Ummmm welcome and with that as your favorite creature, you’ll fit right in!
And you did comment in the right place! We’ll start a new thread for the check-in next week, but you’re all set! Welcome!
Thank you! I love your podcast but I’m brand new to the forums. I’m very excited! Also, thank you for answering my question about Vangaurd and how to use their website a while back. It made my whole day amazing!
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Ok, I want to keep my grocery spending below $400 for my husband and I, and avoid random eating out just because we haven’t prepped anything.
I’m only going to list out a few categories as I have a number of budget categories that are just on auto pilot like a sinking fund for car repairs/rego/insurance, public transport, bills, phone, mortgage etc.
Groceries: $400 (husband and I, should be doable)
Personal: $120
Health ??? Our insurance premiums are up in October so at least $2k plus maybe another $2k (???) for scheduled procedure this month, round up to $4.5k. We know this month is going to be crazy for medical spending and will need to be averaged over the next two months, likely.
I think these are the only ones i want to control, the biggest challenge will be sticking to the grocery spend while the medical stuff is causing havoc.
My favorite thing about spring is it being the perfect weather, warm but not too hot. Plus my birthday is in spring 
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All right, posted the first couple bullets earlier so I won’t waste space on them again, but the biggest challenge this week will be the cat’s dental (only have an estimate, so this is likely to be where I end up recasting). And my favorite thing about fall is that things are starting to cool off so biking is both more pleasant and I don’t have to start out ridiculously early to beat the snakes to the trails.
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My goal is to start being realistic about my planning. We are spending a lot of money, and I want to face that rather than try to keep hitting a goal I can’t make until I accept where we are right now. Any leftover money we’ll put towards our holiday in November.
Biggest challenge this week: Planning our meals for the week and filling up any non-perishable items without going overboard. Also browsing fabric or patterns on special in my emails or instagram.
Favourite thing about the beginning of Spring: fresh mulberries and other fruit from the garden.
Budget categories, tracked using YNAB:
Groceries: $1,100 ($240 per week as 2 deliveries of groceries, plus $140 for running to the shops between deliveries. YES, we’re a family of just 2 adults and 1 toddler.)
Ponder’s lunches: $300 (We would like this to be lower but will depend on our time available to plan and prepare food)
Takeaway etc: $240 (one meal per week costing $60)
Fun money: $50 each
Christmas: We need to PLAN our gifts. We have an annual budget of $400.
Anything in another category is exempt, e.g. medical spending.
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I wear gas permeable contacts so I need 2 kinds of solution and both of them are like $12-ish for a little tiny bottle - and that’s the generic! Highway robbery!
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I struggle with this too! I’m already feeling the shorter days, nd I’m envious of all of you guys who are saying you don’t have fall weather yet. I LOVE heat. Love love love. And this summer wasn’t that hot here. And it’s already chilly and clammy out (supposed to be 85 today though?)
What works for you? Playing with my cats helps. Or just cuddling them. They’re such happy loving little kitties.
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For me there’s no real substitute for getting outside, even if it’s raining. But the more it’s raining the less I feel like going out. I really should go for a 10-15 minute walk first thing every morning and another during lunch, but it can be hard for me to do so as sunrise gets later and later. I also like burning candles around sunset to ease the transition into evening but I haven’t tried candles since we got three kittens. I might need to start a little evening ritual of burning candles in the guest room with the door closed so the kittens don’t get into the candles.
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Yeah, I feel that, and I am always painfully cold so if it’s, like, below 70 I have a really hard time motivating myself to step outside because it hurts!
THREE kittens?! We only had 2 and it was crazy! I gave away pretty much all of my candles after we got the kittens as they were far too interested in them.
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My goal for this challenge is to get Greyman and I talking about our spending again and getting back on the spending plan we want to maintain in order to FIRE when projected. We’ve been awfully lax with buying things on a whim and if we spent every month like we did this last month we would have to double our FIRE number.
Budgeted categories:
- Food altogether - $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 + flex category: $100
- Health - Expect $60 as usual, budget $100 in case something comes up.
My biggest challenge this week will be not going out to eat. We’ve gotten in a big takeout habit lately because I fell into a cooking rut. Hoping the reminder to myself that I’m an excellent cook by making some of my favorite and infrequent meals will help.
My favorite things about fall are the weather cooling down after the summer heat spike and FALL PIES. I’m looking forward to making pumpkin pie and apple pie and a bunch of hot autumnal pies and it will be glorious.
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This month has a lot of new things for us: moving to a new apartment, new health insurance, new car insurance, paying regular costs of owning a car, sharing finances as a married couple in our own place. We will hopefully both be getting jobs. That is to say, I have NO idea what most of our budget categories will end up being, so I’m not going to set arbitrary goals for them. One thing we’ve gone out of control on, though, is food, so I am setting those:
Restaurants: $200 (this would be GOOD for us. Includes bars.)
Grocery: $300
That is for two people. Since we are moving, we’ll have to buy some staples like oil, butter, etc. that can raise grocery prices.
I find it very difficult to control my food spending. I love food, and it makes me happy, but I should certainly be able to get enjoyment out of life within this spending. I don’t love food to the exclusion of all my other goals. I get overexcited around food and throw mindful spending out the window. When alcohol is involved, I also tend to spend way too much. Another thing is we’ve had to kill a lot of time in a nearby city and the easiest way to do that is to go to a restaurant or bar. Hopefully the killing time will end soon, but I can also do more research into less spendy places to go.
My favorite thing about fall is 100% the leaves changing. I want to be one of those people who can travel to see the leaves changing in different places.
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My biggest challenge this week will be remembering to withdraw the cash. The first week of cash is easy because I will be so rich!
My favourite thing about fall is how good it smells. Also camping, when I can convince people it isn’t a suicide mission. Early fall snow during camping? 
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I’m in! My goal (aside from acquiring moar cute kitty stickers) is to figure out what my normal will look like post-dissertation, so once I get a job I don’t blow it. Especially on food. I like food, but my budget does not.
The breakdown:
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Rent/utilities: currently $0 for me, as my boyfriend is covering this while I’m unemployed. He’s a keeper. We’ll do a proportional split whenever I get a jerb.
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Food: $300. This includes groceries for myself and about half the dinners for the two of us. Food is my biggest challenge, as I tend to overbuy/buy expensive ingredients. At least I should have fewer coffee shop lattes now that the dissertation is done…
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Phone: $30
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Transportation: $60 for gas
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Gym/Health: $20
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Clothes/personal care: $100? This is a wildcard. If I get a job, I will most likely have to buy a fair amount of clothing, as most of my current clothing is suitable for the rag bin. I hate clothes shopping and so put it off as long as possible ha.
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Household: $40. Things like TP, soap, etc.
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Misc: $30.
Favorite things about fall: COOLER WEATHER. Despite living in Texas for 18 years, I hate the heat. Also, fall leaf colors. Didn’t get those in Texas either. So I’m a very happy panda right now.
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All I can imagine is this panda rolling around in the leaf basket. Is this what you look like post-dissertation in cooler weather?
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I’m just here for moral support. Honestly, I don’t have any idea what category I could even really budget. With baby impending, (she could even show this month! 
) I just feel like I don’t know what my spending will be. But I’m so excited to see everyone’s goals and challenges and everything! Over here rooting for you all!
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I don’t really budget so much as I track. (ETA: I track using Google Sheets with a bunch of tabs and pivot tables and such set up.) However, I need to make it a priority to spend MORE on certain items (contrary to many here), so that is what I will be tracking. Almost everything else is fixed or lumpy. (Eg. cats’ annual exams + vaccinations + probably a dental for the Derp this month is something that has to happen, non negotiable (was supposed to be last month but I couldn’t deal with it then with everything else). Last month I had auto emissions/safety/registration.). So I won’t be considering that stuff.
The goal is to spend more on ME (for health/wellness).
Categories tracking (monthly values):
- Food: $150+, with at least $50 of that coming from PROTEIN (fish, shrimp, tofu, protein powder)
- Health: +$100 - I need new glasses, mine are legit broken (One of the temples broke (well, the hinge broke) and is currently taped up like the nerd that I am. Also, they are like 3 years old and the anti glare coating is peeling.) I have a very high prescription so always get ultra thin lenses, otherwise they are coke bottles, so this shouldn’t be hard to meet even after what is covered. The hard part is making the appointment.
- Misc: $50 - Only allowing myself to buy SOCKS this month, as I really need winter socks. This seems like a lot but I also need hiking socks, so it’s really not. I recently threw out all my holey and too-tight socks, and bought new summer ones to replace them, but it left me only like 2 pairs of winter socks. And it is getting cold. I spent a LOT more on misc the last 2 months than the entire previous 2 years probably, so no other misc spending unless something breaks.
- Home: $200 - I am only allowing myself to spend on the house if ALL OTHER PROJECTS I have already bought supplies for are completed. If I do get through all those projects (hahaha) I need to try refinishing the shower insert ($30 + maybe shipping?) and buy paint samples for the bathroom and living room. But, I’m skeptical I can get through what I already have. We shall see.
- Education/Prof Dev: $100 (I forgot before.) Since I am considering getting a brand new fancy computer I need to convince myself I need it by committing to doing some education or professional development, either in my field (spatial analysis) or something adjacent (data science). (Context: My desktop is 8 years old.) I might get the home version of the software I most often use, which is $100 - if not I will find some training course(s) in… something.
My biggest challenge this week will be making the damn eye appointment because I need to figure out what my insurance card # even is and then find a local place that will take it. Also, I have friends visiting until Thursday night, so let’s say the week ends Saturday in case I don’t do it on Friday.
I love autumn leaves, I am from the northeast and where I live now we have some color but NOT ENOUGH. Also soup. I love soup. Autumn is soup season.
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Ok, so here’s my Official Post for this thing.
I’m budgeting for my restaurant expenses. These are normally in the $200-350 range (and let’s be real, more likely to be in the $350 range than the $200). I enjoy eating out for all the reasons many people do – good food (including dishes I’m less skilled at making), less cooking effort, someone else doing the dishes, all that jazz. However, I also enjoy cooking, and I want to really lean in to it this month. I want to spend some time doing something slowly and effortfully, I want the satisfaction and flavor of homemade food, and I want to really enjoy breaking in a brand new kitchen (we just moved and finally have a kitchen that’s not a gross shared kitchen). The savings is really just a bonus – I want to focus on the different lived experience that’s eating at home for every meal.
My budget is zero dollars. This includes eating in restaurants, getting takeaway, or getting drinks at cafes; it does not include e.g. a frozen pizza from Trader Joe’s.
I track using Mint/spreadsheets.
There are some definite challenges ahead:
- My usual habit of giving in to a food craving/laziness/the desire to feel pampered on any given day
- My bestie and I have a long-standing Friday night date, and we usually eat out; she eats out a ton and although she says that she’s down to do our Fridays cooking at my place instead, I’m still a little worried about it
- I am going to have to remember to bring food for my Fridays at the office
- I’m travelling back to my parents’ for their 40th wedding anniversary halfway through the month, and they may want to go out. They don’t eat out very often, so this may not come up. However, especially if they want to go out for the anniversary itself, I don’t want to push back and be all “well you want to do something special for your 40th wedding anniversary and go out with your daughter and your friends, but NO because I Have A Semi-Arbitrary Goal.” I don’t know yet what I want to do with this – edit the goal to be “zero dollars but possible exception for this one thing”? know ahead of time that this may be the off-the-bandwagon week? I don’t know.
I do have Wizard’s buy-in, which will help a lot.
We don’t really have a normal fall here – someone once told me we have Rain, Flowers, Fog, and Fire, and that’s pretty accurate. We’re in Fire right now, so things are cooling down but it’s still dry, and it’s very windy. My favorite thing about it is definitely the break in heat, and the pretending that I still live somewhere with real autumn and therefore having delicious coffee and chocolate beverages. 
I’m looking forward to visiting my parents because it’ll be just past the height of the leaf color there; I’ll get some real, serious autumnal foliage.
ETA: I’ve decided that for the anniversary, I can do a meal out that’s entree + treat (either beverage or dessert). And I will be required to journal about it.
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Yes that is 120% me I have found my people
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Ditto. Taking an overdue vacation next month but it means our numbers are going to be all weird, but even if we weren’t I’m not sure how we’d budget. Mr. Meer wasn’t really on board with the idea in the past, I think it’s a mental/quality of life thing for him (and also for me, tbh) that even the idea of not spending over X would bring up Feelings regardless of having cushion in our bank account.
Not budgeting, and not a weekly kind of goal, but my short term finance goals are:
- Move money from Bank to Credit Union because Bank sucks as a company
- Invest HSA money - I didn’t realize I had enough to actually invest till yesterday, it’s only earning me $0.10/month right now.
- Find a better savings account - I’ve done some research on that but this has fallen to the back burner because of other stuff taking up my time and attention
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Welcome!
I think it’s great you’ve been able to narrow down the impulse and the emotions attached to the action of takeout!
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