Jump to content

Menu

February Financial Accountability Week 3 (2/15-2/21)


Halcyon
 Share

Recommended Posts

I hope it's okay that I started this! I don't want to lose momentum. If another thread has already been started, please let me know and I will delete this.

Month to date totals of bigger variable expenses:

Groceries: $303/600

Eating out: $53/$100

Gas: $72/$160

Curriculum and School Supplies: $73/??

Kids Activities/Clothes: $122

 

________________________________________________________

2/15 $9 eating out. again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Month to date totals:

Groceries 338.08/600

Kindle/Itunes- 7.89/10.00

Kids Activities and Needs- 245.61 I don't actually have a budgeted amount for this

Gas 98/100

Eating Out- 72.15/20.00 I'm WAY over budget for this

Misc- 242.82 this includes the wedding gift, attire for wedding, and misc purchases for myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope it's okay that I started this! I don't want to lose momentum. If another thread has already been started, please let me know and I will delete this.

Month to date totals of bigger variable expenses:

Groceries: $303/600

Eating out: $53/$100

Gas: $72/$160

Curriculum and School Supplies: $73/??

Kids Activities/Clothes: $122

 

________________________________________________________

2/15 $9 eating out. again.

 

 

 

Thank you for starting this! It's been one of those weeks. :-/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Writer's Group is now meeting at a huge, nice Barnes & Nobel bookstore. I knew this would be a financial catastrophe for me! :laugh: Kind of like cookies: it's better if I don't even have them in the house, right? So after meeting with my writer buddies, I dropped a stack of cash on 3 new books.

 

My name is Danielle, and I am a Book-A-Holic. Admission is the first step.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2/15 -- dd's 11th birthday. We went to the Field Museum & Ikea. $19 parking, $10 coat check, $33 McDonalds (in museum -- expensive!!), $71 Ikea (Home decor & storage), $17 birthday dessert at Applebee's

2/16 -- $20 Happy Light light therapy box for DH's office, $9 chess class, DH just surprised me with pizza for a late dinner (I've been shuffling children about town) $20

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2/15 $0 (I don't count groceries.)

2/16 $3 parking (Dd is dancing in a Chinese New Year arts festival at the university. Yes, a ballet-dancing ginger of German heritage. One of the company girls is Chinese :lol)

 

Tomorrow will be more spendy. We have a lunch celebration for dh's grandmother's 94th bday (fil will be paying), I'm taking dd and a friend shopping at the mall (dd has a quarterly clothing allowance of $125), then dh and I will be going on our monthly dinner date to a cool tapas restaurant!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2/16 $20 on new bible cover and highlighters. On the plus side, i earned an unexpected $300 this week, so i treated myself.

 

2/17 $120 groceries. Using coupons and bogo deals, i saved $55. There was also a fair amount of cleaning suPplies in there; need to separate it all out. $10 craft supplies.

 

Transferred $50 to emergency fund.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

 

I should kick myself out of this thread.

 

Let's just say I started shopping for Spring & Summer clothes for my kids. On the plus side, I have all of older DS' clothes for younger DS, he just needs 1 more pair of shorts, and a pair of sandals.

 

On the down side.....mini boden. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: (In my defense we do minimal clothes for the kids, so things get washed over and over, and I'm a little OCD about them looking nice when we go out.)

 

I'm on target for groceries, so that's another plus!

 

I also went way over with curricula this month. I'll have to tame it down for a couple of months to make up for it.

 

I'm going to update with my totals tonight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Goals:

Groceries (including all household items): $383/$700

Medical: $200/$100 (MRSA is expensive!!!)

Gas: $270/$550

Kids' activities: $880/$1700

 

Things I'm going to try to curb this month and I hope to bank the difference in our vacation account:

Eating out: 0!!!

Coffee: 0!!!

 

 

Added stuff we bought that wasn't budgeted: $150 for trip insurance for a trip in August, $23 for parking for our August trip (it was cheaper to buy it now!), parking/entrance for dd's gymnastics meet: $25, professional photos from dd's gymnastics meet: $50

 

 

Extra income (hopefully!):

Goal: $555/$400

(Dh occasionally gets "tips" for his services as a priest - wedding, funerals, etc. He has a funeral next week. I also hope to sell some things on line. And, that will be banked in our vacation account!!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2/15 -- dd's 11th birthday. We went to the Field Museum & Ikea. $19 parking, $10 coat check, $33 McDonalds (in museum -- expensive!!), $71 Ikea (Home decor & storage), $17 birthday dessert at Applebee's

2/16 -- $20 Happy Light light therapy box for DH's office, $9 chess class, DH just surprised me with pizza for a late dinner (I've been shuffling children about town) $20

2/17 -- $317 groceries

 

It's not shaping up to be a good week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok. Ugh. I really don't want to post this, but I need to in order to move forward. Lol

 

Groceries: 757/1000

Gas: 130/200

Curriculum: 201/100

 

:ph34r:

 

Misc. spending: 573/400 (spring and summer clothes for 2 kids is mixed in here)

 

 

Needless to say, I most certainly need to be back on board in March!

 

I'm planning a real no spend month for march, except we have a road trip that month. Then after that we will hopefully be putting an offer in on a house, and from what I hear, it's all down hill from there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Goals:

Groceries (including all household items): $440/$700

Medical: $200/$100 (MRSA is expensive!!!)

Gas: $270/$550

Kids' activities: $880/$1700

 

Things I'm going to try to curb this month and I hope to bank the difference in our vacation account:

Eating out: 0!!!

Coffee: 0!!!

 

 

Added stuff we bought that wasn't budgeted: $150 for trip insurance for a trip in August, $23 for parking for our August trip (it was cheaper to buy it now!), parking/entrance for dd's gymnastics meet: $25, professional photos from dd's gymnastics meet: $50. Car maintenance: $200.

 

 

Extra income (hopefully!):

Goal: $555/$400

(Dh occasionally gets "tips" for his services as a priest - wedding, funerals, etc. He has a funeral next week. I also hope to sell some things on line. And, that will be banked in our vacation account!!)

 

I just had to add an unforseen car issue. Ugh.

 

And, I paid for our eggs for the month. We have them delivered by a local farmer. Yum!

 

Ok. Ugh. I really don't want to post this, but I need to in order to move forward. Lol

 

Groceries: 757/1000

Gas: 130/200

Curriculum: 201/100

 

:ph34r:

 

Misc. spending: 573/400 (spring and summer clothes for 2 kids is mixed in here)

 

 

Needless to say, I most certainly need to be back on board in March!

 

I'm planning a real no spend month for march, except we have a road trip that month. Then after that we will hopefully be putting an offer in on a house, and from what I hear, it's all down hill from there.

 

I think you are doing pretty well, given the circumstances. You are onoly over on two things. And, if you found deals that were too good to pass up and you needed those things, you'd have been silly NOT to have bought them. It would have cost you more in the long run! You're good!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are my February totals so far:

 

Food Groceries: $445.10

Non-Food Groceries: $112.08

EatOut/Food Outside Home: $54.43

Household: $188.83

Books: An Embarrassing Amount (something beginning with a "1" and with 3 digits)

Hair/Personal: A More Embarrassing Amount (begins with a "2" and has 3 digits)

Entertainment: $143.56

Clothing: $67.53

 

I really hope to make it through February under budget for Food - $600.00. I will have to be strict to accomplish that. I am already over for non-food and household, having bought that floor scrubbing machine and food-sealing bags.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

 

I think you are doing pretty well, given the circumstances. You are onoly over on two things. And, if you found deals that were too good to pass up and you needed those things, you'd have been silly NOT to have bought them. It would have cost you more in the long run! You're good!!!

 

I did find some good deals, plus some Easter outfits at target. Easter is the only holiday that I buy a special outfit for, and I usually spend way more than I did this year, so all in all I did ok, but it's no fun seeing that number! I added everything up twice to make sure it was really that high! :laugh: I also spent about $50 the weekend my sister gave birth on food at the hospital, and extra headbands for newborn pics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can't help it when they grow!

 

 

this is true. :)

 

I had planned on spacing it out more, but there was a sale, and we are moving in the spring, and I kind of wanted to just get it over with and not have to worry about it. I'm actually under budget overall with not much else to buy, so that's good. I had budgeted $200 each, (That's for everything, shoes, jackets, clothes, pj's, socks, undies, etc) but when I went through their things, they really didn't need all that much.

 

We don't get hand me downs, and don't have those grandparents that buy our kids things all the time. (They never buy clothes.) Which is fine of course, but it also means I need to be on top of sales so I can afford to buy what I like.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2/15 -- dd's 11th birthday. We went to the Field Museum & Ikea. $19 parking, $10 coat check, $33 McDonalds (in museum -- expensive!!), $71 Ikea (Home decor & storage), $17 birthday dessert at Applebee's

2/16 -- $20 Happy Light light therapy box for DH's office, $9 chess class, DH just surprised me with pizza for a late dinner (I've been shuffling children about town) $20

2/17 -- $317 groceries

2/18 -- $15 co-op fee, $21 groceries (because $317 the day before wasn't enough!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

$0 spend day yesterday

 

I haven't been keeping close track of each day. I mean, I know what I've spent over all and it looks ok, but I haven't got it broken down to daily amounts. Will try to get back to that in March. We have a road trip coming up at the end of the month (barring winter storms), so we need to be watching money even more carefully than usual.

 

I've had a hard time keeping track too. I'm going to set up the envelope budget app on my phone for march. We use mint.com, which is good for the big picture, but it's not great at the minutia of every day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pinkalicious is one of our all-time fav books.

 

I, uh, bought a printer. Hadn't planned on doing it this month but our old one has been limping along. I got the Brother one mentioned here on the boards at 48% off. I bought another toner drum and a usb cord $125. And while i was at amazon and had free shipping, $35 on a book we need.

 

Uh, so much for my resolutions about no amazon and no curricula.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is kinda on-topic/off-topic, but how many here have read, The Millionaire Next Door? I read it a few years ago and I am rereading it again. (Got a copy at Goodwill; kind of poetic, no?) I find that book fascinating...and true.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2/15 -- dd's 11th birthday. We went to the Field Museum & Ikea. $19 parking, $10 coat check, $33 McDonalds (in museum -- expensive!!), $71 Ikea (Home decor & storage), $17 birthday dessert at Applebee's

2/16 -- $20 Happy Light light therapy box for DH's office, $9 chess class, DH just surprised me with pizza for a late dinner (I've been shuffling children about town) $20

2/17 -- $317 groceries

2/18 -- $15 co-op fee, $21 groceries (because $317 the day before wasn't enough!)

2/19 -- $59 groupon for martial arts lesson for dd

 

Danielle, I love The Millionaire Next Door. It's a great book; you never can tell by outside appearances.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Added things below. We went to Kalahari for one night (Christmas gift from MIL and FIL). I brought all our own food except for the meal that our package included. I made due with stuff we had at home and it was really, really good!! I did, however, cave one night and bought dd a hot dog and fries because she's had eating issues lately and I was desperate to get her to eat!!

 

 

And, I am printing out the invitations for my SIL's wedding shower. I paid $20 for the paper and envelopes.

 

Goals:

Groceries (including all household items): $440/$700

Medical: $200/$100 (MRSA is expensive!!!)

Gas: $270/$550

Kids' activities: $880/$1700

 

Things I'm going to try to curb this month and I hope to bank the difference in our vacation account:

Eating out: $6/0!!!

Coffee: 0!!!

 

 

Added stuff we bought that wasn't budgeted: $150 for trip insurance for a trip in August, $23 for parking for our August trip (it was cheaper to buy it now!), parking/entrance for dd's gymnastics meet: $25, professional photos from dd's gymnastics meet: $50. Car maintenance: $200. Invitations to a wedding shower I am helping host: $20.

 

 

Extra income (hopefully!):

Goal: $555/$400

(Dh occasionally gets "tips" for his services as a priest - wedding, funerals, etc. He has a funeral next week. I also hope to sell some things on line. And, that will be banked in our vacation account!!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read that book quite a few years ago.....3rd year of law school, if I remember correctly. Everyone else in school was talking about the house/car/vacation they were planning on as soon as they had salary. We spent our early years of marriage putting all of my salary into paying off all of my school loans. I'm glad we did so....I was then able to come home to be a SAHM when our first was born.

 

Richest Man in Babylon is a similar title.

 

Property taxes. ****shudder****

 

My post about buying a printer yesterday didn't make it on here. I wonder if I had a posting glitch or if I posted it to the wrong thread. Um, yeah, there's another amazon box coming to my house. I'm not keeping to my resolution about no amazon/no curricula, but it was 48% off and needed this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yikes, I forgot to keep track. I may be missing a couple things but its close, and it was all cash!

 

2/15 - eating out with DH $13, kids night out at the local gym for my kids $16

2/16 - gymnastics meet admission $12 DH got a couple snacks $5

2/17 -$0

2/18 - $10 for carpet sliders for some gymnastics exercises for dd

2/19 -$15 for wrestling pictures

2/20 - $5 for open gym at gymnastics tonight for dd

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2/15 -- dd's 11th birthday. We went to the Field Museum & Ikea. $19 parking, $10 coat check, $33 McDonalds (in museum -- expensive!!), $71 Ikea (Home decor & storage), $17 birthday dessert at Applebee's

2/16 -- $20 Happy Light light therapy box for DH's office, $9 chess class, DH just surprised me with pizza for a late dinner (I've been shuffling children about town) $20

2/17 -- $317 groceries

2/18 -- $15 co-op fee, $21 groceries (because $317 the day before wasn't enough!)

2/19 -- $59 groupon for martial arts lesson for dd

2/20 -- $0 finally!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2/15 $0

2/16 $3 parking

2/17 $55 dinner out with dh at a new tapas restaurant

2/18 $0

2/19 $1.40 library fine

2/20 $0

 

Regarding The Millionaire Next Door-----dh is a Certified Financial Planner. He greatly prefers working with his "millionaire next door" clients than with his "inherited a pile of money" or "works in banking or tech" clients.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2/15 -- dd's 11th birthday. We went to the Field Museum & Ikea. $19 parking, $10 coat check, $33 McDonalds (in museum -- expensive!!), $71 Ikea (Home decor & storage), $17 birthday dessert at Applebee's

2/16 -- $20 Happy Light light therapy box for DH's office, $9 chess class, DH just surprised me with pizza for a late dinner (I've been shuffling children about town) $20

2/17 -- $317 groceries

2/18 -- $15 co-op fee, $21 groceries (because $317 the day before wasn't enough!)

2/19 -- $59 groupon for martial arts lesson for dd

2/20 -- $0 finally!

2/21 -- $0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We spent maybe $10 yesterday on incidentals. Today was a no spend day. We have a road trip coming up at the end of next week for a funeral of a close friend, but I'm starting to do the math and am worrying about how we can afford it. We're talking $700-800. Yikes.

 

I alo have to call and drastically cut our cable. We haven't watched anything but DVDs lately. Definitely need to not be paying for it. Why is it that I have put off calling them?

 

 

I soooo wish I could get dh on board with throwing out our satellite tv completely. I resent the waste of money it is and don't feel that it remotely makes up for the cost in pleasure. We have something like 300 channels that we never even consider watching. We have about 6 channels we watch with some regularity. The only things dh watches daily are things I don't think we can get any other way - sports events and news.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I soooo wish I could get dh on board with throwing out our satellite tv completely. I resent the waste of money it is and don't feel that it remotely makes up for the cost in pleasure. We have something like 300 channels that we never even consider watching. We have about 6 channels we watch with some regularity. The only things dh watches daily are things I don't think we can get any other way - sports events and news.

We ditched cable about 18 months ago. We bought a Roku, and pay $16 a month for Hulu and Netflix. We don't miss cable at all!

Same. I knew we could ditch the cable when I unplugged it and no one noticed for a week.

 

We did get rid of cable and I have to admit, I miss it. I can watch shows easily through Netflix, but it is a pain to hook it up to my iPad on my upstairs tv to watch. I liked relaxing at night and watching tv. Now, if I want to watch tv, I have to hook up the iPad and change it every 22 minutes or so. Silly, I know. But, I'm being honest.

 

I actually miss having access to the Disney channel! My dd misses it terribly! We can watch most of the shows. But, she feels disconnected.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We did get rid of cable and I have to admit, I miss it. I can watch shows easily through Netflix, but it is a pain to hook it up to my iPad on my upstairs tv to watch. I liked relaxing at night and watching tv. Now, if I want to watch tv, I have to hook up the iPad and change it every 22 minutes or so. Silly, I know. But, I'm being honest.

 

I actually miss having access to the Disney channel! My dd misses it terribly! We can watch most of the shows. But, she feels disconnected.

 

I really appreciate your saying so.

 

We can't watch shows through Netflix or Hulu or anything else that requires a functional internet connection. My internet is so 1997. :laugh: I wish it were possible to just buy 5 channels or something like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I really appreciate your saying so.

 

We can't watch shows through Netflix or Hulu or anything else that requires a functional internet connection. My internet is so 1997. :laugh: I wish it were possible to just buy 5 channels or something like that.

 

YES!~!!!! I'd be happy with 5 channels.

 

But, when Comcast (I HATE them) raised our rates by $20 more/month, we dropped them. Saved us over $100/month. We kept them for internet only because we don't really have another choice around here. That, and we made the mistake of using them for our email address. We've had that address for 15 years. I'm trying to switch everything over to another account so we can drop Comcast altogether, but it'll take a little more time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

Ă—
Ă—
  • Create New...