Here for this. I keep falling off the wagon budget-wise and find public posting about my shame to be helpful. The biggest challenge will be food spending - I’m committed to a bunch of different activities through the end of the year that keep me out of the house basically 12 hours a day/5 days a week. I’m still bad at planning ahead with meals and budgeting, so let’s do it to it 
6 Likes
Preliminary October budgeted items (to be discussed & agreed upon w/ Greyman):
Flexy Spending
- Food altogether - $500. Can be groceries or restaurants but must stay under $500.
- Home improvement/repair - $3500 (going to be building fence, getting compost & mulch for yard). Would much rather spend less but this is an amount I believe we can stay within.
- Coffee - $60.
- Utilities - $160
- Gas - $40
- Car registration - Not totally sure, budgeting $500.
- Gifts - $50 for MIL’s bday.
- Phone - $60
- Fun stuff - ???
- Health - Expect $60 as usual, budget $100 in case something comes up.
Set Bills (no need to track really, unless they disappear or go up without warning)
- Mortgage, car, solar payments - $2361.28
- Car insurance - $276
- Homeowner’s insurance & property taxes - $316.11
- Fitness Memberships - $150
- Streaming services - $15
- Internet - $200
How to track
- Have a shared keep list between Greyman and I. Log every expenditure in it, & take a pic of the receipt. Consolidate into categories at end of each day.
5 Likes
I am surprised zero about this. I hope they’re mostly fun things!
2 Likes
Please tell me more about this. I have a dozen spider plants.
4 Likes
Details TBD but I’m thinking about making spiders out of pipe cleaners, some sort of fuzzy black ball for the body, and of course googly eyes. This will require a trip to a craft store but I suppose I have like a month to do it.
4 Likes
Maui! I have wanted to go for at least 20 years. An acquaintance goes yearly, and I’ve always wanted to, and been so jealous of her - so I decided, fuck it, I am getting old and shit happens and I don’t want to miss out on a dream, as silly of a dream it might be.
12 Likes
Nice! And I don’t think a dream of going to Hawaii is silly at all.
3 Likes
Welcome and CONGRATS on getting debt-free!
OK, so, I’m curious. How do you all arrive at a number that feels right for non-need spending? Like, how do you all set a number for things like eating out, clothing, fun, shopping?
I’m not sure that I can do a detailed budget this month but it makes sense for me to set some limits around those specific areas of spending. Especially since I have this big vacation bill sitting on my credit card (which has good cash back but a low limit so the card’s half full now, I NEVER let that happen).
Like, for some things (ahem, Halloween) I know I should just do no-spend at ALL, but I am not sure that is realistic and will likely lead to me waving my middle finger at the budget and spending anyway out of rebellion.
4 Likes
Should probably do this–September went fairly well but some extra hobby spend put me a bit over where I’d prefer to be. Since October is where the last of my 2019 charity donations have to happen to guarantee the match at work and the cat needs some dental work done, I’d prefer to keep the rest of the budget categories lower anyway.
- Home Repair: 25–a couple minor repair projects and some winterizing that absolutely must happen; I have most of the supplies but past experience says that at least one hardware store run will be required
- Bills: 60–cell and internet, all others already prepaid through plastiq promotions through the end of the year
- Auto: 40–one tank of gas, hopefully closer to 30 but that depends on gas prices
- Food: 250–I lump toiletries in with groceries and eating out, but even with that this category keeps creeping up and I should keep a better eye on it
- Sports/Health/Hobbies: 25–this is the category that was way up this month, only budgeting for craft show prep since the next show is a little more upscale and has some booth/display requirements I don’t meet yet. Also have a dental appt myself, but that’s reimbursed so I’m not including it (unless that doesn’t meet the challenge?)
- Travel: 0–any travel next month would be for work and would also all be reimbursed
- Cat: 350–most likely to recast since I’ve only got the rough estimate on his dental right now, they won’t have details until they do some x-rays
I already track through Mint to keep an eye on transactions that pop up on my credit cards (and have my own separate spreadsheet both for reference and for when Mint goes off in the weeds), so the tracking part is easy, at least 
4 Likes
Categories I’ll be tracking:
Groceries and toiletries: $250
Home goods/miscellaneous: $50
Utilities: $320 (the quarterly water bill is due)
Internet:$50
Alcohol: $30
My fun money: $25
Travel related expenses: My sister is getting married in Chicago this month. Airfare is already paid but the following additional expenses are anticipated.
Hotel + food: $300 (estimating high. Not sure if a dinner out with family/wedding party is planned)
Car rental plus gas: $250
Wedding gift: $100
Dog boarding plus a nail trim: $200 (ouch!)
I’m omitting (among other categories) local travel/commuting because October is our first month going car-free so I have no baseline estimate. However, I can definitely estimate the following!
Gas: $0
Auto insurance: +$100-ish refund
3 Likes
I work out how many times I’d like us to get takeaway, which for us is 1 per week plus a bonus for the month to alleviate exhaustion. That’s 5 times.
Then I estimate how much takeaway costs and just multiply.
That’s the easy example, other stuff is much harder for me to budget!
3 Likes
It depends on my situation… Recently I’ve been overspending, so I’m slashing like crazy. But generally my system is like Ducky’s.
so vacation - how many, how long, what’s realistic (3 camping trips, à fancy weekend, and a week long that alternates between fancy and camping)
Entertainment with people - 4x per month, x dinner or a ticket to something
entertainment solo - I want Netflix, a me date, and some swimming admission and library fines
etc etc
Then I add it all up, realize that I can afford all that and figure out where to slash (2 fancy outings a month + 2 coffees) (share camping admissions and sleep 4 to a room on fancy trips or do hostels). Then I slash some more without knowing how it will happen.
Clothing I budget 200/season because I run through at least 2 pairs of shoes a year, and I’m terrible at thrift shopping. But if I go thrift ing with friends, then it can be entertaining and drop my clothing budget.
2 Likes
Yeah, I guess my problem is that all of those categories really should be zero for me, but I know that’s not realistic and I won’t stick to it. When I set a number (like eating out once a week, with Boyfriend and I taking turns paying), it feels extravagant. I guess I should just come up with a limit and then learn to live with the guilt!
2 Likes
What about a cash allowance that is for all luxuries? It’s what I’m doing for October, and has always been my successful way to manage impulse control on a near zero budget
2 Likes
Most of my luxury shopping is done online so I can’t use cash. But my savings account lets me create subaccounts for specific uses, so maybe that would work? Now to settle on an amount…
1 Like
Maybe this is getting too existential, but I guess my question is to explore why you feel you “should” have zero for everything. Is it because you have everything you could ever need? Are you trying to punish your current self to live up to a certain standard (someone else’s FIRE schedule, a belief a certain kind of life or savings rate is more moral)? Like, I know you said maxing out retirement is important to you, but WHY? Is it so important to you that you will never eat out again? And then once you max it out, what (later) will you do with the money?
I guess I encourage you to analyze why you feel you should never spend discretionary money. All I see there is you’re beating yourself up for discretionary spending - but in my experience, if you want to cut out all fluff you have to either 1) have no choice, ie, no money to work with or 2) have something greater you feel a drive towards
Is that mean? I don’t mean it to be? I just find self-flagellation to be a bad budgeting mechanism.
11 Likes
** The Plan **
Rent/utils: $1617
Savings: $1000
Food: $800 (I don’t feel good about this number but it’s realistic)
Travel/events: $450 (I’ll be way under this if I don’t book any new travel!)
Health & home: $400 (includes a hair coloring appointment)
Transit: $300 (I don’t take the bus alone after dark, so, more lyfts home in the fall/winter)
Giving: $250
Social: $150 (mostly this is halloween costume)
Game dev/Games/Random stuff: $84
Coffee: $75
Tech: $25 (hosting fees, subscriptions)
I feel guilty posting this budget, like, I’m playing on easy mode over here. But this is what I know I can do.
3 Likes
I’m IN! Would love to reign in my “going out” spending and add $500 to my savings by months’s end.
9 Likes