@noodle and @Bernadette how did y’all do spending forecasts? I just looked back in the thread real quick to see who else said something about upcoming spending.
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I aspire to do that, but not there yet!
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I kind of patterned mine on @AllHat’s–they were not budgets, but rather looking ahead to see what money I thought I’d spend. There were several times where doing that stopped me from impulse buys. It just wasn’t “in the plan” so I didn’t get it. I need to do it again! It was tough with our month of travel and now wedding deposits left and right.
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I have to decide whether to keep paying $100/year for YNAB when I was paying $45, and this definitely has me wondering whether it’s worth keeping minute track of categories. But… there are categories like fast food for the Boy and clothes for me where we do like to keep an eye on what we’re spending, and YNAB makes it super easy.
Tempted to go the @Smacky route and just have a few broad categories. Or no categories. But then I might feel anxious on the couple of months a year when we spend more than we take in.
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When I was broke, then newly not broke, then just generally anxious about money, tracking every tiny thing made sense and was the right choice. My life has changed. The cool thing about all of this is that we can change things to fit out lives, over and over. There are no rules.
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What if you took a break? Would it cost more to rejoin later if you did decide it was worth it, or would it be $100 either way?
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I think I lose my 10% discount for life if I leave, so there’s that.
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Because we (the collective OMD) try not to gatekeep understanding financials and hanging with cool people 
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My PF management was definitely closer to budgeting in grad school and more “don’t buy stuff you don’t need/use/like/have room for” and tracking now. But I think I use a similar process to project annual spending and make saving goals…
I know my income /take home, then big fixed categories come out like rent, utilities, insurance then more variable needs like groceries, gas, pet stuff. Month to month they vary or sometimes have an exceptional month but year to year our groceries have actually been pretty stable. At this point the next big category is probably shopping, travel, and entertainment. These sound like luxuries but have hidden high priorities/needs. I usually let Mint categorize my shopping and although I end up with “Target, Amazon, and Misc” in top level shopping, I don’t mind. I know what we mostly get there (cleaning and hygiene/body supplies, frozen pizza, greeting cards, phone cases and minor electronics, etc) and if occasional food or a tank top or something sneaks in, it’s a small error and doesn’t change big picture numbers. Also grouping all these small things makes for a more regular expense overall. After travel, shopping, and fun only weird things are usually left like passport or DMV or library fees, shipping/postage, laundry. These don’t usually make a big annual dent.
In those categories I can look at what’s changed or spiked in a given year and why (eg new apartment, new pet), then predict what next year and an average month will look like (this may include planning to reduce a certain category) . And from there, I can set reasonable saving and giving targets that leave room for all my needs and some important wants.
Now, a real month will rarely be average, so either pre emptively or as things come up, categories might move around or The Big Sinking Fund used if everything hits at once. Actual savings might fluctuate. But the agjusted averages are good starting points.
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Ha, this happens in our house too sometimes!
Or else, the opposite. I say “I’m going to Store X, need anything?” intending it to just be a trip to get a couple items, and I end up with a HUGE list. This throws off my forecasting. Maybe I should just not ask? 
The lack of car plus shit weather means we are better off doing fewer, larger errands though.
Really, we need to go back to keeping a running list on the fridge of things we notice we’re low on/out of.
I work backwards too but many pay periods am unable to hit my savings goal, which is what I am trying to avoid/fix.
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This is sort of what I do. Ideally, I would put aside half of my share of rent each paycheck, transfer my per-paycheck savings goal, and then everything else is STUFF. Because on one hand, it doesn’t matter in the end why I didn’t hit a savings goal, it matters that I didn’t, or overspent, or whatever.
But this method doesn’t help when I’m trying to cut spending. I’m falling into that thing where I THINK I’m being frugal but then see the credit card balance and go FUCK how did that happen.
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This seems like you should be tracking as you go then.
I do wonder what your historical data looks like. If you’ve historically spent $X-$100 and are now spending $X and you want to figure out what changed tracking is very useful. If you’ve always spent $X and you keep trying to spend $X-$100 and failing then your life might just cost $X without major changes.
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I do temporary budgets when I need to. I probably need to. I usually do q Christmas budget. It’s a guide not a rule though
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I get my phones on eBay they usually arrive pretty quickly and are half the price of going with my phone carrier.
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I did my meal planning a bit early this week because I have a lot of energy right now (yay!) so voila. I also totally messed up my food estimations this last week! The aloo gobi lasted me all week for dinner (I thought it would only last two days, lol, like I was way off, IDK what happened) so I didn’t even get to my other meals, which means it looks like I’m repeating the same dinners but I swear I’m not!
Summary
I’m hoping to keep my grocery bill lower than usual from now until the new year to compensate for holiday and vacation spending. My pantry and freezer are very well stocked so I think this should be possible but I’m going to try and post my spending here and in the grocery haul thread again to force my own hand, haha.
Breakfast His/Mine- Sausage Frittata/Egg Rice Bowl
Lunch- Creamy Lemon Chicken Pasta + small tomato cucumber mint salad
Dinner #1- Chili Chicken + Rice
Dinner #2- Fried Haddock + Cassava Fufu + Greens (make fresh aioli for fish)
Dinner #3- Haitian Calabaza Soup w/ ham hock (52) + Hush Puppies (111)
Emergency meals- freezer chili, ramen
Dessert- Hershey Squares or Chocolate Chip Cookies
ETA: On and also I must get back on the baking wagon. If I don’t bake I have to buy sweets and snacks and it’s so pricy.
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I mean, I feel like the pandemic totally threw that off because on one hand I was ordering everything for delivery and buying more than usual to create a food/supplies stash, BUT we weren’t traveling or socializing so our fun money spend was limited to weekly takeout.
What changed is that I’m having trouble saying no to purchases and because pandemic, some of my tastes have gotten expensive - like the fancy coffee and looseleaf tea when before I was fine with grocery store stuff.
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So which life do you want?
Do you want takeout but no travel? Do you want to get used to grocery store coffee again? Do you want travel but no eating out? Do you want nice coffee and takeout and travel (and the associated lower savings rate)?
Why are you having trouble saying no to purchases? (Like obvi there’s nothing else happening and we’re all depressed and burnt out but what are the purchases offering that you used to be able to resist? Or have what they mean to you changed over the last 2 years)?
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I think I am having trouble saying no to purchases because the pandemic took so many of my pleasures in life away that I’m trying to get pleasure wherever I can find it? Depressed, burned out, tired of staying home and being safe, shouldn’t travel (a huge value of mine) unless it’s necessary, like in order to make a major life decision, and now the weather’s gone to shit. And also I have some diet restrictions now for health reasons, but they don’t include coffee or tea so that’s one place I can indulge?
As far as clothing/skincare purchases, that’s largely because I feel completely hideous these days. Not much to be done about that, I guess. Try and learn to get comfy with wearing ratty clothing, and that this is my face, enormous eye bags and wrinkles and zits and all.
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I totally failed at purchasing inexpensive groceries today, lol. I spent $105 and didn’t even get everything I needed so husband will have to stop by Weis after work on Monday. He’ll probably spend like $15 there so the total will be closer to $120 just for the week! It’s ok though, it is in part because we went to a different grocery store for novelty and ease (never again, lol, at least not without a recon mission first) and in part because we bought lots of snacks things for husband’s birthday week. I’m choosing to be ok with it!
I think it might have been a silly idea to begin hardcore saving right as the holiday season commences, so my new goal is to put away What I Reasonably Can without impacting seasonal joy until 2022, and then start hardcore frugal savings in the new year. This will be better for harmony because when I mentioned cutting back on gifts this year my husband pushed back because he already has things in mind he wanted to buy me! He is, frankly, probably right. I think I’d be sad if we did not do gifts (gifts and physical touch are my love languages) and for so many years we couldn’t do much at all.
SO. Sort of a fail but sort of not? Oh also, IDK if I mentioned here what I’m planning for husband’s birthday? Which is also this week? He’s a very introverted person so parties are a no no and each year I try to thing of something else. This year I’m doing an all day breakfast buffet. He LOVES breakfast food. That plus he gets to rent any movies he wants and I have some other saucy things planned too 
haha. That’s always free!
@TrisPrior Would you like advice? Ok if it’s just a vent too.
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