Author Topic: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019  (Read 56008 times)

Slow&Steady

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #200 on: March 01, 2019, 01:53:53 PM »
Jan 2019
% of monthly budget spent
Household supplies/groceries: 94%
Eating out: 79%

Feb 2019
% of monthly budget spent
Household supplies/groceries: 97%
Eating out: 99%

Eating out was showing as over budget earlier this week but there were a few things that were int he wrong category or double counted.  We are just barely under budget but we are under. Some people eat when they are grieving, a lot.


3 of 6 of us had to attend an out of state funeral

I'm so sorry <3

Thank you.

ooakosiryan

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #201 on: March 01, 2019, 02:43:46 PM »
February was another great month! My work flew me to Toronto, so I left a couple days early to spend a weekend hanging out with some relatives in the 6ix. We went to a community event with a free plant-based dinner, got our asses kicked at a boxing class (also free b/c it was a PR event), and played some fun board games (Splendor and Settlers of Catan). Other highlights in February were taking a 'healthy desserts' cooking class on Valentine's day, singing my heart out in a tiny karaoke booth at a cute little Korean bar (twice!), and watching iskwē perform at the Mod Club in Toronto. I've been finding cool free or cheap events by browsing Eventbrite and just googling. Anyways, here's the damage for the whole month:

Restaurants/bars/karaoke: $46.24
iskwē: $24.40
Cooking class: $11.06
Groceries: $42.16
Movie theatre: $3.60
Tickets for future event @ waterpark: $23.34
Subtotal of variable spending: $150.80

Subtotal of fixed expenses (rent, insurance, utilities, interwebs, phone, and Netflix): $485

Grand total of all February expenses: $150.80 + $485 = $635.80

Feeling good about beating my $700 challenge for the first two months of 2019 :)
« Last Edit: March 01, 2019, 02:46:45 PM by ooakosiryan »

use2betrix

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #202 on: March 01, 2019, 02:49:11 PM »
February is a done deal. The numbers look pretty, but that's mostly because my income taxes came through, so the "Financial" category shows an income tax expenditure of -$1,818. The federal government, it seems, pays me to live here.

I have to admit that as the numbers started to gel as the month came to a close, I very nearly decided to abandon this challenge. I looked back on my spending, and even though it's higher in a lot of areas than any good mustachian should allow, there really aren't any decisions I regret making. After a week or two of contemplation, I did go ahead and buy the steam cleaner I mentioned upthread. I'm not sorry.

What's really holding me back from the SR I'd like to have is the fact that my 18-year-old is still costing me a significant amount of money, even though she's technically an adult. It does show up as a big spending category, but in reality it's much more of a parenting issue than a spending issue. I'm trying to be patient and hope that she gradually takes over more of it, or all of it, and stops...ummm...doing dumb things with her money.

BUT with all that said, I've also realized that this challenge is REALLY helping with my grocery budget. I came in under budget for the first time in [many, many months], just because I want the number to look nice for you people. :)

Nice work! I dig your fancy spreadsheet. I certainly think of this thread with plenty of my regular spending decisions, but still have no problem “not being sorry.” Somethings just do seem worthwhile even if they aren’t “mustachian.” I went skiing and rented snowmobiles in February. Put a HUGE dent on my budget. However it was at the end of a work trip in a beautiful mountainous part of the country I had never been, and likely won’t be back for a long time. I grew up doing those things but living in the crappy south due to work, has me missing them terribly. As such, I won’t turn down the very rare chance that I have to enjoy those things.

Nederstash

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #203 on: March 02, 2019, 09:04:23 AM »
Right, here goes, the February numbers. Big expense this month: taxes. This is everything together: income, property, city, sewer&watersystem taxes. However, this'll be everything for the entire year.

Taxes: 869
Holiday: 118 (a forgotten payment for Iceland and a tickets to get on the Hogwarts Express in Scotland... worth it!)

Groceries: 212 (over budget by 32... must do better)
Going out: 107
Personal: 39
Gifts: 25
Cat/vet: 76 (Stocking up on food + new litter box)
House: 307 (I had some saved up in this fund, thankfully. This one sucks! Electricity went haywire, had to get an electrician and replace some stuff)
Car: 86

use2betrix

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #204 on: March 02, 2019, 04:02:43 PM »
Looks like our final spending for February is in. We are in the process of moving and I had to finagle a few things around to meet our monthly budget lol. We had $100 in moving expenses which we’ll be reimbursed for next month, so I decided to mark them as reimbursed.

I sold our motorcycle this month as well which was our only debt (I had a low interest rate so no desire to pay it off). We profited about $500 off the sale and it also reduced our expenses about $300/mo. I should really lower our monthly budget down $300, but not quite there yet :-)

February:
Total Spending: $5976

Savings Rate: 78.3%

A few notes:
Groceries: $689 - just over budget
Pets: $731 - wayyyy over normal, our young dog has bad allergies and had to do an allergy test, will be cheaper in the long run than his current prescription
Entertainment - $794 - had a work trip in the mountains. Stayed a couple extra days to snowmobile and ski. Expensive, out of norm, but WORTH IT. During that time the wife also had some family come visit and they did some activities as well.


Overall, I’m amazed that we made our budget (under $6000) but we leave a LOT of float in our budget, which I’m fine with right now. This month we are moving, and paying rent at two places for 19 days during the moving period. Will also have some extra vet bills. Fortunately work will be reimbursing some more of our moving expenses, but it will still be a challenging month. When we move our rent will go up, however other costs such as commuting will go down, so it will mostly be a wash.

March is a 3 paycheck month so I’m hoping to have around $23k in savings for the month.

One of these months we plan to do an “ultimate low spending month” in which I think we can be in the $4000-$4500 for overall spending. It’ll have to be a month which we don’t have our “miscellaneous BS” come up though.. I.e. moving.. travel.. medical.. vet.. etc..
« Last Edit: March 03, 2019, 07:21:51 AM by use2betrix »

Geosoxs

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #205 on: March 02, 2019, 04:22:36 PM »
Count me in! I missed the first two months. I'm going to post my budget and my spending. My goal's are to see where each of my pennies are going.

meerkat

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #206 on: March 02, 2019, 06:13:09 PM »
Finally caught up so here's January and February's variable expenses.


January Variable monthly expense:
Gas: $62
Utilities: $200
Dog grooming: $30
Food and Dining: $821 (or $26.48/day)

January Non-monthly expenses:
Car service and parking: $19
Kid clothing: $24
Video games: $15
Gifts: -$18 (returned work swap gift)
Dental: $382
Therapy: $414
Dog food: $95
Gymnastics registration: $20



February Variable monthly expense:
Gas: $47
Utilities: $144
Dog grooming: $15
Food and Dining: $689 (or $24.60/day)

February Non-monthly expenses:
Mr. Meer clothing: $30
Meerkat clothing: $107 (Betrayal of the Pants 2019)
Tax dude: $100
Gift: $40
Therapy: $276
House stuff: $26
Household stuff (shelves, a rug, Valentines stuff for kid, misc.): $252
Diapers and other kid stuff: $50
Software: $50

----

Household was one of the biggest black hole categories when I first came to MMM along with "Shopping", which was a catch all for Amazon/Walmart/Target. It gets broken out better now but still feels like a catch-all when viewed as a category.

The money I spent on clothes is due to all my work appropriate jeans deciding to get holes within two weeks of each other, so I had to do some panic shopping. Panic shopping is not cheap. I'm still kind of bitter at my old jeans, I hate clothes shopping to begin with.

I'm working on figuring out what realistic budget numbers would even be for us, redoing my categories into "Fixed monthly", "Variable monthly", and then everything else is actually way more helpful than I had expected even though I just started it within the last hour.

Too sleepy to dig into the rest of it right now. Opine if you like.

Peachtea

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #207 on: March 02, 2019, 06:33:46 PM »
Monthly budget to meet 40k goal is $3,333 ($1658 after rent). Spent $3,478 $3549 or $145 $216 over budget in February. Not great, especially considering it’s a short month. Mostly over budget because of prepaying travel, drinks out, and new shoes. Most of shopping, other than the small goodwill purchase, was preplanned and delayed 4-9 months, so it sucks but at least it wasn’t spontaneous spending. For eating and drinking out, two splurges really killed us.

Blue = last month| Green = this month

Rent: $1675| $1675
Groceries & Personal Care: $577| $440
Travel: $275| $678 - $115 friend’s (July) bridal shower lodging & activity fee; $425.81 (5 night) apartment rental for part of June vacation; $54.58 megabus tickets to bridal shower; $82.47 megabus tickets to friend’s August wedding
Shopping: $125| $296 $366 - $6.84 goodwill cardigan & blouse; $56.31 baselayer (finally went on sale!); $50.15 sneakers (old pair had holes); $79.99 $154.35 hiking shoes; $97.82 hiking shoes (we never had hiking shoes, realized last year after hiking in sneakers we needed some, but waited until this year to buy).
Eating & Drinking Out: $124| $252 - $8 water (@Hamilton!); $17.33 drinks w/coworkers; $92.94 nice dinner out (we splurged b/c we had a giftcard, but then we forgot the giftcard!); $14.49 lunch & coffee w/coworkers; $23.24 drinks w/coworkers; $95.89 drinks w/friend (paid full tab b/c she picked up last time).
Internet, Phone, & Electric: $71| $80 - $30 internet; $50.50 electric
Other: $108| $57 - $14.99 HBO; $11.98 Netflix; $30 transit card refill

*We’re still buying and returning shoes, so I figure I’ll come back and update final shoe purchase prices even though last round will actually be bought in March. Unfortunately, we started with what I thought were the cheapest versions that would do the trick and final picks will probably be higher...hopefully not by too much.

**edited for final shoe prices.

Nothing to do now but try again at staying under budget in March!
January: $2951 February: $3478 $3549
« Last Edit: March 30, 2019, 01:49:30 PM by Peachtea »

Hirondelle

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #208 on: March 03, 2019, 05:53:40 AM »
Final Feb numbers are in.

I didn't report on January beyond my own journal so will do that too. Last year my average monthly expenses were €960/month. Both months this year have so far been higher than that.

Total spending for January was €1175, so about €200 higher than normal.
January's facepunch worthy categories:
Groceries   158.18 (buget: 100)
Eating out/Bar 118.85 (budget: 50)
Travel   270.86 (budget: 200 - yes that's crazy high I know. This was a flight to Asia)

Total February spending was a bit better at €1110. Still €150 over my normal budget though.
February's facepunch worthy categories:
Groceries   124.15 (better, but still too high)
Uiteten/Bar   50.8 (nicely around normal budget)
Travel   309.97 (trip to Germany)
Presents   62.5 (present for parents)
Stuff/clothes 131.59 (electric toothbrush + bras)





Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #209 on: March 03, 2019, 08:24:33 AM »
Handel = Trade, buying stuff
Helse = health (this month: dentist and a filling)
Hjem = home
Hytte = cabin
Klær = clothes
Mat = Food

Divide the sums by 10 to make euros.

middo

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #210 on: March 04, 2019, 06:15:23 PM »
Final February numbers:
 
                  Feb so far   Jan      2018 average
Food:          $376          $777   (598)
Non-Food:   $110          $337   (441)
Eating out:  $310          $656   (570)
Medical:      $496          $687   (603)
Kids:           $2385        $1257   (2806)
Mortgages:  $5013        $4962   (5122)
Utilities:      $3219        $872    (2045)
Transport:   $1476        $1193   (1819)
Holidays:    $1307         $1459   (487)

Total:          $14692      $12,037   (14,491)  or an increase of 1%

Utilities and holidays busted our budget.  We booked a holiday to see our son on his 25th birthday, for a short fly-in overnight and fly out the next day. 

Next month will be better.  Promise.

*Edit - total expenses so far $26729.  Last year (on averages) $28982 .  This is still down 8% so far for the year.  Aim is at least 10%.

I just realised that while February was expensive for us, it was still down by $1000 from last year.  So that is a positive also.

thesavoryhello

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #211 on: March 07, 2019, 03:23:56 PM »
Goal for 2019 is to spend a maximum of $24,000 next year ($2,000 per month).

In January our expenses were $1,964.

February total expenses were $1,961! Yay!

I'm surprised the number is that consistent. I'd like to get it a little lower so that we have wiggle room for travel this spring and summer.

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #212 on: March 09, 2019, 08:57:03 AM »
Total Jan: €  508
Total Feb: €1105

Food: €195
Travel: €130
Hairdresser: €25
Trip: €30
Maintenance: €30
Shopping: €24
Fun: €25 (lunch for two during a bike trip on the first spring day)
Tuition: €486
Summer vacation: €160

Total February: €1105

March:
Food: €45
Travel: €56
Shopping: €13

Shopping is a skirt for €10 and a pack of hair elastics for €3.   

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #213 on: March 09, 2019, 09:36:15 AM »
March update. Also added a total overall $ figure, as one of my goals this year has been to keep monthly spending (ALL, including rent/utilities/insurance/etc.) under 2k/mo.


Category        2018 AVG2019 GOAL2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |
Cell Phone         $  75 |     $   10 |    $   14 | $   24 | $    3 | $    0 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |     $   50 |    $   16 | $   32 | $    0 | $    0 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |     $  300 |    $   49 | $   13 | $   84 | $   50 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |     $  150 |    $  301 | $  426 | $  175 | $    0 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |     $  100 |    $   27 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |     $  610 |    $  407 | $  549 | $  262 | $   50 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |     $ 2000 |    $ 1848 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $  861 |


GREAT start to the month (only 8 days in, I know..). Friends from out of town visiting this weekend hence $50 going out yesterday, and likely another 30$ today. But then I plan on shutting it down for the rest of the month. Shopping I made my focus this month. Cell phone will be 3$ again, and there's a 50/50 chance I have to put 30$ or so in the tank this month.. Regardless, should be the best month yet if all goes to plan (big IF...). Would not be making this great of progress if it weren't for you guys!
« Last Edit: March 13, 2019, 12:31:46 PM by philli14 »

JAYSLOL

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #214 on: March 09, 2019, 08:16:32 PM »
Well, to be fully accountable, I done effed up budget-wise.  Went to a local wholesale/liquidation place today because they had a clothing sale.  Their clothing is new, mostly quality brand name stuff for 10-30% off the original price which doesn't get me excited, but they had a special sale and stuff was like 80+% off the markdown price, so we basically loaded our car for like $200.  I bought a bunch of new Levi's jeans for $5 each.  Anyway, clothing budget is blown for the month (most of the year actually) but on the bright side I won't have to buy much for clothes for the better part of the next decade.  I'm thinking I might get my side-hustle on and go back tomorrow for the rest of the jeans, should be able to triple my money pretty quick on Facebook selling those..

Well, I did end up going back and cleaning them out of Levi's jeans.  I've sold most of them and am on track to make around $200 in profit in just a few hour of work

OurTown

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #215 on: March 14, 2019, 09:24:43 AM »
I'm trying to game this from the other direction and see how much I can save out of take home pay.  So in round numbers we make about $15k per month in gross income.  About $3,500 per month comes out as tax-deferred contributions to 401(k)/403(b)/457 accounts.  Another $3,500 or so comes out in various payroll deductions including FICA, withholding, health insurance premiums, FSA, et cetera.  That leaves us a net take-home of about $8k per month.   Out of that number, we have about $3,000 in fixed expenses that I cannot change.  (Technically, the principal portion of the mortgage payment, around $900 per month, is a savings rather than an expense, but whatever).  Lucky for me, a substantial portion of that recurring $3k will sunset before we FIRE.  In any event, that leaves me about $5 grand per month to play with as it pertains to variable expenses vs. savings.  In the last six months, I am averaging about $1,800 to $2,000 in additional savings from that $5,000, meaning our variable spend has averaged $3,000 to $3,200.  There is room for improvement!

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #216 on: March 15, 2019, 11:02:57 AM »
Halfway through the month update:


Category        2018 AVG2019 GOAL2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |
Cell Phone         $  75 |     $   10 |    $   14 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |     $   50 |    $   16 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |     $  300 |    $   49 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |     $  150 |    $  301 | $  426 | $  175 | $    0 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |     $  100 |    $   27 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |     $  610 |    $  407 | $  549 | $  262 | $  112 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |     $ 2000 |    $ 1848 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1033 |


Halfway through the month, I am pretty pleased.

Had a small victory earlier this week. My phone bill is 3$ as I am taking advantage of Sprint's 1 year free data/talk/text promotion after switching from Verizon.. I received my bill and it was 12$ - turns out that international calls are not included, and I didn't even think about that as I was never charged while with verizon. I had made a single 14 minute call to my parents in Canada earlier in the month. I figured it wouldn't hurt to contact Sprint and explain the situation, and they generously forgave the charge. Thumbs up for my first Sprint customer service experience.

The 9$ is savings is nothing in the long run, but I'm still glad I spent the 10 minutes.

Overall, I should come out under $100 for restaurants and I would LOVE a big fat zero in spending for this month. This will serve as excellent momentum going into April, a month I previously targeted for a complete non-essential spending month.  We'll see!

TNT

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #217 on: March 23, 2019, 05:49:53 PM »
Checking in a week or so before the end of March: it looks like it'll be just about a break-even month. It's disappointing because I wanted a little extra runway for what will be a spendy end of April/beginning of May, but once again, a car repair got in the way.

I can say that I'm really on target with my grocery budget (and have even lost about 2 pounds) and am looking good in most other categories. I did cave in to my daughter's pleading to take her and her friend out for Chinese food today. I was annoyed with myself even before we got to the restaurant, but still did it. At least I will get a few meals out of it, since that restaurant's portions are huge, and I'm trying to eat carefully.

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #218 on: March 23, 2019, 06:06:37 PM »
One week to go update:


Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $   14 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   16 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $   49 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  301 | $  426 | $  175 | $   15 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $   27 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  407 | $  549 | $  262 | $  127 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1848 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1211 |


Not a big fat zero in shopping, but still pretty good. 5$ on a March Madness bracket entry, 10$ on some customized beer caps and labels for our latest homebrew.

Don't expect any of these to change for the rest of the month (except for total expenses). Overall a great month, I have something even greater planned for April though!

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #219 on: March 24, 2019, 02:25:20 AM »
Total Jan: €  508
Total Feb: €1105


March:
Food: €171
Transit: €136
Shopping: €53
Hairdresser: €31
Fun: €113

Total: €504

Shopping is a skirt, a pack of hair elastics, big pack of tights, printing paper, underwear. Fun is sewing classes and some fabric. This seems like a lot of money but I only buy fabric once or twice a year. Sewing classes are €7.50 per lesson. Food should be much lower, I bought way too much convenience food this month. I've been super busy and tired. I try to meal prep during weekends but it doesn't always work out. I have a relative who's been going in and out of the hospital for a months and when I visit them after work it's very convenient to make a quick stop at MacD who have a restaurant right next to the hospital (and, I have to say, great veggie burgers these days!). Relative will be going home soon luckily.

Trifle

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #220 on: March 24, 2019, 04:15:18 AM »
Doing ok in March so far, but we're going to go over our food target of $600 (family of four) . . . I switched up our grocery shopping routine to include a new store (salvage/discount grocery).  I've come across some really good deals there on things we eat every week, so I've been stocking up. 

We normally don't have much food in our pantry; we eat week-to-week and by the end of the week our fridge is empty.  I know this stocking up on non-perishables is good and will save money in the long run, but it bothers me to miss our monthly spend goal.  It'll be interesting to look at the numbers at the end of the year and see how they average out!  I think we'll be well under last year's numbers, so we're making progress. 

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #221 on: March 24, 2019, 04:53:20 AM »
My food spending has gone down. Partly because we are emptying the freezer. Amd partly because DH shops the groceries, and he doesn't track his spending. :-(

I have bought a few things. Amongst others a LED headlight, to replace my old, but still working headøight on old fashioned type of lamp. The new one should last much longer on a full battery and it takes less space in my bag if I don't wear it. The old one was approx 20 years old, but I still fell guilty forvreplacing an item that still works.

I also bought new spike soles. I need these in the winter to walk on icy roads. My 20 year old ones are loosing their screws and even the replacement screws don't stay in them. I guess this was a good investment.

use2betrix

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #222 on: March 24, 2019, 06:40:27 AM »
My food spending has gone down. Partly because we are emptying the freezer. Amd partly because DH shops the groceries, and he doesn't track his spending. :-(


Can you have your husband use a credit card or debit card? I find that makes tracking spending much easier. We categorize everything through personal capital.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #223 on: March 24, 2019, 07:20:10 AM »
My food spending has gone down. Partly because we are emptying the freezer. Amd partly because DH shops the groceries, and he doesn't track his spending. :-(


Can you have your husband use a credit card or debit card? I find that makes tracking spending much easier. We categorize everything through personal capital.

He uses his own card, but he has his own bank account which I cannot look it. Once a year I ask for and get his numbers for who much he got in, hos much he spent and how much he saved. Then I calculate our total savings rate and spending level.

Peachtea

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #224 on: March 30, 2019, 01:51:27 PM »
My food spending has gone down. Partly because we are emptying the freezer. Amd partly because DH shops the groceries, and he doesn't track his spending. :-(


Can you have your husband use a credit card or debit card? I find that makes tracking spending much easier. We categorize everything through personal capital.

He uses his own card, but he has his own bank account which I cannot look it. Once a year I ask for and get his numbers for who much he got in, hos much he spent and how much he saved. Then I calculate our total savings rate and spending level.

I’m sure you guys are probably pretty set on your system, but have you thought of using something like mint where you connect all the accounts so you can “view” what’s going on without having access or getting one card for all joint expenses?

ForeverPoor

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #225 on: March 30, 2019, 08:33:11 PM »
I would like to participate and actually have been tracking my spend over the last 2 years. Prequel: I really wish I had found out about MMM before I went on a spree. I made a decent living but also squandered away the majority of it without accountability through a combination of errors. So I decided that in 2019 I would start anew and really plan in earnest. A fast recap on 2018 which was the year with the most complete info in terms of monthly breakdown and where they went. A note about the income: it's post-tax:



Not impressed overall with the financial performance through savings last year, and it showed. I barely made an impact long-term. Keep in mind I live in CA where the housing market is absolutely atrocious and so due to having to make a decision and live close to where I work I'll have to fork significant money to rent instead of buying. This is the most pressing issue.

Now, the current 3-month breakdown:



January was negative as I was essentially forced to accompany my wife overseas to attend her sister's wedding. The total financial impact of that trip was close to $5-6K with tickets being the most expensive.



February was better as I was able to cash out on some sales and also reign in spending more strictly.



March was less impressive as I was hit with multiple vehicle maintenance expenses as well as minute medical bills as my wife's also now expecting... I can see a LOT of things coming down the pipeline that will impact the bottom line. I am still planning out how I will respond to this new challenge. In addition, we are cutting spending all across the board from February, with shopping and grocery costs down overall.

Things I am expecting to make a more positive impact in April: cellphone bill reduction ($130 for 2 plans, now down to $60 by consolidating), switching our current gym membership ($100/month down to $50), exiting pet wellness plans ($120/month down to $0), and continuing to control leisurely spending.

I am also participating in the $0 -> $10K savings challenge in the other section. Currently am socking away around $2,170 a month into 401K as well as general investing/emergency money. Starting in April I will be following the MMM =<$5K in bank doctrine and diversifying my cash into other investments. I used to be very skittish whenever I saw my bank balance fall below $10,000 but it made sense after reading that money in actual banks was the worst thing I could do with my assets.

Starting in week 14 (April 1st) I will be updating Sunday night on a weekly basis.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2019, 08:57:46 PM by ForeverPoor »

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #226 on: March 31, 2019, 10:00:13 AM »
Monthly check in. 

Our main goals are keeping our total spend under $2700 for our family of four (two adults + two teenagers) and keeping the total food spend under $600.   ($600 on groceries for a month is an aggressive target for us; last year we averaged $750.)  We're also trying to get our utilities down.  Food and utilities are our two biggest expenses by far.

We went way over on the food spend this month mostly due to stocking up on staples.  Hopefully we'll see that pay off in the coming months!


                   Total spend               Food               Utilities

January       $3869 (144%)      $656 (109%)         $539
February      $2223 (82%)       $593 (99%)           $558 (ouch)
March          $2877 (107%)     $843 (141%)         $444 (better)

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #227 on: March 31, 2019, 10:10:43 AM »
Not impressed overall with the financial performance through savings last year, and it showed. I barely made an impact long-term. Keep in mind I live in CA where the housing market is absolutely atrocious and so due to having to make a decision and live close to where I work I'll have to fork significant money to rent instead of buying. This is the most pressing issue.

Welcome!! With that income you'll be able to make some great progress. Hope this thread helps to serve as some motivation and accountability as it has for so many of us.

Specifically to your case, I am also in CA, also paying 2,150/mo for rent. Not sure if it is possible for you (you mentioned your wife), but my girlfriend and I make this work by having 3 other roommates. We don't spend much time at the house during the week. Roommates are frustrating in a lot of ways, especially when they are not mustachian. We battle over the thermostat, they leave dishes and a mess very often that we clean up, and our sleeping/waking hours aren't exactly synched.

However, in this arrangement I pay 325/mo in rent due to our roommates. Utilities are also split 5 ways. It is an easy decision at this point due to the savings, and dealing with the roommate issues is made easier with the understanding that it is temporary and we'll have our own place in the future.

Anyways, roommates might not be possible for you at all, but I thought I'd mention since we likely have similar expenses. Once again, welcome!

Nederstash

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #228 on: March 31, 2019, 01:03:46 PM »
Time for the March numbers! Here's what I spent. In brackets is, first, my average over 3 months. After that is what I put into the account monthly. As you can see, I need to crack down on some categories, others will sort themselves out over time.

Groceries: 222 (209/180)
Going out: 133 (119/100)
Personal: 105 (55/50) (new dresses, yay!)
Gifts: 72 (49/50)
Cat/vet: 0 (35/50)
House: 15 (107/100)
Car: 60 (78/100)

Holiday: 232 (Scotland airfare, car rental and hotels all booked and paid!)

Going out & groceries are catergories where I needlessly overspend. Hello binge eating disorder, please get out... No, I don't need to increase the budget, I need to decrease the food intake...

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #229 on: March 31, 2019, 01:52:26 PM »
Final March Numbers in for me. Last day of March had an unexpected ~50$ shopping that turned an outstanding month for me into a pretty damn good month. Still very happy, and its the first month that all 5 of my categories are in the green.

April I am planning on a non-essential spending month. Overall goal of expenses <750$, and a big fat 0$ in all of my big 5 categories, with exception of cell phone (3$). If I am successful, it'll be my first ever non-essential spend month. I am excited!


Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $   10 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   22 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $   58 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  222 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $   18 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  329 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1642 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 |

TNT

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #230 on: March 31, 2019, 03:25:58 PM »
Whew! March is in the books. I sure did call this one. Breakeven -- almost spot on. I was in the black by about $8, so I decided to throw $5 at a 2020 candidate, leaving me at positive $3.

Grocery spending is looking really good. I'm very happy with the way this thread has curbed my spending in that area. Fuel cost is a little below budget (it's not broken down in the screen snip, but it's the majority of the transportation category), which is partly due to gas prices staying below $3.50/gal and partly due to a little less work than would have been ideal.

Spending on Kid-4 this month was high. I got her a new passport ($145) and paid for $320 worth of repairs and maintenance on her car, in addition to the normal expenses I'm still supporting.

In discretional spending, I bought a pair of running shoes, a pair of jeans, a bra, underwear, socks, a t-shirt, and an electric toothbrush. I'm pleased with all of those purchases, minus the underwear, which have apparently declined in quality since the last time I bought this brand.

April and May are going to be expensive months, with the trip to Madrid and then a bunch of back to back birthdays, plus Kid-1's baby shower. Then I'll be able to spend a few months catching up.

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #231 on: March 31, 2019, 03:31:13 PM »
Total Jan: €    508
Total Feb: €  1105
Total March: €971

March:
Food: €211
Transit: €255
Shopping: €70
Gift: €30
Health insurance deductible: €248
Hairdresser: €31
Fun: €113
Funeral insurance: €13

Total: €971

Shopping is a skirt, a pack of hair elastics, big pack of tights, printing paper, underwear, flat shoes. Fun is sewing classes and some fabric. This seems like a lot of money but I only buy fabric once or twice a year. Sewing classes are €7.50 per lesson. Food should be much lower, I bought way too much convenience food this month. I've been super busy and tired. I try to meal prep during weekends but it doesn't always work out. Relative still in hospital, had two checkups in hospital myself (train ticket €25 each time) and visited a friend who recently gave birth + gift.

Funeral insurance is for my partner and is €13 every 3 months. It's through a very old non-profit society. The insurance is not a cash based insurance but service-based, so they provide the entire funeral service. My family has been insured through them for generations. Funerals are expensive and our families don't have money. Whatever happens, no matter how broke we die, it's important to not get our relatives in debt for our funeral. €50/year each is also an extremely good deal from a financial point of view. One of my parents is generously paying for my insurance.

use2betrix

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #232 on: March 31, 2019, 04:20:09 PM »
March was a rough one and unfortunately April and May won’t be much better. Some of it was my own fault, others unexpected.

Our final numbers will come through on our credit card over the next few days, so I’ll do the final summary then. We spent about $450 on tools. We have a garage for the first time in nearly ever, so we got a chop saw, circular saw, and a few other things to start building some items for the apartment. I have a welding machine already and can weld, so we are planning to build some metal furniture. The chop saw will cut the amount of time it takes by about 75%.

We moved, so had 3 weeks of rent in two places, non refundable pet fee at new place ($400) etc. Work reimbursed some, but not to cover all.

We had an extra $300 in vet bills, the final step for the dogs allergy treatments (regular shots he’ll be getting) which will be way cheaper (and healthier) in the long run than the medication he’s been taking.

My wife bought me about $500 in gifts for my birthday in April, including an expensive backpack I had wanted that’s made in the US with US canvas/leather. It should be a “buy it for life” backpack. Not mustachian, but whatever.

My running I started last year has picked up a TON. As such I needed some more running shorts, socks, and to replace my last running shoes as they had over 400 miles on them. Clothing for the month was $295.

All in all - I think we’ll be around $1300 over our budget.

Our saving grace was that it was a 3 paycheck month, so I think our total savings for the month of March will probably be around $25,000. While this is fantastic, and absolutely makes me more willing to spend, I do get a bit disappointed I didn’t hit our budget, which is the point of this thread.

In the upcoming months we are going to have about $2000 in medical expenses, in April I’m prepaying our car insurance for 6 months (around $600) amongst other miscellaneous things. I’m going to keep making a strong effort, but I have enough going on with work that I don’t want to stress myself out too much over the spending. I think after this month we’ll still be over 75% savings rate for the year.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2019, 04:38:50 PM by use2betrix »

ForeverPoor

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #233 on: March 31, 2019, 06:28:50 PM »
Welcome!! With that income you'll be able to make some great progress. Hope this thread helps to serve as some motivation and accountability as it has for so many of us.

Specifically to your case, I am also in CA, also paying 2,150/mo for rent. Not sure if it is possible for you (you mentioned your wife), but my girlfriend and I make this work by having 3 other roommates. We don't spend much time at the house during the week. Roommates are frustrating in a lot of ways, especially when they are not mustachian. We battle over the thermostat, they leave dishes and a mess very often that we clean up, and our sleeping/waking hours aren't exactly synched.

However, in this arrangement I pay 325/mo in rent due to our roommates. Utilities are also split 5 ways. It is an easy decision at this point due to the savings, and dealing with the roommate issues is made easier with the understanding that it is temporary and we'll have our own place in the future.

Anyways, roommates might not be possible for you at all, but I thought I'd mention since we likely have similar expenses. Once again, welcome!

Wish my rent was that low... but we chose to live in a better city next to the office in comparison with the other options next to us and so that's just the price to play. Good to hear you're able to split the rent into such minimal amounts - I have a friend in the same situation: living off of an extended "shack" that doubles as a single occupancy room with a bathroom and separate entrance. He's paying $430/month... basically pocking around $1,600 of additional income that would have went to rent as well.

I am currently debating whether to relocate the family east to get the rent level down to a more manageable level - I'll need at least a $500-700/month saving against what I am paying right now to make it worth something.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2019, 06:34:06 PM by ForeverPoor »

Peachtea

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #234 on: March 31, 2019, 07:33:42 PM »
March
Monthly budget to meet 40k goal is $3,333 ($1658 after rent). Spent $3,394 or $61 over budget in March. No clue why our groceries are so much higher than normal this month, especially since we had a pretty outrageous spend on eating and drinking out.

Blue = last month| Green is this month

Rent: $1675| $1675
Groceries & Personal Care: $440| $702
Travel: $678| $240 - 3 nights hotel June vacation (sadly not enough points to cover entirely)
Shopping: $366| $64 - $10.80 water bottle (lost mine); $19.99 bulk cat dental treats; $13.79 bulk dishwater detergent tablets; $9.29 pho crea clip (to make cutting my hair easier); $10.68 clipper guide combs (longer than those in original set to cut DH hair).
Eating & Drinking Out: $252| $507 - $6.65 snacks at work; $150.49 night out w/ in-laws for DH bday (wince); $148.09 weekend of going out with out of town friends; $59.04 Q2 quarterly wine subscription; $21.07 coffees w/coworkers; $113.03 drinks w/coworkers (x3); $8.34 forgot lunch at home
Internet, Phone, & Electric: $80| $65 - $30 internet; $34.74 electric
Other: $57| $140 - $14.99 HBO; $11.98 Netflix; $1.05 in app game purchase; $25.69 postage (ugh trying and returning shoes not available in store where we didn’t realize return shipping not free); $45.50 tickets to play (Sweat); $18 website domain; $23.3 coworker going away gift pool + card

January: $2951 | February: $3549 | March: $3394

Doesn’t feel good to have overspent the last two months, but I felt better when I realized that because January was low we’re still under by a smidge for the quarter. (3 month budget is 10k, spent $9894.)

This project has really made me realize just how much fat and money on entertainment is in a 40k budget (for 2). Even though I see the monthly pie charts, skim itemized expenses, and tally category totals at end of year through mint, it hasn’t hit home like listing out the details here has.

zygote

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #235 on: March 31, 2019, 08:42:34 PM »
I'm on track to spend ~$44k this year, and I would love to get that down to ~$40k in 2019.

Final numbers are in for 2018, and I spent $42,874. Rent is by far my biggest expense (HCOL) and is pretty well optimized for where we are. However, there's plenty to cut elsewhere:

-2019 goal is to spend less on dining out than I do on ingredients from the grocery store. Um, I guess this was technically a success? I spent $532 eating out this month due to some special occasions, but I spent a whopping $615 in groceries because it was time to sign up for my summer CSA.

-I see a lot of theater, and that's also important to me, but I want to put in more effort making sure I get the lowest priced tickets possible through rushes and lotteries. Success. Only spent $220 this month.

-I spend too much on personal care items like skincare. I need to stick to my routine, use up what I've got, and stop trying new products. Good here too. I replenished some empty, well-loved products and used some gift cards to do it.

This month was, well, yikes. I spent almost $4500. It was partly due to some carefully-considered splurges and partly due to some lumpy expenses all happening at the same time. I don't regret any individual purchases, but wow it all added up.

My total for the first quarter of 2019 is ~$10.6k. I'm over pace to spend $40k for the year, but it's still doable.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2019, 09:05:31 PM by zygote »

middo

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #236 on: March 31, 2019, 11:43:03 PM »
Final March numbers:
 
                  March     Feb            Jan         2018 average
Food:          $470      $376          $777      (598)
Non-Food:   $180      $110          $337      (441)
Eating out:  $566      $310          $656      (570)
Medical:      $459      $496          $687      (603)
Kids:           $2153    $2385        $1257    (2806)
Mortgages:  $5561    $5013        $4962    (5122)
Utilities:      $1287    $3219        $872      (2045)
Transport:   $710      $1476        $1193    (1819)
Holidays:     $921      $1307        $1459    (487)

Total:          $12406   $14692      $12,037   (14,491)  or a decrease of  14%

Food was up a little, but also a longer month.  We also have a well stocked cupboard, so may be less next month.

Eating out was up - two brunches out with kids interstate, and a birthday celebration at a restaurant for a relative were $300 in total.

Transport was down, but included an insurance and a rego which we only paid a 3 months on.  We may de-register that vehicle.  Still undecided.

Holidays again busted our budget.  A portion of that was flying our dog over, so hopefully these expenses will now drop.




Total expenses so far $39135  Last year (on averages) $43473 .  That's $4000 more in our pockets, or down 10% so far for the year.  Aim is at least 10%, so on target at the moment.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #237 on: April 01, 2019, 01:23:10 AM »
Food (green): lower than normal, because DH has bought food several times, instead of me.
The cabin (yellow) is expensive because I had to pay the yearly property taxes.
Trade (blue): new headlight and some other new stuff.

Divide by 10 to get euros.
« Last Edit: April 01, 2019, 01:25:01 AM by Linea_Norway »

Slow&Steady

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #238 on: April 01, 2019, 01:51:03 PM »
Jan 2019
% of monthly budget spent
Household supplies/groceries: 94%
Eating out: 79%

Feb 2019
% of monthly budget spent
Household supplies/groceries: 97%
Eating out: 99%

Eating out was showing as over budget earlier this week but there were a few things that were int he wrong category or double counted.  We are just barely under budget but we are under. Some people eat when they are grieving, a lot.

March 2019
% of monthly budget spent
Household supplies/groceries: 110%
Eating out: 117%

March was horrible for the food budget! We had 2 birthdays, family visiting, and I don't think either of us adults had our head in the game when it came to food budgeting.

use2betrix

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #239 on: April 02, 2019, 08:20:33 PM »
Have our total spending together for the month.

Goal spending $6,000. Actual Spending $7,228 for the numerous reasons I mentioned above. Blah.

Savings Rate for the month was still 77%, Savings rate for the year is 75.56%.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #240 on: April 03, 2019, 01:52:11 AM »
As I have several accounts and some transactions ta several days before becoming visible, I found some more transactions for March. Therefore an update from my previous post.


Hirondelle

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #241 on: April 03, 2019, 03:34:36 AM »
Another not-so good month here. I was on track for a low spend month that would've catapulted me right back to my regular average, then had some stupid expenses to the tune of €250 last week. Still the best month of the year though.

Jan: €1175
Feb €1110

Total expenses of March: €1060
Facepunchable categories:
Groceries: €140 Work stress has been high so lots of convenient and comfort foods.
Eating out: €125 Work stress led to more drinks/foods out I guess? Few work lunches (max €15), all others were social activities.
One-offs: €200 I categorized most of the 'stupid expense' money as a one-off.

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #242 on: April 07, 2019, 11:54:50 AM »
Week one of update. April goal is <650$ total spend with 3$ total spend in big 5 categories.


Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $   10 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 |$    0 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   22 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 |$    0 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $   58 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 |$    0 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  222 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 |$    0 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $   18 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 |$    0 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  329 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 |$    0 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1642 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 |$  506 |


Great start to what will be a challenging month.

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #243 on: April 07, 2019, 12:06:48 PM »

Total Jan: €    508
Total Feb: €  1105
Total March: €971

April:
Food: €250
Transit: €66
Fun: €8

Bought myself a gardening magazine. Food spending is high because I'm still busy and bought take-out food several times while I was far from home.

ForeverPoor

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #244 on: April 07, 2019, 07:29:13 PM »
1st week of April report (W14):

Up against a monthly budge of $1562 for total spending, we've spent as of 4/7: $256.20 vs. $364.28 available (70.33% to budget limit) which puts us in satisfactory condition. At this rate of controlled spending, I'll be on track to meeting all marks for the month.

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #245 on: April 09, 2019, 05:12:30 PM »
Here's my March report! I was away for half the month.

I spent 12 days in the Philippines for a funeral. It was good to spend time with family in the Philippines celebrating my grandma-in-law's life. My father-in-law generously paid for his family's flights (including mine).

For my Ottawa trip, I managed to make $1,000. Thanks to the whole Boeing incident, my flight was way overbooked, and the airline gave me $800 cash to volunteer my seat. It was a work trip, so flights, hotel, and meals were all paid for. I brought my own food rather than spending my meal stipends, so I pocketed another $200. Whenever I wasn't in work meetings, I spent time visiting a friend. We played board games and my friend cooked delicious dishes from his home province in India. When I had a free afternoon, I visited the Ottawa Art Gallery, which has some really interesting installations, and unlike the more popular art gallery in Ottawa, it's free.

Back home in Alberta, I celebrated my 6-monthiversary with my wife by going for all-you-can-eat sushi and a movie. We used up most of our food in the pantry and the freezer, so our grocery bill is going to start looking a bit more normal now.

Here's my spending breakdown:

Philippines: $282.02 (mostly giving cash gifts to my wife's nieces and nephews, and a bit on food)
Restaurants: $23.51
Movie theatre: $3.60
Groceries: $114.8 (including $21 worth of pecans haha)
Social committee at work: $60 (for full year)
Subtotal of variable spending: $483.93

Subtotal of fixed expenses (rent, insurance, utilities, interwebs, phone, and Netflix): $485

Grand total of all March expenses: $483.93 + $485 = $968.93

That's a lot spendier than my previous two sub-$700 months, but at least I made $1,000 extra during my Ottawa trip to make up for it!

use2betrix

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #246 on: April 09, 2019, 06:24:26 PM »
April is going to be rough. 6 months car insurance paid $600, took my boss and his wife out to dinner $200, medical expense $1600, bed for spare bedroom $450...

Lots of irregular spending. I am fortunate because my income is high, but dang it still sucks when I am focused more on a spending goal than a savings goal..

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #247 on: April 12, 2019, 06:26:10 AM »
I thought april was going to be an expensive month, because I had to travel abroad for a cremation. But FIL has offered me to pay me back my plane ticket. :-)

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #248 on: April 14, 2019, 06:29:01 PM »
Two weeks in, still as I was hoping. No more to be spend in the big 5 this month, and the goal of <$650 total spend is very much on track.


Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $   10 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 |$    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   22 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 |$    0 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $   58 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 |$    0 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  222 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 |$    0 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $   18 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 |$    0 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  329 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 |$    0 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1642 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 |$  555 |


Hope the second half of the month goes as well as the first.

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #249 on: April 15, 2019, 12:00:57 AM »
Total Jan: €    508
Total Feb: €  1105
Total March: €971

April:
Food: €105
Transit: €92
Fun: €8
Shopping: €3

Mid-month is looking quite good! I have ordered work clothes but al far I haven't kept anything, so I haven't really bought yet. I'm still waiting for some items to arrive and I hope I can keep them.