The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Throw Down the Gauntlet => Topic started by: forummm on July 22, 2015, 07:26:38 AM
-
We've been doing
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/no-buy-july/
I see no reason why we can't continue into August. It can be a distinguished, illustrious, and impressive August, celebrated and full of savings!
Who's with me?
-
My earlier post is in cyberspace I guess. Yes, I'm in.
-
My earlier post is in cyberspace I guess. Yes, I'm in.
Alright! Welcome aboard!
-
We did this in June. Starting to look like July will be much the same. I suspect August too.
I think this is just our life. The only thing that can really torpedo our sub-2k monthly spending are big ticket items...none of those on the radar until November when I get my one way ticket to the Baja. :)
-
I'm in! And, I appreciate the use of august as an adjective--very underused.
-
Our august group is growing!
-
me too!
-
me too!
Great! Looks like you've been squirreling away those dollars so far this month too!
-
I think I can do this one. August should be a pretty straight-forward month.
-
I am in and I'm putting a sticky on my accountability spreadsheet right now.
Challenge will be the week at the beach (rental already paid for) to NOT spend on eating out, stupid arcade games at the boardwalk, etc.). Children have their own allowance for this stuff.
-
Cool! We're getting good practice with July. I'm excited to tally the numbers. These two months are going to blow the roof off the doors (to quote Matthew Berry).
-
I'm in - I failed July hard. Moving broke the bank. ):
However I'm taking 2 weeks "staycation" in August, which will be a good opportunity to make all meals at home, save money on gas, and start crafting some things I'd otherwise buy for the new apartment.
Challenges:
1. New dog means possibly more expenses - vet bills, etc. I've already got most of his supplies but there are a few remaining that I need - for example, a clicker and nail clippers. Nothing big, but I'm sure there are some other little things I'm forgetting.
2. Driving 9 hours to a wedding in Expensive Tourist Town during peak tourist season. I will try to pack food because the hotel alone was mad expensive, not to mention the tolls and gas. I just hope that if we're spending around $800 just to be at their wedding, they don't need a separate gift at the cost of their (I'm sure) mad expensive dinner too.
-
I'm in. Must save this month for incoming taxes and real estate purchase fees later this year.
Plan: home made meals, no shopping this month, and hopefully sell some stuff I don't use anymore.
-
It's going to be hard to beat July for me:
Since we're not going to spend anymore money the rest of the month, I have the tally in for July. It didn't take long to do since there were so few entries :)
$158.84 Utilities
$240.93 Groceries
$10.00 Eating Out
$59.02 Misc
401.00 Insurance (prorated) and property tax (prorated)
317.00 Interest expense (mortgage)
1,186.79 Total Expenses
All time record low! Smashing our previous record of $1,477. Can we go lower during our august August?
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/august-august/
And we had 3 paydays this month, so our savings rate was also a record. It was unbelievably high.
-
Yes, I am in. Oldest kiddo needs some school supplies, I will get them in the next couple of days. Luckily a friend gave us a bunch of her kids old clothes so nothing needed there😀 hoping to set a new savings record in August.
-
forummm...man, you are a HOOT. "No Buy July" then giving way to an "August August". Har!
I'm in...I'm in...pending negotiations with the DW. August is "almost" a 3-payday month for us, so yeah, we'd be able to jam on immense savings if we pulled this off. I have some food reserves I can use up in August that will help minimize even our normal frugal grocery bill. If I could make this happen, I'd be able to restore our depleted emergency fund in one month, vs. 3 months as I planned (I use the emergency fund to blast away the mortgage...)
So, can you kinda spell out the rules for me and others who might not be fully appraised on what a "no buy" month is? I mean, I already know from your prior posting, I get to buy rent/mortgage, utilities, gas (or in your case, electrons. *envy*) pet food, medicines and regular, non-packaged groceries.
So, essentially, it's "no frivolous buys", right? No eating out, no clothes, jewelry, goober stuff. Right?
Two Questions:
1) Is bike stuff OK if it's for TRANSPORT and not silly? (I'm adding a light to a bike for commuting purposes and might need a bolt or washer or some other part to make the bike light work.)
2) Do we post the results in this thread at the end of August? (and if that wasn't your intent, would you want us to anyway?)
See, I have sorta this...um...fantasy of biking to work for an entire month, eliminating my own gas purchases. I can't ask the DW to do that (and I never would - she's not insane crazy like I am) but I feel like that might be a way for me to join you on Electric Avenue, even if I do appear slightly more fruity to the cagers than you would in your slick little LEAF... :-)
(song "Electric Avenue" played on the radio this morning and I could not resist...)
-
I'm in! We went over our finances last month. Looking at our budget, it looks like we can save $1700 in the month of August if we're super careful. That's in addition to our normal $1500 payment into loans. I really hope it can happen! If we can get into the rhythm of paying $3200 into our student loans per month, we'll be debt free in 6 months.
I did budget for two social obligations (baby shower gift, wedding gift) and gave myself $50 worth of eating out (which, surprisingly, is just two nights out on the town). Other than that, I'm pretty barebones on my budget. And who knows? Maybe I'll get REALLY badass and walk/bike to metro, saving myself an extra $80 this month (but not likely).
-
forummm...man, you are a HOOT. "No Buy July" then giving way to an "August August". Har!
I'm in...I'm in...pending negotiations with the DW. August is "almost" a 3-payday month for us, so yeah, we'd be able to jam on immense savings if we pulled this off. I have some food reserves I can use up in August that will help minimize even our normal frugal grocery bill. If I could make this happen, I'd be able to restore our depleted emergency fund in one month, vs. 3 months as I planned (I use the emergency fund to blast away the mortgage...)
So, can you kinda spell out the rules for me and others who might not be fully appraised on what a "no buy" month is? I mean, I already know from your prior posting, I get to buy rent/mortgage, utilities, gas (or in your case, electrons. *envy*) pet food, medicines and regular, non-packaged groceries.
So, essentially, it's "no frivolous buys", right? No eating out, no clothes, jewelry, goober stuff. Right?
Two Questions:
1) Is bike stuff OK if it's for TRANSPORT and not silly? (I'm adding a light to a bike for commuting purposes and might need a bolt or washer or some other part to make the bike light work.)
2) Do we post the results in this thread at the end of August? (and if that wasn't your intent, would you want us to anyway?)
See, I have sorta this...um...fantasy of biking to work for an entire month, eliminating my own gas purchases. I can't ask the DW to do that (and I never would - she's not insane crazy like I am) but I feel like that might be a way for me to join you on Electric Avenue, even if I do appear slightly more fruity to the cagers than you would in your slick little LEAF... :-)
(song "Electric Avenue" played on the radio this morning and I could not resist...)
The idea is just to challenge yourself. How low can you go? And by buying nothing unnecessary (and doing necessary things inexpensively) you can see that you really don't need to spend that much. In July, I bought about 25 pounds of peanuts because the price was good. Even though I was shooting for a low total expense, I still stocked up on good deals. And going 2 months in a row makes a lot of sense. Why can't every month be a month for great savings?
-
The idea is just to challenge yourself. How low can you go? And by buying nothing unnecessary (and doing necessary things inexpensively) you can see that you really don't need to spend that much. In July, I bought about 25 pounds of peanuts because the price was good. Even though I was shooting for a low total expense, I still stocked up on good deals. And going 2 months in a row makes a lot of sense. Why can't every month be a month for great savings?
Ok, ok. I think I'm tracking. Don't discard any good MMM advice for the goal of spending the least possible amount, but if there's an opportunity to whack something, take it (ie: like trying to ride the ebike into work every day in the month of August so that I'm buying zero gas for the Honda Insight rather than the $60/month I'm spending now....)
-
The idea is just to challenge yourself. How low can you go? And by buying nothing unnecessary (and doing necessary things inexpensively) you can see that you really don't need to spend that much. In July, I bought about 25 pounds of peanuts because the price was good. Even though I was shooting for a low total expense, I still stocked up on good deals. And going 2 months in a row makes a lot of sense. Why can't every month be a month for great savings?
Ok, ok. I think I'm tracking. Don't discard any good MMM advice for the goal of spending the least possible amount, but if there's an opportunity to whack something, take it (ie: like trying to ride the ebike into work every day in the month of August so that I'm buying zero gas for the Honda Insight rather than the $60/month I'm spending now....)
Yeah, your decisions should make good long term sense too. I didn't cancel the car insurance and sell the cars because we're better off keeping them. I didn't pay off the mortgage to save the interest because we're better off keeping the mortgage.
The ebike sounds like a good challenge for yourself.
-
Yeah, your decisions should make good long term sense too. I didn't cancel the car insurance and sell the cars because we're better off keeping them. I didn't pay off the mortgage to save the interest because we're better off keeping the mortgage.
The ebike sounds like a good challenge for yourself.
Thank you....I think that's definitely something I can attempt. I might be able to dial another degree or two out of the NEST thermostat and get the bike trailer finished. (That's the "couple bolts" I mentioned earlier, axles for the bike trailer...)
I don't know how much more is POSSIBLE for me at this point. I scared hell out of DW when I talked about a "no buy August", but after explaining it to her, it's not much different from what we're already doing. I'll have to ponder and see if there's anything here I might be missing.
-
Yeah, your decisions should make good long term sense too. I didn't cancel the car insurance and sell the cars because we're better off keeping them. I didn't pay off the mortgage to save the interest because we're better off keeping the mortgage.
The ebike sounds like a good challenge for yourself.
Thank you....I think that's definitely something I can attempt. I might be able to dial another degree or two out of the NEST thermostat and get the bike trailer finished. (That's the "couple bolts" I mentioned earlier, axles for the bike trailer...)
I don't know how much more is POSSIBLE for me at this point. I scared hell out of DW when I talked about a "no buy August", but after explaining it to her, it's not much different from what we're already doing. I'll have to ponder and see if there's anything here I might be missing.
You saw what we spent in July. We didn't feel deprived at all. We ate really well. We still live in our great (cheap) house and drive our great (cheap) electric cars. We kept the AC on and comfortable (72 at night with the super off peak rate keeps the house cool with minimal usage the rest of the day). We had lots of free entertainment online. DW had socializing activities where she brought her own lunch instead of buying at the cafeteria so she didn't miss out. Etc. It was a good month. We didn't need more.
-
Probably can't join in this month, but I always enjoy following these threads.
-
I'm in! August is my middle name. No, seriously, August is my middle name.
We really do need to buckle down this month. July was a financial disaster, as far as disasters go for for Mustachians. Shall I list the atrocities?
$ 345: Car insurance (okay, so this one was expected, but it's still a once-every-6-months irregularity)
$ 1335: Rental home maintenance costs
$ 3585: Deposit on new rental + 1st month's rent + rent on old place (three friggin' rent payments in one month!!!)
$ 780: Healthcare costs. Thankfully, we are now ~$500 away from meeting OOP max.
$ 1800: Refurbished battery + installation for 2007 Prius. She gave us 5 good years, but picked a crappy month to go out :(
$ 250: Rental car. We are a one-car family, so we had to improvise when the Prius went down.
$ 850: Travel expenses - including hotels, eating out, gas, car rentals, etc. This includes two weeks of vacation (North GA, then Norway), so frankly, not bad.
$ 100: Bungee-jumping in Norway. Nope, don't regret this one a bit :)
_____________________________
$ 9045: Grand Total in irregular/unexpected expenses.
I feel gross just typing all that. I'm shooting for a sub-$2000 month in August.
-
I'm in! August is my middle name. No, seriously, August is my middle name.
We really do need to buckle down this month. July was a financial disaster, as far as disasters go for for Mustachians. Shall I list the atrocities?
$ 345: Car insurance (okay, so this one was expected, but it's still a once-every-6-months irregularity)
$ 1335: Rental home maintenance costs
$ 3585: Deposit on new rental + 1st month's rent + rent on old place (three friggin' rent payments in one month!!!)
$ 780: Healthcare costs. Thankfully, we are now ~$500 away from meeting OOP max.
$ 1800: Refurbished battery + installation for 2007 Prius. She gave us 5 good years, but picked a crappy month to go out :(
$ 250: Rental car. We are a one-car family, so we had to improvise when the Prius went down.
$ 850: Travel expenses - including hotels, eating out, gas, car rentals, etc. This includes two weeks of vacation (North GA, then Norway), so frankly, not bad.
$ 100: Bungee-jumping in Norway. Nope, don't regret this one a bit :)
_____________________________
$ 9045: Grand Total in irregular/unexpected expenses.
I feel gross just typing all that. I'm shooting for a sub-$2000 month in August.
Damn sorry about the Prius battery. Shame you couldn't get help from the Prius forums on that. Might have been able to recondition the battery yourself. :-(
On the bright side, you got a hell of a good price for a reconditioned battery - I paid more than that for my teeny tiny Honda Insight replacement battery this year. (Mine was new, but still, it's far smaller than yours....)
-
I actually looked into refurbishing the battery myself, but to do it right would require a lot of tools that I don't own and time that I don't have. I ended up going with a reconditioned battery with an 18-month warranty. I only plan to keep the car about 2 more years, so it didn't make sense to buy a new one. I also considered doing the install myself, but every day that the car was out of commission was another day that I had to rent a car. Downside of being a one-car family.
There's a saying about good, cheap, and fast: you can have any two of the three. In this instance, good and fast was the reasonable choice, but my net worth tracker on Personal Capital does not look favorable this month...
-
I actually looked into refurbishing the battery myself, but to do it right would require a lot of tools that I don't own and time that I don't have. I ended up going with a reconditioned battery with an 18-month warranty. I only plan to keep the car about 2 more years, so it didn't make sense to buy a new one. I also considered doing the install myself, but every day that the car was out of commission was another day that I had to rent a car. Downside of being a one-car family.
There's a saying about good, cheap, and fast: you can have any two of the three. In this instance, good and fast was the reasonable choice, but my net worth tracker on Personal Capital does not look favorable this month...
Please, let me assure you that you did a GREAT JOB on the reconditioned Prius battery. Four months intomyHonda Insight battery and catalytic converter replacement, I am getting $120/month savings over the F-150 for commuting, the savings are awesome!
-
We really need an august August after a spendy July. Will join to at least watch, even if I don't entirely participate, knowing that I have some some unavoidable spending coming up.
-
I dub this Austerity August. I am modifying this a bit so it applies to me and not my family. I will make an exception for my birthday dinner. Fun stuff.
-
I dub this Austerity August. I am modifying this a bit so it applies to me and not my family. I will make an exception for my birthday dinner. Fun stuff.
I like this! Bonus points if you live in Greece.
-
I dub this Austerity August. I am modifying this a bit so it applies to me and not my family. I will make an exception for my birthday dinner. Fun stuff.
I like this! Bonus points if you live in Greece.
It's a fun-sounding phrase, but austerity presents a very negative connotation, where you are being forced to give up what you need and sacrificing with painful consequences. Whereas the idea is we can still live an august life with the bounty of everything we really need and experience an august bounty of savings rolling in the whole month. We had a great month in July and spent almost nothing.
-
In.
I'm switching jobs again and every time I do, we end up spending money on stupid stuff because either I 'need' it or we just didn't plan well (ex. bring home dinner, because with new schedules we forgot to go grocery shopping).
Hopefully, this allows us to top off the HSA.
-
Well, I'm off to a rough start. I jumped in a pool with my cell phone in my pocket on Saturday. It was 10 minutes before I realized it. It's toast, I'm currently searching on eBay for a new one. Then my wife signed my daughter up for dance classes at $80/month. I can't complain about that one, I guess. My daughter was so happy, it was worth it.
On a positive note, I did get a $550 refund check from my escrow fund, plus they dropped my monthly payment by $50/month. This is a result of switching insurance companies back in June, but it's nice to receive the fruits of my comparison-shopping!
Hopefully no more negative surprises this month...
-
I'm in.
Holiday with travels in July means it's time to cut back and go basic in August. Also: august is the month of bounty. So much free berries and mushrooms and what not right now. Bonus of this is: spending time picking, harvesting and preserving stuff means no time to get bored and go spend money.
-
I'm in. August is usually a spendy month for me, so I'll try not buying it and see how that goes.
-
I dub this Austerity August. I am modifying this a bit so it applies to me and not my family. I will make an exception for my birthday dinner. Fun stuff.
I like this! Bonus points if you live in Greece.
It's a fun-sounding phrase, but austerity presents a very negative connotation, where you are being forced to give up what you need and sacrificing with painful consequences. Whereas the idea is we can still live an august life with the bounty of everything we really need and experience an august bounty of savings rolling in the whole month. We had a great month in July and spent almost nothing.
I try my best to take words as they are defined and not how they are perceived. I just think of it as "extreme simplicity" and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I use "mediocre" and mean "of moderate quality." Not so good, but also not so bad.
I also recently learned the definition of the word "moot" and try to use it properly, not how people think it should be used, which is interestingly the opposite of what it means... It is a moot point whether the word austerity has negative connotations. I'm sure its recent use in Greece makes for a negative viewpoint. But for someone like me that savors a simplicity, not so much.
-
It's going to be hard to beat July for me:
Since we're not going to spend anymore money the rest of the month, I have the tally in for July. It didn't take long to do since there were so few entries :)
$158.84 Utilities
$240.93 Groceries
$10.00 Eating Out
$59.02 Misc
401.00 Insurance (prorated) and property tax (prorated)
317.00 Interest expense (mortgage)
1,186.79 Total Expenses
All time record low! Smashing our previous record of $1,477. Can we go lower during our august August?
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/august-august/
And we had 3 paydays this month, so our savings rate was also a record. It was unbelievably high.
Sweet! Cut that AC to cut the utilities. Hot water and lights in august are for wimps. So I bet you can cut $100 there. I assume that grocery amount is for 2? Bet you could do it for $180. Have you shopped your insurance lately? Increased the deductible? What about property tax? can you appeal the amount at the county court? Just kidding. Looks like you are doing a fine job!
-
Agreed! Preserving food is the best hobby ;)
Absolutely. No amount of shopping can be half as fun as picking your on mushrooms and going home to cok fresh, still scented with forrest.
Today celebrated first pick of 'shrooms with chantarelle omelet. Cost: a pack of eggs and plenty of fresh air.
-
I'm so in! I did No Buy July and this month is Austerity August. Already failing like crazy because of vacations and birthday gifts... but july was an incredible overspend (despite being "no buy") so hopefully I can do better this month.
-
It's going to be hard to beat July for me:
Since we're not going to spend anymore money the rest of the month, I have the tally in for July. It didn't take long to do since there were so few entries :)
$158.84 Utilities
$240.93 Groceries
$10.00 Eating Out
$59.02 Misc
401.00 Insurance (prorated) and property tax (prorated)
317.00 Interest expense (mortgage)
1,186.79 Total Expenses
All time record low! Smashing our previous record of $1,477. Can we go lower during our august August?
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/august-august/
And we had 3 paydays this month, so our savings rate was also a record. It was unbelievably high.
Sweet! Cut that AC to cut the utilities. Hot water and lights in august are for wimps. So I bet you can cut $100 there. I assume that grocery amount is for 2? Bet you could do it for $180. Have you shopped your insurance lately? Increased the deductible? What about property tax? can you appeal the amount at the county court? Just kidding. Looks like you are doing a fine job!
I have shopped the insurance (last month)--my rate is still the best available. Utilities includes phones and internet and fixed service charges (about $100 by themselves), so I couldn't get too much lower. I could have gotten the groceries to $180, but I did smart long-term things like buying 25 pounds of peanuts at a cheap price that we'll eat over the next months.
-
...
I have shopped the insurance (last month)--my rate is still the best available. Utilities includes phones and internet and fixed service charges (about $100 by themselves), so I couldn't get too much lower. I could have gotten the groceries to $180, but I did smart long-term things like buying 25 pounds of peanuts at a cheap price that we'll eat over the next months.
Peanuts?!?!? You cannibal! No hesitation at eating your relatives?!? :-)
-
...
I have shopped the insurance (last month)--my rate is still the best available. Utilities includes phones and internet and fixed service charges (about $100 by themselves), so I couldn't get too much lower. I could have gotten the groceries to $180, but I did smart long-term things like buying 25 pounds of peanuts at a cheap price that we'll eat over the next months.
Peanuts?!?!? You cannibal! No hesitation at eating your relatives?!? :-)
MMMMMMM, tasty, tasty relatives. <drool>
-
Which reminds me to ask: do you turn any of your tiny relatives into peanut butter? We eat a lot of peanut butter at my house and I'm looking for a way to get good quality at lower cost, with some time input....
-
I'll do this day by day for any unbudgeted purchases. My goal is to only go to the grocery store on 8/13 and 8/27 because the bulk of my impulse spending is in the grocery store.
So far:
8/1 - $0
8/2 - $0
8/3 - $0
8/4 - $0
8/5 - $0
With the PP on the berries. We are drowning in them. Very tasty way to die, but drowning nonetheless. :p
-
Which reminds me to ask: do you turn any of your tiny relatives into peanut butter? We eat a lot of peanut butter at my house and I'm looking for a way to get good quality at lower cost, with some time input....
I let the factory do it for me. The cost of a pound of peanut butter (the kind I get is always just nuts and salt) is actually less than the lowest cost I can find for whole nuts.
-
Which reminds me to ask: do you turn any of your tiny relatives into peanut butter? We eat a lot of peanut butter at my house and I'm looking for a way to get good quality at lower cost, with some time input....
I let the factory do it for me. The cost of a pound of peanut butter (the kind I get is always just nuts and salt) is actually less than the lowest cost I can find for whole nuts.
Damn. Same is true for almonds and cashews. I've tried to figure out a way to save a bunch making almond milk, but that's a no-go.
There are some economies of scale that just can't be beaten with time and work....
-
Which reminds me to ask: do you turn any of your tiny relatives into peanut butter? We eat a lot of peanut butter at my house and I'm looking for a way to get good quality at lower cost, with some time input....
I let the factory do it for me. The cost of a pound of peanut butter (the kind I get is always just nuts and salt) is actually less than the lowest cost I can find for whole nuts.
Damn. Same is true for almonds and cashews. I've tried to figure out a way to save a bunch making almond milk, but that's a no-go.
There are some economies of scale that just can't be beaten with time and work....
Yeah. They can use less pretty tomatoes to make the tomato sauce. It's easier to pack and ship. Etc.
-
I'll do this day by day for any unbudgeted purchases. My goal is to only go to the grocery store on 8/13 and 8/27 because the bulk of my impulse spending is in the grocery store.
So far:
8/1 - $0
8/2 - $0
8/3 - $0
8/4 - $0
8/5 - $0
With the PP on the berries. We are drowning in them. Very tasty way to die, but drowning nonetheless. :p
I like that method! Good work so far.
I haven't made any impulse purchases this month yet (yay for me!)
It looks like I will be taking care of getting the house exterior painted, though, and because of that I will likely be paying someone to climb up the really high ladder. Wimpy, I know, but Zamboni's function best on solid surfaces. This is actually deferred maintenance from last year, when I really should have done it but had sticker shock at the quotes. Now that I've made peace with what people want to climb up on those ladders and paint, it needs to be done. Mental note: next house must be one story only.
-
So far - went on a work trip and ended up purchasing coffee yesterday and today. Spent $4.77 last night on a taco and a tamale. I was hoping to only eat what I brought for the whole trip, but ended up forgetting a can opener and my coffee making supplies, so it didn't quite work.
But five days in, I haven't bought any *stuff* which is my main goal for this gauntlet.
-
x-posting but today has been a nice quiet day at home -- reading library books, researching a possible one day road trip next week, eating salad, drinking water...love love LOVE the simplicity of today and need to figure out how to replicate!
-
Oh! I missed this. We've been doing this. I failed abyssmaly at No buy July (we moved...) but DH is on board this month! Eliminating restaurants is a big goal- not a huge budget anymore (used to be $500+), but still about $200 last month. This is a double goal since it dovetails with health goals as well. Only exception was some big planned expenses of our home gym (about $300) and a grill ($140). Otherwise, we're planning on keeping to no unnecessary spending this month!
-
Gaaah! I though we might have a shot at August August.
I can justify the duct cleaning that the buyer required to waive the inspection contingency if the house sale closes within a couple weeks. ($677)
I can maybe justify the hiking shoes ($110) for her because she needed them and hiking is very important for us at this point in our lives and the tennis shoes in which she were hiking were hurting her feet. But I think this purchase alone automatically disqualifies us from the August August. :(
And I won't even get near the DW "hobby" ($190) spending. She thought it was necessary.... I will say no more on that topic.
And then there's the vet visit ($89), the Costco membership renewal ($110) which happened to happen in August, and so on and so forth... Story of my life...
-
Surprisingly not doing bad, all things considered.
The pros:
+ 2 weeks "staycation" with the new puppy means I've only had to fill my gas tank once, and that should last me the next 2 weeks!
+ New puppy is sick. Ok not a plus in most respects, but it means we literally can't go eat out anywhere.
+ Landlord had a party this week. Free dinner cooked by Not Me! I didn't even care about the cost savings here, I was just happy I didn't have to cook dinner!
+ Puppy kibble has proved sufficient as training treats. No need for fancy filler junk treats!
The cons:
- Did eat out twice the day we brought puppy home ($50). Now that I'm officially on vacation, I've resolved to cook every meal though.
- Some of the initial supplies for puppy didn't work as planned. Needed a smaller collar, fake grass pad because he refused to take to paper pads, etc. All in all: $65. Well spent, though. Everything we got has proven indispensable.
- Puppy vet visit, diagnostic test, and medicine ran $159. Worth it. The last few nights have been...trying. And I'm glad it seems to be almost over. I might actually get to sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time tonight!
So not great, but most of it was budgeted for, and we should be set up to do well the rest of the month.
-
Ha! I see vet expenses are a recurring theme. I had to spend $104 on my dog's pain meds today, but at least got a $15 mail in rebate. She has been on a mix of Tramadol (cheap) and Deramaxx (expensive) and I was contemplating switching her to just the Tramadol, but she was on just that for a couple days before getting the Rx refilled, and started clearly having more trouble negotiating the stairs, so Deramaxx it is. I don't think this is the kind of thing that should be counted against august August, as a necessity to keep our sweet puppies happy and healthy.
-
8/1 - $0
8/2 - $0
8/3 - $0
8/4 - $0
8/5 - $0
8/6 - $5
Kid is taking a cooking course at her summer care and they are having a bake sale to show off what they have learned. I gave her $5 to buy us something. I also told her to bring home the recipe for the zucchini bread they made because it was pretty good. I'll have to wait another week to make it with her because I have no (usable for this purpose) zucchini atm.
-
DH and I are feeling a major victory! We need to build a little fenced area for the dog (right now we need to watch her full time when she's out), and our landlady doesn't want to pay for the materials. We were originally going to put off until next month and do it as cheap as possible later on. But then! Someone mentioned pallet fencing. So we went on craigslist, and lo and behold, there was a bunch of pallets available for FREE in great condition from an auto shop. We filled the back of the truck and away we went. We still have screws left over from our last project and are borrowing the power tools. We will probably have to buy something to really stabilize the gate area, but that should be minimal cost, and we're still brainstorming.
Anyway, I was pretty excited. When we priced out building the fence, we were looking in the $250-300 for doing most of the work ourselves. Nooooo.
-
Took the kids to a water park on Saturday spent 40 on food and admission. Then had to get my son a car seat as grandma is picking him up from prek 2 days/week so another 30 bucks. Otherwise we are on target. Hoping nothing else comes up.
-
We've had a couple things like a baby shower gift and having a networking lunch in pursuit of a new job. But pretty limited still.
-
8/1 - $0
8/2 - $0
8/3 - $0
8/4 - $0
8/5 - $0
8/6 - $5 Kid didn't buy us anything, so we got the cash back.
8/7 - $0
8/8 - $0
8/9 - $0
8/10 - $0 + scored 3 free day passes to the local swimming pool!
8/11 -$0
Looks like this Saturday we have to make an unexpected trip across the border. Probably won't be more than $50, but still, wasn't planned for. Oh well. Makes it more important to stick to the budget and not spend extra.
-
8/1 - $0
8/2 - $0
8/3 - $0
8/4 - $0
8/5 - $0
8/6 - $5 Kid didn't buy us anything, so we got the cash back.
8/7 - $0
8/8 - $0
8/9 - $0
8/10 - $0 + scored 3 free day passes to the local swimming pool!
8/11 -$0
Looks like this Saturday we have to make an unexpected trip across the border. Probably won't be more than $50, but still, wasn't planned for. Oh well. Makes it more important to stick to the budget and not spend extra.
Wow, is this counting groceries and utilities and such too?
-
Outside of gas and grocery type stuff, I did buy a white shirt and three ties that are part of my horse showing garb. I didn't strictly need them, so this is sort of a fail, but OTOH, I'd been planning to purchase them for almost a year now, and my only real show this year is the last weekend of the month. Total outlay there: $30.
I'm going on a horse shopping trip this weekend, so I guess if I end up buying, that will be a hard fail, huh?
-
8/1 - $0
8/2 - $0
8/3 - $0
8/4 - $0
8/5 - $0
8/6 - $5 Kid didn't buy us anything, so we got the cash back.
8/7 - $0
8/8 - $0
8/9 - $0
8/10 - $0 + scored 3 free day passes to the local swimming pool!
8/11 -$0
Looks like this Saturday we have to make an unexpected trip across the border. Probably won't be more than $50, but still, wasn't planned for. Oh well. Makes it more important to stick to the budget and not spend extra.
Wow, is this counting groceries and utilities and such too?
This is tracking unbudgeted spending per day. I can't stop spending money period for a month. My landlord wouldn't appreciate that. :p
-
The idea is just to challenge yourself. How low can you go? And by buying nothing unnecessary (and doing necessary things inexpensively) you can see that you really don't need to spend that much. In July, I bought about 25 pounds of peanuts because the price was good. Even though I was shooting for a low total expense, I still stocked up on good deals. And going 2 months in a row makes a lot of sense. Why can't every month be a month for great savings?
Ok, ok. I think I'm tracking. Don't discard any good MMM advice for the goal of spending the least possible amount, but if there's an opportunity to whack something, take it (ie: like trying to ride the ebike into work every day in the month of August so that I'm buying zero gas for the Honda Insight rather than the $60/month I'm spending now....)
We're doing well. No frivolous expenses at all. I've found customers for my duck eggs, so this month, went cash flow positive on the ducks. We're letting ourselves actually run out or get close to running out of some items and we aren't feeling that normal "panic" we get when we are about to run out of an essential staple. I've done without almond milk successfully for almost a week, will get more this weekend at Aldi.
We've not been to buy groceries since the end of July, we'll wait to go to the store this weekend if the TP holds out another couple days. We've got the list honed to a fine point - only essentials. Been running on the cupboard and fridge and it feels just fine.
-
Okay! Not quite to the end of the month yet, but there shouldn't be any more expenses for me.
August was our cheapest month ever! Thank you guys!!!
We spent just $2,200! And this was with major expenses like: 6 months of car insurance premiums and buying a gas BBQ. And since we brought in $5.5k this month, that means we lived on 40% of our take home income! Goal next month: sub-2k expenses! I'm already in the Savetember challenge.
And to imagine, a year ago we were spending an average of $4,000/month.
-
Okay! Not quite to the end of the month yet, but there shouldn't be any more expenses for me.
August was our cheapest month ever! Thank you guys!!!
We spent just $2,200! And this was with major expenses like: 6 months of car insurance premiums and buying a gas BBQ. And since we brought in $5.5k this month, that means we lived on 40% of our take home income! Goal next month: sub-2k expenses! I'm already in the Savetember challenge.
And to imagine, a year ago we were spending an average of $4,000/month.
Good for you! That's a really impressive change!
-
Outside of gas and grocery type stuff, I did buy a white shirt and three ties that are part of my horse showing garb. I didn't strictly need them, so this is sort of a fail, but OTOH, I'd been planning to purchase them for almost a year now, and my only real show this year is the last weekend of the month. Total outlay there: $30.
I'm going on a horse shopping trip this weekend, so I guess if I end up buying, that will be a hard fail, huh?
I found a horse, but no money is changing hands until the pre-purchase exam which is September first, so I guess that doesn't officially count? OTOH, I have been hard-failing because I've already purchased a bridle and lead rope for new horse. I sort of forgot about this challenge until I logged in just here and now. Oops. Must consider all the equipment I already have and not run out and buy new, shiny stuff because "ooh, pretty new horsey to dress up!!!11!"
-
Okay! Not quite to the end of the month yet, but there shouldn't be any more expenses for me.
August was our cheapest month ever! Thank you guys!!!
We spent just $2,200! And this was with major expenses like: 6 months of car insurance premiums and buying a gas BBQ. And since we brought in $5.5k this month, that means we lived on 40% of our take home income! Goal next month: sub-2k expenses! I'm already in the Savetember challenge.
And to imagine, a year ago we were spending an average of $4,000/month.
That's great! Put it in your 401k or IRA :)
-
Okay! Not quite to the end of the month yet, but there shouldn't be any more expenses for me.
August was our cheapest month ever! Thank you guys!!!
We spent just $2,200! And this was with major expenses like: 6 months of car insurance premiums and buying a gas BBQ. And since we brought in $5.5k this month, that means we lived on 40% of our take home income! Goal next month: sub-2k expenses! I'm already in the Savetember challenge.
And to imagine, a year ago we were spending an average of $4,000/month.
That's great! Put it in your 401k or IRA :)
No 401k, but yeah, it's currently going into DH's tIRA. We're putting in $200/week to catch up to max it out. Still trying to figure out what happens with mine, since I'm hoping to hear back from jobs soon! I know spousal contribution stuff depends on total earnings for a non-working spouse... so I'm not sure what happens if I don't find a job! I guess I'm worried I'll contribute to my tIRA then find out it's not tax exempt? I'm still trying to figure tax stuff out, and first year filing jointly =\
-
Okay! Not quite to the end of the month yet, but there shouldn't be any more expenses for me.
August was our cheapest month ever! Thank you guys!!!
We spent just $2,200! And this was with major expenses like: 6 months of car insurance premiums and buying a gas BBQ. And since we brought in $5.5k this month, that means we lived on 40% of our take home income! Goal next month: sub-2k expenses! I'm already in the Savetember challenge.
And to imagine, a year ago we were spending an average of $4,000/month.
That's great! Put it in your 401k or IRA :)
No 401k, but yeah, it's currently going into DH's tIRA. We're putting in $200/week to catch up to max it out. Still trying to figure out what happens with mine, since I'm hoping to hear back from jobs soon! I know spousal contribution stuff depends on total earnings for a non-working spouse... so I'm not sure what happens if I don't find a job! I guess I'm worried I'll contribute to my tIRA then find out it's not tax exempt? I'm still trying to figure tax stuff out, and first year filing jointly =\
A working and non-working spouse can still max both their IRAs as long as the working spouse has enough earned income ($11k).
-
So I could still contribute, the issue would just be if the total income exceeds limits for a household for traditional IRA deduction? Looks like it's $98k mAGI for married filing jointly with a retirement plan through work.
Hmm, so pretty sure no matter what we'll be able to take the full deduction for both of us. Awesome. Thanks for the help forummm, you pointed me in the right direction as always!
One more question for anyone who knows: am I correct in understanding that I can have IRAs with multiple companies, so long as I don't contribute to them the same year? Ie, I have an old Roth IRA with wells fargo, and I really don't want to deal with them (very small amount in it, too). I would like to go through Vanguard. I can just open a Vanguard and contribute there, correct?
-
So I could still contribute, the issue would just be if the total income exceeds limits for a household for traditional IRA deduction? Looks like it's $98k mAGI for married filing jointly with a retirement plan through work.
Hmm, so pretty sure no matter what we'll be able to take the full deduction for both of us. Awesome. Thanks for the help forummm, you pointed me in the right direction as always!
One more question for anyone who knows: am I correct in understanding that I can have IRAs with multiple companies, so long as I don't contribute to them the same year? Ie, I have an old Roth IRA with wells fargo, and I really don't want to deal with them (very small amount in it, too). I would like to go through Vanguard. I can just open a Vanguard and contribute there, correct?
Even if your income is too high to take the traditional IRA deduction, you can contribute to a Roth IRA. At some point if your income gets too high to contribute to a Roth IRA, you can still contributed to a Roth IRA by doing a "backdoor Roth" contribution. Roth IRAs are nice too.
You can have as many IRAs as you want to. And you could even contribute to multiple IRAs in the same year, as long as the total contribution amount between all accounts is $5500 or less. But you could also just roll over the WF IRA to Vanguard. It would probably be a better idea to do that since Vanguard generally has better investment options and fees than WF. No tax would be involved. Probably a phone call or two and a signature. I think you can have Vanguard initiate the transfer for you. I think Vanguard has a $1000 minimum for IRAs but I'm not sure.
-
Thanks!
I know Roth vs traditional is a hot debate in FI circles. MadFIentist seems very anti-Roth (except doing backdoor Roth). I think you're the first person on the forums I've seen who likes Roth.
-
Thanks!
I know Roth vs traditional is a hot debate in FI circles. MadFIentist seems very anti-Roth (except doing backdoor Roth). I think you're the first person on the forums I've seen who likes Roth.
I think it depends on tax brackets. Most early retirees will be in a lower tax bracket when they retire than when working, so traditional is a higher priority than a Roth. However, maxing both traditional and Roth is the best of both worlds.
-
Thanks!
I know Roth vs traditional is a hot debate in FI circles. MadFIentist seems very anti-Roth (except doing backdoor Roth). I think you're the first person on the forums I've seen who likes Roth.
I think it depends on tax brackets. Most early retirees will be in a lower tax bracket when they retire than when working, so traditional is a higher priority than a Roth. However, maxing both traditional and Roth is the best of both worlds.
You mean a traditional for one person and a roth for the other? Because otherwise, I thought you could only do one or the other per year (to $5,500 per person). Am I wrong about this?
Oh! And it was GoCurry Cracker I was thinking of, not MadFIentist. This post: http://www.gocurrycracker.com/roth-sucks/
(Obviously I'm not debating, I don't know enough for that- just trying to beef up my knowledge! So assume earnest tone, lol)
-
Thanks!
I know Roth vs traditional is a hot debate in FI circles. MadFIentist seems very anti-Roth (except doing backdoor Roth). I think you're the first person on the forums I've seen who likes Roth.
I think it depends on tax brackets. Most early retirees will be in a lower tax bracket when they retire than when working, so traditional is a higher priority than a Roth. However, maxing both traditional and Roth is the best of both worlds.
You can't max both traditional and Roth IRAs. You can contribute up to $5500 per year per person. You could do part of that in traditional and part in Roth. Or one person go Roth and the other person traditional. But only up to $5500 per year per person in total.
You can max out 401ks and other work-based retirement plans in addition to your IRA.
Thanks!
I know Roth vs traditional is a hot debate in FI circles. MadFIentist seems very anti-Roth (except doing backdoor Roth). I think you're the first person on the forums I've seen who likes Roth.
Roths are great. I've maxed mine every year since 2000. At this point I would prefer a deductible traditional, but I make too much to get the deduction. Roth is the next best thing. When I first started I made so little that my taxes were so low (or zero) so it made sense to use a Roth then too.
-
Okay! Not quite to the end of the month yet, but there shouldn't be any more expenses for me.
ditto! (great job, btw!!)
Our monthly expenses were just about $1800 CDN. This is for 2 adults & 1 cat. Slightly higher than I was hoping, but we did have some unexpected household & medical expenses (replacing broken household item, much-needed cold & flu medication, and an unexpected dentist visit, for which we had to pay our deductible). Overall, very pleased & looking forward to Savetember!
The details:
$670 - Mortgage interest & Insurance / Strata fee (HOA)
$115 - Internet/Phone
$120 - gas
$450 - groceries
$70 - restaurants
$70 - health
$10 - pets
$125 - household
$15 - entertainment
$135 - gifts
$20 - misc
Very nice!
-
Our august August expenses
$215.93 Utilities
$182.00 Groceries
$87.77 Eating Out
$392.40 Misc (125 for medical and 54 for part of some home repair)
401.00 Insurance (prorated) and property tax (prorated)
311.00 Interest expense
1,590.10 Total Expenses
A record high savings and savings rate for us in a month where we only had 2 paydays. But we couldn't quite get back down to last month's record low spending.
-
$152 Utilities
$82 Internet and phone
$25 Republic Wireless
$13 Net Ducks
$427.60 Groceries (incl food for lunches at work)
$28 Gasoline
$32 Misc medical
$243 Property insurance and taxes
$276 Mortgage Interest
$12 Service Charges (Counter checks moving money around)
$232 Restaurants (OMG)
$80 Bike Trailer
$1,603 Total
Targeted areas for improvement in Savetember are Utilities, Groceries, Misc Medical, Mortgage Interest, Service Charges and Restaurants. In August, these were $1374. I believe I can reach $1000 or less on these starting today (Sept. 1).
August August net savings Increases Compared to July:
+$5000 for mortgage principal
+$2000 Vanguard Roth IRA
Pre-tax savings were unchanged from prior levels.
Looking to increase savings numbers for Savetember.
-
That's pretty bomb, Mefla! I bet that's a pretty high savings rate. How did it feel living during the month? Something you could keep doing forever?
-
That's pretty bomb, Mefla! I bet that's a pretty high savings rate. How did it feel living during the month? Something you could keep doing forever?
YES YES YES. Definitely something I could keep doing forever. More importantly, something I could improve on and then live on the improved version forever.
Well, I just realized I'm wrong about this. I didn't include pro-rata monies for yearly auto insurance and I have to set aside money for taxes in case there's a problem. But I can get "in the neighborhood" pretty reliably.
Other tangential babbling deleted... :-)
-
Mefla, all you would need to do is add up your take-home pay for August. If it's $3,206 or more (1,603/3,206 =50%), then you have over a 50% savings rate.
-
Mefla, all you would need to do is add up your take-home pay for August. If it's $3,206 or more (1,603/3,206 =50%), then you have over a 50% savings rate.
Take home pay for the month was $5727. The added amounts put toward the mortgage principal and Roth IRA include the savings from No-Buy July. :-)
forummm, this exercise was exactly the kick-in-the-pants I needed - it might be a good idea to formalize the exercise into a kind of "Training program for Young Mustachians". I track everything using Personal Capital and my various web-based windows into the different resources, but nothing shows me "How much I'm saving in a month" and until these two threads, that amount was actually a little mysterious to me up until now because there's no line item that says SAVINGS in anything I've got.
I guess that's a good argument for tracking budgets in a spreadsheet, or using YNAB?
-
Mefla, all you would need to do is add up your take-home pay for August. If it's $3,206 or more (1,603/3,206 =50%), then you have over a 50% savings rate.
Take home pay for the month was $5727. The added amounts put toward the mortgage principal and Roth IRA include the savings from No-Buy July. :-)
forummm, this exercise was exactly the kick-in-the-pants I needed - it might be a good idea to formalize the exercise into a kind of "Training program for Young Mustachians". I track everything using Personal Capital and my various web-based windows into the different resources, but nothing shows me "How much I'm saving in a month" and until these two threads, that amount was actually a little mysterious to me up until now because there's no line item that says SAVINGS in anything I've got.
I guess that's a good argument for tracking budgets in a spreadsheet, or using YNAB?
That's a 72% savings rate. Pretty badass! And you still saw stuff you could cut back on.
-
That's a 72% savings rate. Pretty badass! And you still saw stuff you could cut back on.
I may have spoken too soon, the Season of InsanityTM begins with Halloween in October (running through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day and ending with the conclusion of the Easter season.)
I'm thinking ahead to Thanksgiving and Christmas - those two holidays are hell on frugalism. Maybe I start setting aside money so I can provide a budgeted amount? (Rather than letting things be left to chance, as I've done in the past.)
forummm, muster all the wisdom and incantations you can in Savetember and <whatever October is>. Things could go all to hell for me after that...
-
I'm in.
Holiday with travels in July means it's time to cut back and go basic in August. Also: august is the month of bounty. So much free berries and mushrooms and what not right now. Bonus of this is: spending time picking, harvesting and preserving stuff means no time to get bored and go spend money.
Ah, well. Time to sum up august.
On the positive side: travel expenses were as expected (plane ticket and hotel for holiday). Food ended up way below budget, so fall bounty paid off.
On the negative side: ended up buying a new vacuum. My old one has been on it's last leg for nearly a year, and I finally just had enough and got a new one. Also went overboard on the clothes-budget. Got a pair of quality shoes. They'll last me years, but cost 1.5 monthly budgets. (Jikes!)