45 fancy bday dinner… where I ordered $30 more entree than I needed! dumb dumb dumb
-
clothing/personal care: $159 / $150
- $24 winter leggings with pockets! yeah ok this was just fun splurging
- $45 dresses
- $25 nail health
- $67 makeup + skincare
- $2 nail polish
-
hobbies/entertainment: $140 / $150
- $97 airplane ticket to make the 3 leg return flight from Iceland in Dec 2 legs instead
- $43 tea party
-
gifts: $149 / $200
- $13 gift for friend undergoing surgery on her bday
- $76 my half of a family bday gift
- $25 gift
- $21 boxes for containers for macarons & chocolates
-
non-fixed costs misc.: $24 / $100
- $12 airtight container…for baking
- $9 bookmarks & pen at irresistible stationary store
- $3 bandaids
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Done spending!
I spent $90 under shopping for a bunch of holiday things we never had space for in our old apartment, including some candles and a table runner! Totally worth it since there was a giant sale and I’m hosting Thanksgiving. See how I justify? Haha. I also spent more on a lyft into the city today and an extra bit of money under fun on lunch out. I didn’t buy any specialty groceries today after all so I can roll over that $55 to next month’s grocery budget (I’m planning a big Chinatown/Italian Market trip). Overall I came in under budget in every category! I’m not expecting a repeat of that next month but I’m pretty psyched!
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It’s final update time! All totals are cumulative.
- Groceries/Household Supplies: $457.54/$460
- Gas: $240.92/$240
- Medicine: $84/$40
- Student loans: $434/$434
- Life Ins: $21/$21
- CC’s (no-interest): $80
- CC’s (interest-bearing): $205
- HSA: $80/$80
- Gym: $45/$45
- Personal loan: $191.38/$191.38
- Car: $370/$370
- Car insurance: $40/$40
- 2nd personal loan: $80/$80
- Health insurance: $208.70/$208.70
- Cell phone: $57.29/$57
- Internet: $15/$15
- Out-to-eat: $247.57/$240
- Car tags/taxes/maintenance: $254.25/$300
- Misc: $16.24
Total: $3,127.89 so overall I came in under budget for the month as compared to my estimate of $3,148 altogether.
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Here’s my original goals:
Spending since last check-in:
Groceries: $53 (lowest this month)
Gasoline: $22 I had planned to wait until Nov 1, but decided to join a hike today and didn’t want to head into the mountains with an almost empty tank of gas.
Massage: $71
So my updated totals for the challenge are:
Groceries: $365 / $275 stretch, $325 more realistic. (5 Wednesdays - pro-rated would be $407)
Gas: $72 / $55 (would be under if I’d filled up Sept 30 as planned!)
Eating Out / Entertainment: $40 / $75
Household: $33/ $75
Supplements: $59 / $60
Cat: $21 / $60
Therapy: $ 450 / $300 (extra session)
Massage: $140 / $120 (forgot tips)
Lawn & Garden: $35 / $40
Blinds: $0 / $300
Bus pass: $0 / $20
Gas & Electric: $-1 / $5 (saver’s switch credit drops this month, yay… and THEY owe ME money)
Professional Registration: $94 / $0
Clothing $32 / $0
Yoga Teaching: $2 / $0
Bicycling $11 / $0 Hmm somehow have dropped this category from this listing
[/quote]
I updated the avatar.
Thanks to Toodledo, I made a ToDo list, prioritized stuff, and the home projects got bumped for things I decided were more important. I would still like to complete these. I’d also like to keep improving my time management.
This challenge was clearly a win for me and hopefully the start of some habits that will serve me well for a long time to come.
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3.25 on the coke and a lottery ticket. 40 cents left not even counting the money left to get out this week’s money. I’m a baller yo.
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I want to put a making it rain gif here but I’m on my phone and also haven’t figured out gifs on this forum.
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Final check in!
Health: 4064.6 / 4500
Groceries: 320.78 / 400 (Very happy with this)
Personal: 134.3 / 120 (Oops.)
Good to see we can stick to the grocery budget with some to spare. Health will hopefully not be this high again for a long time but I’m happy with it.
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