I spent $230 on fabricccccc it was so fun. 
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Fabric - all from one store, or several? Anything you passed up that you now regret?
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[quote=“plainjane, post:136, topic:3433”]
Food as of June 25 = 507
Say hello to our significantly lower June grocery bill! We have one more shop (Saturday AM) but we’ll still come in well below my goal of $200 less. I’m proud of us! 
Next up…trying to parse the “Miscellaneous” budget category 
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I think I am realizing that part of why I always struggle with tracking is that for 10+ years I caught up on budget stuff on Fridays, and that just doesn’t work for me anymore.
I really like my new spreadsheet as far as ease of use and looks (thanks Oro for the inspo) but maybe I need to have a shortcut on my phone screen to a transaction list so there’s less incentive to wait and tally from my card statement.
I am currently sitting in the next room from my lovely fast computer, scrolling good news stories on Instagram, yet it seems soooooo tedious to spend 20 minutes finishing my spending tallies 
I used to LOVE reconciling on Friday afternoons!
Maybe I will try a paper version, too, moving forward. I’ll probably try a few different things over the next few months until something sticks.
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I am just popping in after going on a huge spending spree of pre-planned spending yesterday and feeling sad I wouldn’t be able to save as much this month… Until I checked my buckets and realised the spending is mostly within the buckets so we are still good.
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I have our spending tracking down, although I definitely retroactively fill in the buckets after we’ve spent the money for a lot of our budget lines.
I want to lower our grocery spending for July. For my 2021 Bingo, I have a square for 3 months with grocery spending $300/under, and we’ve done 2. Let’s see if I can do the 3rd!
We are moving to a new place just upstairs, so I want to eat down our pantry and freezer so we have to move less. I think this is totally doable, I just need to eat what I already have!
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Update!
I initially had things highlighted in green or red (for on budget or over), but I decided to get rid of it. In hindsight, I should not have had a zero dollar clothing budget. I have started going back to the office a couple of days a week and am realizing that about half of my pre-pandemic stuff no longer comfortably fits. Plus I have decided I never want to wear an underwire bra ever again. And sheesh, bras are super expensive when you are not a conventional size.
I also ate in a restaurant! For the first time since February 2020! Someone made me food and brought it to me and cleared my dishes. 
It was amazing and I tipped well.
My miscellaneous expense was a cheap blow up pool toy that I used to paddle around a couple of lakes in. It will definitely get further use this summer. Possibly the best $10 I’ve ever spent??
I need to go to the grocery store today to get some fruits and veg, so I imagine I will go slightly over budget in the grocery category, but close enough.
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| Catagory | Spent as of 6/28/21 | Budget | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mortgage | 442.25 | 475.00 | 32.75 |
| Health/Dental | 275.67 | 226.00 | -49.67 |
| Utilities | 119.53 | 171.00 | 51.47 |
| Groceries | 684.86 | 470.00 | -214.86 |
| Gas/Transporation | 61.54 | 40.00 | -21.54 |
| Car Maintenance, etc | 35.00 | 35.00 | 0.00 |
| Car Insurance | 123.00 | 108.00 | -15.00 |
| Cellphone | 123.13 | 125.00 | 1.87 |
| Pets | 0.00 | 50.00 | 50.00 |
| Dining Out | 96.02 | 125.00 | 28.98 |
| Entertainment | 20.97 | 75.00 | 54.03 |
| Donations | 10.00 | 25.00 | 15.00 |
| Fitness | 11.99 | 15.00 | 3.01 |
| Clothes | 87.75 | 100.00 | 12.25 |
| Household items | 68.35 | 125.00 | 56.65 |
| Travel | 11.00 | 300.00 | 289.00 |
| Gifts | 0.00 | 50.00 | 50.00 |
| Misc | 17.20 | 35.00 | 17.80 |
| Puglet | 43.08 | 50.00 | 6.92 |
| Total Spend | 2,231.34 | 2,600.00 | 368.66 |
Aside from the Groceries catagory its been a good month and even with the overspending there I’m under by $368.66 with only 3 days left in the month so I think it’s safe to say I’ll finish June under budget *knock on wood!
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Tis the end of the month!
My tracking experiment is complete. 
A few notes:
- the $45 random extra monies is cash back from my credit card
- BQMS does not usually make this much money-- this month was a one-time thing
- I returned one of the two bathing suits I bought so my clothing spending isn’t as bananas anymore
- I need to spend MORE money on groceries. Leaning on the work free bin Too Much has made me not enjoy/feel great about all my food choices.
- Overall I spend about what I expected. In my mind I have been using 1.5K/month for myself and that’s ~about~ right. Some months more expensive than others, some months less. Next month will be $ as I need to have my brakes done on my car, etc. so there’s always Something that will come up so ~1.6K /month is probably a safer estimate, especially knowing that I’ll have to pay my own HC insurance premiums starting in August.
- I had fun tracking! But I’m sticking to my plan to let it go now.
ALSO:
To be clear, I am 1000% okay with having my income “just barely” or even “almost” cover my expenses at this part of my life. This is weird but I have a big safety net and it’s intentional.
Just to make that clear so no one thinks I’m like, doing a big scary LOL.
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spending money on priorities and not being stuck into just doing what is short term financially best is a great step to recognize
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I’m just such a happy trash goblin that FREEEEEE is a deeply appealing call…
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hey, I still have all-purpose cleaning sprays under my sink that I got from the free table from a job I left in 2014
(also plastic food containers, but that is less odd)
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ie I took a lot of cleaning sprays. plus laundry detergent that lasted me for 3 years iirc
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June spending summary:
notes:
- I have lumpy things nearly every month. In May it was car insurance, June was quarterly taxes. This is why I tend to look at spending on an annual basis.
- I also seem to have whole categories that ebb and flow month to month. In June, I bought clothing but spent nothing on my house or yard. And I had no non-auto travel expenses even though I was away for 10 days this month.
- I’ve separated my charitable giving out from any spending categories. I don’t want to feel limited here.
Ugh, my chart formatting from last month didn’t keep when I changed the series references and I didn’t get it quite the same. This is annoying.
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But you make such pretty charts! But I hate struggling with formatting in charts (in Excel usually). Like sometimes I find a combination, but struggle to replicate it in another chart. Not an issue anymore, but it was frustrating.
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Food as of June 7 = 179.98
Food as of June 12 = 255
35 is takeout (the shadowy one got a Zimbabwean-style hand pie at the farmer’s market today.)
Food as of June 19 = 403
Food as of June 25 = 507
June food total: 569.23
I am trying not to over react. I enjoy food. I want us to be eating healthy and good quality food. I have made more meat dishes this month than we had been? But less than I would have 18 months ago. This has basically no pre-prepared food.
Also, I anticipate I’m going to start doing a few more patios over the next couple of months, which is going to take this number even higher.
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Something I’ve done in the past to help me wrap my head around food costs month to month is figure out how much that is per person in my household per day. When we entertain it’s usually potluck so I don’t worry about counting extra people. Sometimes it makes it feel less insane, sometimes it doesn’t because it was just a spendy month and I just try to be more diligent about “shopping” my pantry first when doing meal plans the next week or so.
$569.23 is $18.97 per day in food costs, that’s not bad at all.
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Depends if you did any stock ups too. There are lots of things that don’t get used up within a month (flour, sugar, salt, spices, frozen goods, etc.)
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Final June numbers;
| Catagory | June 2021 | Budget | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mortgage | 442.25 | 475.00 | 32.75 |
| Health/Dental | 275.67 | 226.00 | -49.67 |
| Utilities | 119.53 | 171.00 | 51.47 |
| Groceries | 505.25 | 470.00 | -35.25 |
| Gas/Transporation | 76.54 | 40.00 | -36.54 |
| Car Maintenance, etc | 35.00 | 35.00 | 0.00 |
| Car Insurance | 123.00 | 108.00 | -15.00 |
| Cellphone | 123.13 | 125.00 | 1.87 |
| Pets | 0.00 | 50.00 | 50.00 |
| Dining Out | 96.02 | 125.00 | 28.98 |
| Entertainment | 20.97 | 75.00 | 54.03 |
| Donations | 10.00 | 25.00 | 15.00 |
| Fitness | 11.99 | 15.00 | 3.01 |
| Clothes | 87.75 | 100.00 | 12.25 |
| Household items | 68.35 | 125.00 | 56.65 |
| Travel | 11.00 | 300.00 | 289.00 |
| Gifts | 0.00 | 50.00 | 50.00 |
| Misc | 17.20 | 35.00 | 17.80 |
| Puglet | 43.08 | 50.00 | 6.92 |
| Total Spend | 2,066.73 | 2,600.00 | 533.27 |
Came in under budget by a good amount. Groceries weren’t actually that bad because I had completely forgotten to take out Mr Pug’s share and I am the only that does almost all the food shopping. I also noticed that I went to the grocery store TWENTY times in June!!! That’s nuts. I’ll post my July budget shortly
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