Austerity August

[Zamboni]

My nose is back to the grindstone, too.  I have noticed, however, that I am alternating between being too busy and too tired to spend money.  Things like mowing the lawn are a special treat just because it adds variety.

How is austerity august going, everyone?

If I don't count the 6 month car insurance payment (which I had forgotten was coming when I set my goal), then I am still $100 under my goal for spending this month with a week to go and no foreseeable expenses in site.  Feels pretty good.  I think I'll save 75% of the leftover money and send the rest as an extra principle payment on my mortgage.

[olivia]

Still going, and I think September will actually be more austere.  We sold our car so had some expenses with that which I mentioned upthread, like the $120 detailing and a $130 repair.  Plus my husband had to rent a car to drive down to the bank in my old state and pay it off and get the title.  So I think September will actually be better.  It helps that I stocked up on toiletries at CVS with a zillion coupons (I'm turning into an extreme couponer, at least with CVS :P) so we won't really need to spend any money on personal care for the next few months. 

But not eating out and not spending on clothes has left us with several thousand extra dollars.  Plus this is a 3 paycheck month for my husband (I get paid monthly so don't get those sadly).  I'm amazed...I was tracking our spending in Mint before but I don't think it's really become clear until this challenge how much money we were spending (AKA wasting) eating out, buying clothes we don't need, etc.

[swick]

I'm amazed...I was tracking our spending in Mint before but I don't think it's really become clear until this challenge how much money we were spending (AKA wasting) eating out, buying clothes we don't need, etc.

This is awesome:)

[Herbert Derp]

My results for August are in...

Rent: $500.00 (includes electricity/water/sewage/trash/internet)
Other: $168.44
Total: $668.44

My vacation cost less than I anticipated... I did the following, had a lot of fun:
$7.50 - movie
$46.26 - stand up comedy / dinner
$31.10 - three lunches with friends
$5.14 - ice cream
$1.06 - dunkin donuts
$19.32 - bar crawl (+ another $18.20 which will be in September, due to bar crawl occurring on the night of Aug 31st)