Author Topic: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019  (Read 56017 times)

Slow&Steady

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #250 on: April 15, 2019, 06:26:25 AM »
Only tracking food for this challenge because it is our downfall.  I will be pretty excited if we can just stay in our budget, so even 100% of budget would be better than what it has been in the past!

Consolidating all the previous post so there isn't a ton of quoted text each month.

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%

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

Mid-April 2019
% of monthly budget spent
Household supplies/groceries: 65%
Eating out: 33%

Year to Date 2019
% of monthly budget spent
Household supplies/groceries: 91.5%
Eating out: 88%
« Last Edit: April 15, 2019, 06:29:10 AM by Slow&Steady »

Slow&Steady

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #251 on: April 15, 2019, 06:36:09 AM »
Only tracking food for this challenge because it is our downfall.  I will be pretty excited if we can just stay in our budget, so even 100% of budget would be better than what it has been in the past!

Consolidating all the previous post so there isn't a ton of quoted text each month.

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%

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

Mid-April 2019
% of monthly budget spent
Household supplies/groceries: 65%
Eating out: 33%

Year to Date 2019
% of monthly budget spent
Household supplies/groceries: 91.5%
Eating out: 88%

Table format seems like it might be easier to read going forward.

Code: [Select]
Month End Groceries Eating out
Jan-19 94% 79%        
Feb-19 97% 99%          
Mar-19 110% 117%          
Apr-19 65% 33%
YTD-19 91.5% 88%

ForeverPoor

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #252 on: April 15, 2019, 08:52:35 AM »
Late reply... but a quick update on weekly spending:

Spending is still under control. As of 4/15: $536.40 has been spent against a $1729 monthly target (31% to budget) with 2 weeks left in the month. Good progress but more could have been done in the entertainment tab - had friends come from out of town and so the expense was unavoidable. But not expecting more large entertainment budgets up to month end.

ForeverPoor

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #253 on: April 21, 2019, 10:39:41 PM »
As of 4/21 I am still on track to meeting or going below the target budget - $917 spent vs $1210 budgeted, $1729 for the month.

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #254 on: April 22, 2019, 12:46:44 AM »
Total Jan: €    508
Total Feb: €  1105
Total March: €971

April:
Food: €154
Transit: €140
Fun: €8
Work clothes: €162 (summer coat, skirt, dress)
Shopping: €5

I hate shopping and especially buying new, but I really needed to update my professional wardrobe. I will likely buy a few more things over the next couple of months.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2019, 12:00:30 PM by Imma »

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #255 on: April 22, 2019, 11:29:07 AM »
Approximately one week to go update:


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 |$    3 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1642 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 |$  630 |


I'll hit my goal if I keep grocery shopping <$20 this weekend (challenge accepted!).

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #256 on: April 28, 2019, 07:08:14 AM »

Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $    8 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 |$    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   16 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 |$    0 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $   43 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 |$    0 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  167 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 |$    0 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $   14 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 |$    0 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  248 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 |$    3 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1392 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 |$  641 |


Obviously very pleased with this month. Needed it, because next month I have two big trips out of state on vacation. Fortunately travel accommodations were paid for in previous months, but there will be a lot of breweries and restaurants in May (glad I carved myself a little room in Restaurants average!)

Thanks as always for holding me accountable, whether you want to or not!

ForeverPoor

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #257 on: April 28, 2019, 10:59:17 PM »
I am deferring this Sunday's update to 4/30 to accommodate month-end activities. More to come.

Trifle

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #258 on: April 29, 2019, 04:01:07 AM »
Monthly check in. 

Our goals are keeping our total spend under $2700 for our family of four (two adults + two teenagers) and keeping the total food cost under $600.   ($600 on food for a month is an aggressive target for us; last year we averaged $750.  Our "Food" category includes both groceries and eating out.)  We're also trying to get our utilities down.  Our house is paid off, so food and utilities are our two biggest expenses. 

Pretty good month, especially since it includes a ten day cross country road trip to visit family, and we ate out several times. 


                Total spend           Food           Utilities

January       $3869                $656             $539
February       2223                  593               558
March           2877                  843               444
April             2803                  606               394
« Last Edit: April 30, 2019, 04:17:46 AM by Trifele »

use2betrix

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #259 on: April 29, 2019, 07:33:23 PM »
Been a rough few months for this thread! I should be setting an example as the thread starter, but instead failing. This month I had $1600 in medical bills and my wife and I decided to take an impromptu 3 day vacation as I had the days off work and I had worked 6 days/wk nearly every single week this year otherwise. Add that to various other things, and it wasn’t a great one.

Next month my wife is likely getting her wisdom teeth out, which will set us back another $1600 or so..

A downside of my work is that we live in a part of the country I really don’t enjoy. I’m not a fan of the heat, and there’s no outdoor activities I care for. The upside is a much, much larger income. I’m starting to get to the point that if the trade off for enjoying life a bit more means a long weekend trip every few months, even taking a hit to the budget, I think it’s justified. As such, we just booked a small 1 bedroom cabin for 4 nights over the 4th of July, and that will also be a good break before getting back at it.

I’ll post up final numbers later this week once all my bills have came through for the end of April.

jojoguy

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #260 on: April 30, 2019, 04:49:50 AM »
Ugh! I really need to start posting here. My biggest vice in spending is food. Stress eating has been crazy recently. We`ve budgeted $300 bi-weekly for food, but the last couple of months we`ve been spending closer to $500.


Peachtea

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #261 on: April 30, 2019, 09:30:14 PM »
Monthly budget to meet 40k goal is $3,333 ($1658 after rent). Spent $2,944 or $389 under budget in April!

Biggest splurge was decent seat theatre tickets for May (special occasion). We successfully transitioned our cat to cheaper food. Now I’m very excited that Chewy.com has better prices on this brand than amazon, so we will be able to track cat purchases separate from shopping on mint going forward. But I started with it in shopping on here, so I’m just going to keep it in that category for this project. While not in the spend bucket, I’m happy to report I also put my small bonus and pay raise lump sum back pay directly into savings.

Blue = last month| Green is this month

Rent: $1675| $1675
Groceries & Personal Care: $702| $550
Travel: $240| $106 train tickets to in-laws for Easter/BIL bday
Shopping: $64| $119 - $82.12 cat food & litter; $36.42 charging cords
Eating & Drinking Out: $507| $168 - $4.71 coffees at work; $40 coworker welcome lunch; $38.8 drinks w/friends; $4.45 lunch w/ coworkers; $8.45 dessert out; $71.36 drinks w/ friends
Internet, Phone, & Electric: $65| $62 - $30 internet; $31.29 electric
Other: $140| $264 - $14.99 HBO; $11.98 Netflix; $140 Chicago musical tickets (for May); $27 Classpass subscript; $63.36 gift (10 year old BIL); $7 shipping

January: $2951 | February: $3549 | March: $3394 | April: $2944

Peachtea

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #262 on: April 30, 2019, 09:45:38 PM »
Ugh! I really need to start posting here. My biggest vice in spending is food. Stress eating has been crazy recently. We`ve budgeted $300 bi-weekly for food, but the last couple of months we`ve been spending closer to $500.

Do it! It’s amazing how much posting here makes me think twice before purchasing, even though nobody is telling me things like geez Peachtea hope that night out was worth it. Keeping a much closer tab on our spending throughout the month than normal really does result in us spending less in general too.

Hirondelle

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #263 on: April 30, 2019, 11:43:35 PM »
April was my first proper low-spend month of the year. Total expenses were €690.

Jan: €1175
Feb: €1110
Mar: €1060

Facepunchable categories:
Groceries: €150 Work stress has greatly reduced so I honestly have no clue how this one remained so high. I've kept my receipts the whole month to do some further digging. I did buy too much food waiting at the train station so maybe that's the reason.
Food/drinks out: €100, stopped work lunches and coffees. One cocktail night blew the budget though.

Other categories were all normal or low.

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #264 on: May 01, 2019, 12:32:57 AM »

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

April:
Food: €212
Transit: €195
Fun: €45
Work clothes: €162 (summer coat, skirt, dress)
Shopping: €30

Total: €644

Best month so far, food spending is still way too high. There's a lot of food on the go in it because I've just been so busy running around. There's a correlation between high food costs & high transit costs. I'm afraid it will be difficult to get either one down in May but I'll try.

Slow&Steady

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #265 on: May 01, 2019, 06:57:07 AM »
Only tracking food for this challenge because it is our downfall.  I will be pretty excited if we can just stay in our budget, so even 100% of budget would be better than what it has been in the past!

Code: [Select]
Month End Groceries Eating out
Jan-19 94% 79%        
Feb-19 97% 99%          
Mar-19 110% 117%          
Apr-19 108% 102%
YTD-19 103% 105%

Another horrible month.  Out of state funeral in late Feb early Mar and surgery for my other half in late April have totally messed up the FOOD budgets the last 2 months.  We both set down and committed to sticking to the budget for May (partly due to limited income from the one that is recovering from surgery) so hopefully we will be able to get this ship going back in the right direction!

zygote

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #266 on: May 01, 2019, 10:02:57 AM »
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. Nope. I was on vacation with my parents for the first week of the month, and they picked up the tab on just about everything. I treated them to dinner one night as a thank you. So my grocery spending was artificially low and my restaurant spending was high. But it was worth it.

-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-ish. I bought fewer, more expensive tickets to some shows I couldn't get for cheap. But my overall total was normal.

-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 a near-empty product I use daily during a 20%-off sale.

This month was certainly better than last month's $4500 disaster. I only spent $2800 total. Onwards and upwards! (Or, downwards as the case may be.)

middo

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #267 on: May 01, 2019, 08:19:45 PM »
Update for April:

                         Apr     Mar      Feb      Jan      2108 ave
Food             507      470      376      777      598
Non-food      125      180      110      337      441
Eating Out     449      566      310      656      570
Medical        399      459      496      687      603
Kids             2000      2153     2385    1257    2806
Mortgages    5025    5561    5013    4962    5122
Utilities        1187    1287    3219    872      2045
Transport      1004    710      1476      1193    1819
Holidays       1714     921      1307     1459     487
Totals           12411   12406   14692   12037   14491

So far this year we are at $51546, compared to a pro-rata last year of $57964

That is, 11% down from last year.  Goal is 10%

Lowlights:  Holiday spending, on our midyear holiday airfares, and some of our September holiday.  Also, our eating out and alcohol spending was again too high.  Transport was high because of repairs I did to my daughters car, which we maintain for her. (She is a uni student and would not have fixed the brakes herself.  We now have peace of mind)

Highlights:  Food was still good, as we had another mouth to feed for most of April.  Medical costs will always be around $400 due to our health insurance costs, so this was a good result.  Utilities are trending downwards.

I'm hoping that posing my numbers makes everyone feel better about theirs.

Edit - now the table shows!  Sorry about the wonky lists.

ForeverPoor

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #268 on: May 02, 2019, 12:15:22 AM »
April ended on a positive note - spending is down across the board but we can do better in the entertainment and grocery category. Currently not expecting large expenses for the coming month and so we will maintain the current savings rate of ~$2000 a month.

thesavoryhello

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #269 on: May 02, 2019, 03:27:44 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've been avoiding this thread because March expenses were $2,933 (car insurance, traveling for a wedding, and professional expenses were the bulk of the extra spending)!

April was also not on target, but closer, at $2,285.

use2betrix

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #270 on: May 02, 2019, 05:59:50 PM »
This month did not go well, but I’m mostly ok with it given the circumstances. 

April:
Total Spending: $9231
Notes:
$1840 medical expenses
$800 restaurants - 3 day vacation with lots of delicious food. Also took boss and his wife out to a nice dinner.
$500 travel - half of AirBnB reservation for this coming July
$600 this was 6 months of our vehicle insurance

2019 Totals through April:
Total Saved: $68,045
Total Spent: $27,666
Total Savings Rate: 71.09%

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #271 on: May 03, 2019, 03:28:33 AM »
The amounts need to be divided by 10 to show euro's.

In April we had to travel to our home country to attend a funeral. That cost us 2 plane tickets, 2 train tickets, a rental car and parking at the airport. But FIL offered us to pay for it. He transferred the money to my account, both my and DH's expenses, so therefore my travel expensive this month looks negative.

The Entertainment post is buying alcohol in bulk. Currently I am not drinking any of it.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #272 on: May 03, 2019, 08:39:35 AM »
I return to the thread! This year has been WILD you guys. WILD. I had already paid the money for our third IVF cycle when... my cycle didn't show... somehow we got pregnant spontaneously? You know the old saying, 31st time's the charm. *eye roll*. ANYWHOOO after getting our $28k refunded, I've been enjoying the glories of first trimester of pregnancy and all the spending woes that brings. I'm now 13 weeks and a slightly more functional human being, so I'm trying to refocus on our spending! Especially because my husband is seriously looking at changing jobs (fingers crossed, his second interview is next week), and it'll be a pay cut. But a major QOL improvement.

So, main spending challenges lately:
*Food. This is the biggie. Eating out because cravings. Insane grocery spending because I'm a bottomless pit, plus I would buy something then get an intense aversion to it and not be able to eat it. So on. This is finally calming down, so hoping May is a lower spend than March or April were.
*Medical. While much much cheaper than $28k, I did have some weird health shit pop up and needed to go see a couple specialists. We both also got our teeth cleaned, and have no dental insurance. TBD how much this will calm down, pending being billed for some scans and so on.
*Clothing. While I have had some luck on Buy Nothing, the simple truth was I ballooned pretty quickly and just needed clothing now. Shopped sales and a resale store, but it was a $250 spend in the course of one month. Which is almost half of what we spend for both my husband and I on normal years! This should be calmer for a couple months I'd think? Depends how much my body keeps changing though. At least now I have some basics, so it's not a "shit am I going to be naked??" panic now.

Plans over the summer will include sourcing cheap or free baby gear. May be a bump in cost if we can make a Hawaii trip happen. A pre-baby trip would be nice and we have tons of points from our previous IVF cycle rewards. We'll see!

Peachtea

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #273 on: May 03, 2019, 06:38:13 PM »
Congrats @Bracken_Joy! That’s great news re the baby!

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #274 on: May 03, 2019, 06:55:46 PM »
Congrats @Bracken_Joy! That’s great news re the baby!

Thank you so much! I’m still a little bit in disbelief, but pretty damn thrilled.

use2betrix

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #275 on: May 04, 2019, 06:29:07 PM »
Wow @Bracken_Joy good for you! I had been reading many of your posts in the main pregnancy thread. Way cool! Hoping to be in the same position in the next couple years and I know we’ll have some struggles.

Nederstash

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #276 on: May 06, 2019, 01:30:31 AM »
@Bracken_Joy congratulations!! I'm thrilled for you!
 
 
My April numbers:
Groceries: 235.55 (too high... stress eating)
Eating out: 120.98 (too high... stress eating)
Personal stuff: 372.22 (new phone + new bike + misc)
Gifts: 34.33
Garden: 109
Gas: 87.08

ooakosiryan

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #277 on: May 06, 2019, 02:43:43 AM »
April was a fun month! Took a road trip to Saskatoon for the long weekend, where learning how to hoop dance at Wanuskewin Heritage Park was the highlight. Visited Calgary for work where I caught a secret screening (they didn't tell us what movie it was going to be). Celebrated a friend's engagement by playing board games and another friend's birthday by going to a waterpark. I started making a deliberate effort to eat only healthy, high-quality whole foods, so my grocery bill is a lot bigger than previous months.

Here's my spending breakdown:

Board game cafe: $33.20
Swimming shorts: $25.10
Groceries: $301.80
Wine (gift): $16.05
Calgary Underground Film Festival: $11.39
Uber: $8.84
Saskatoon road trip: $66.19

Subtotal of variable spending: $462.57

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

Grand total of all April expenses: $462.57 + $485 = $947.57

Failed my $700 challenge for the 2nd month in a row :(
« Last Edit: June 12, 2019, 06:11:26 AM by ooakosiryan »

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #278 on: May 07, 2019, 03:40:03 AM »
I changed my april diagram. The travel expenses that were covered by FIL have been taken out. Now the numbers should be more correct.

Divide by 10 to get euros.

middo

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #279 on: May 07, 2019, 04:41:52 AM »
We have car expenses this month.  May will be more ugly than normal.

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #280 on: May 10, 2019, 09:44:46 AM »

Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |    MAY |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $    8 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 |$    3 | $    0 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   16 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 |$    0 | $    0 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $   43 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 |$    0 | $  281 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  167 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 |$    0 | $    5 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $   14 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 |$    0 | $    0 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  248 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 |$    3 | $  286 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1392 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 |$  641 | $ 1160 |


Yeah, this will be an expensive month for me in restaurants! Hoping to keep total expenses under 1.5k and restaurants under 400.

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #281 on: May 11, 2019, 02:15:53 AM »

Total Jan: €    508
Total Feb: €  1105
Total March: €971
Total April: €   644

May:
Food: €120
Transit: €55
Fun: €61
Shopping: €7

Total: €243

Food includes a restaurant meal for 2, shopping is a photo frame and soap. Fun is yarn and a book.

ForeverPoor

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #282 on: May 12, 2019, 11:59:03 PM »
Just realized I did not check in the first week of May. BAD! Summary below:

1. Still determining my new budget starting in May due to new expenses with a baby on the way (increased medical costs).
2. Some expenses hit the budget the first 2 weeks (maternity things, upgrading to a king-sized bed).

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #283 on: May 13, 2019, 01:45:05 AM »
Yesterday when driving, I heard a strange noise coming from the right front wheel. We think it might be the wheel bearing that is starting to make noise. It was to be expected to happen some time with a car that has driven 180.000 kms. Our previous cars had this problem much earlier.

Trifle

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #284 on: May 16, 2019, 05:15:57 AM »
Welp, May's going to be ugly for us.  Family emergency in another state/short notice plane ticket + laptop died = $$$.  Well, it's still good to track all spending closely for a year.  We should end up with some good data on how often "the unexpected" happens. 

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #285 on: May 16, 2019, 08:09:23 AM »
This is gonna become extra important! Since my husband is taking a new job, gasp! It's a bit of a pay cut, but should be a huge improvement in quality of life, and long term may ultimately earn him more. But, we were already pushing it on how much we spend on housing costs, really. We love, love, love this apartment though, it's so quiet and will be *perfect* to bring the baby home to. So we're gonna try to make everything else fly a little leaner to justify staying here a while longer! (If we can't, we'll probably move to a smaller unit in the same building when our lease is up at the end of the year).

The glaring exception to that is that we're going to take a "babymoon" to Hawaii before he starts up at the new job. We have a ton of rewards points from our IVF cycles, and we want to use 'em dangit. Plus, time together before he spends a ton of time orienting to the new role. It'll involve a lot more travel during ramp up then it will once he's established, so it'll be back to 'work widow' status for a bit for me. At least he'll definitely have weekends off =) That will be novel and delightful. Anyway, I'm rambling.

What to reduce?
-restaurants and coffee. These have really crept up the past few months. Between pregnancy cravings and being social with people, we've been dining out more than ever before. I think a non zero part was also that for a while I couldn't cook anything (hurk), so when Husband was tired/stressed from work, we'd go out instead. $174 on this last month, already at $150 this month.
-groceries. This is higher than I'd like right now. We definitely walk over to groceries when we're bored and want a cheap outing, but this frequently results in grabbing a kombucha or some "little" treat we don't need. Those add up! This should also go down for a while as I'm less "fussy" about food.
-I'm *hoping* clothes budget goes down soon, since I have some maternity items now. This will still be around some though, I'm sure =\
-gas for car. May or may not want to reduce this? It's been higher because we've visited friends, gone to the coast, stuff like that. All good uses. Need to decide the cost vs reward side of this more, a la Your Money or Your Life.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #286 on: May 20, 2019, 02:14:58 AM »
I find it hard to know whether expenses that went up are inflation, me spending more or another division of spendings. I am the only one at home tracking expenses and I buy most groceries and pay most of the fixed bills (utilities, insurances, etc). Occasionally DH buys groceries as well. Last year my groceries went 10% up from the year before, while in the year before, I bought almost 100% of the groceries. So what made the difference? Did I buy more expensive ingredients? Did prices go up?

This year we are eating more vegetarian, approximately twice a week. I notice that I buy very little meat now. I hope that will be noticeable at the end of the year. Also, I pick greens outside that are edible. Some can only be used as herbs to set flavour. But others can be used as vegetables. I still have trouble seeing an empty vegetable drawer in the fridge. But I have enough portions in the freezer and some outside the freezer that I could eat for more than a week. I guess I should be planning a bit on using it. In 1,5 week we will be visiting Sweden for a canoeing trip, and there we can shop groceries, and in particular meat, for a reduced price. We need to make some place in the freezer, eating up some of the portions we have.

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #287 on: May 20, 2019, 02:56:44 AM »
Consumer organisations might have infirmation about grocery cost inflation on their website. Ours went up quite a bit as well but we checked the websites of several of those organisations (Nibud, Consumentenbond in NL) and our increase is probably mostly inflation. If you spend much more than can be explained by inflation, either you're experiencing lifestyle creep or one particular item you buy often has increased a lot. We found out for example that my oats are way more expensive now - from €0,35/pound to €0,50/pound in 2 years. Still cheap but a massive increase in price. 

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #288 on: May 20, 2019, 03:03:32 AM »

Total Jan: €    508
Total Feb: €  1105
Total March: €971
Total April: €   644

May:
Food: €170
Transit: €160
Fun: €61
Shopping: €65
Tuition: €493

Total: €949

Shopping is a gift for a baby and a new bullet journal. Tuition months are high spend months but in the end it's more of an investment than an expense.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #289 on: May 20, 2019, 05:17:39 AM »
Consumer organisations might have infirmation about grocery cost inflation on their website. Ours went up quite a bit as well but we checked the websites of several of those organisations (Nibud, Consumentenbond in NL) and our increase is probably mostly inflation. If you spend much more than can be explained by inflation, either you're experiencing lifestyle creep or one particular item you buy often has increased a lot. We found out for example that my oats are way more expensive now - from €0,35/pound to €0,50/pound in 2 years. Still cheap but a massive increase in price.

Thanks for the tip. We also have an organization that makes reference budgets. They calculate the normal cost of to live a non luxury life in Norway. They calculated food cost. From 2017 to 2018 it went up by 3,2%. I had 10% increase, so it must have been lifestyle inflation (expensive cheese). In 2019 it went up with 2%.
I see that my spending on food per month is well below what they calculate for 2 adults per month. And their food category does not include stuff like washing detergents, while my food category contains some of that stuff. So I am well within the referenced frugal lifestyle. -> Not. I don't included DH's lunch that he buys at his job. So maybe we spend more than the budget. But I can only watch my spending, as DH does not want to do detailed tracking. At least that has been the same each year.

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #290 on: May 20, 2019, 10:05:46 AM »

Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |    MAY |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $    8 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 |$    3 | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   16 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 |$    0 | $    0 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $   43 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 |$    0 | $  350 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  167 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 |$    0 | $   60 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $   14 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 |$    0 | $    0 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  248 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 |$    3 | $  413 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1392 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 |$  641 | $ 1411 |


Upcoming trip to Hawaii, then that should be it for the month. Don't think I'll hit total expenses <1500 or restaurants <400.. but I'll update it to total <2000 and restaurants <500.

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #291 on: May 20, 2019, 12:01:23 PM »
Consumer organisations might have infirmation about grocery cost inflation on their website. Ours went up quite a bit as well but we checked the websites of several of those organisations (Nibud, Consumentenbond in NL) and our increase is probably mostly inflation. If you spend much more than can be explained by inflation, either you're experiencing lifestyle creep or one particular item you buy often has increased a lot. We found out for example that my oats are way more expensive now - from €0,35/pound to €0,50/pound in 2 years. Still cheap but a massive increase in price.

Thanks for the tip. We also have an organization that makes reference budgets. They calculate the normal cost of to live a non luxury life in Norway. They calculated food cost. From 2017 to 2018 it went up by 3,2%. I had 10% increase, so it must have been lifestyle inflation (expensive cheese). In 2019 it went up with 2%.
I see that my spending on food per month is well below what they calculate for 2 adults per month. And their food category does not include stuff like washing detergents, while my food category contains some of that stuff. So I am well within the referenced frugal lifestyle. -> Not. I don't included DH's lunch that he buys at his job. So maybe we spend more than the budget. But I can only watch my spending, as DH does not want to do detailed tracking. At least that has been the same each year.

Dairy products have increased massively in price over the past few years so the cheese is probably a factor if you buy significant amounts. My s/o doesn't want to track either, he's naturally frugal and that's enough for him. I guess he's not as big of a control freak which is probably in itself pretty healthy :)

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #292 on: May 21, 2019, 04:08:46 AM »
Dairy products have increased massively in price over the past few years so the cheese is probably a factor if you buy significant amounts. My s/o doesn't want to track either, he's naturally frugal and that's enough for him. I guess he's not as big of a control freak which is probably in itself pretty healthy :)

We do not like the tasteless Norwegian cheese. So we mostly buy Dutch cheese, which is only available in a few shops. Usually at 13 euro per kilo. Or I buy the fancy, well matured Norwegian cheese and they cost a lot more.

We also don't like the standard blue cheese and buy the French variants. They also cost a lot. Even for feta, we buy the Greek version instead of the tasteless Danish imitation.

My DH has the bad habit to snack from the French blue cheese, while I usually buy it to use in a dinner. Sometimes we use it instead of eating meat. But cheese per kilo is pretty similar or even higher than meat would be. I some meals we use both meat and cheese and I try to cut back on that. For the Dutch cheese, that we what we eat on our sandwiches for lunch.

It is a lifestyle choice and a deliberate one. We really don't like the other cheeses. Maybe one day (during FIRE) we will have the time and energy to start learning to make our own cheeses. I heard from a co-worker who did make his own yellow cheese that it can also go wrong and end up tasting badly.

middo

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #293 on: May 23, 2019, 07:54:53 PM »
I just had a look at our May numbers.  I think I will be over last years average, and no where near the down by 10% I am aiming for.  Car repairs and animal costs have pushed us significantly higher. 

But I will post so everyone else can feel better about themselves.  :)

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #294 on: May 26, 2019, 02:45:06 PM »

Total Jan: €    508
Total Feb: €  1105
Total March: €971
Total April: €   644

May:
Food: €322
Transit: €200
Fun: €63
Shopping: €72
Tuition: €493
Healthcare: €31

Total: €1181

I have no idea what's going with that grocery spending.


MrGrossGoatee

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #295 on: May 28, 2019, 06:29:29 PM »
I spent $70 on alcohol this past weekend, and I feel shame. My judgement and my mustache becomes much weaker, and suddenly having one or two drinks at a bar becomes 6 margaritas. I think in the future, I will try to limit drunk me by only using cash in the bars and taking out exactly what I intend to spend ahead of time. Stupid booze....

Peachtea

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #296 on: May 28, 2019, 06:43:53 PM »
I spent $70 on alcohol this past weekend, and I feel shame. My judgement and my mustache becomes much weaker, and suddenly having one or two drinks at a bar becomes 6 margaritas. I think in the future, I will try to limit drunk me by only using cash in the bars and taking out exactly what I intend to spend ahead of time. Stupid booze....

Don’t worry I’m about to post my monthly results and our booze category will make you feel better. I think I actually blushed when I added up our May going out expenses. This past weekend we fell prey to the charms of a scenic patio bar.

Peachtea

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #297 on: May 28, 2019, 06:50:30 PM »
Posting now to keep myself from spending any more before end of month. Monthly budget to meet 40k goal is $3,333 ($1658 after rent). Spent $3278 or $55 under budget in May. It was a decadent month to be sure...

Blue = last month| Green is this month

Rent: $1675| $1886 - $1675 rent; $50 lease renewal fee; $161 renters insurance
Groceries & Personal Care: $550| $390
Travel: $106| $0 -
Shopping: $119| $183 - $17.12 iPad case (old one broke); $11.55 mortar & pestle (b/c grinder now lives at work for coffee); $53.55 bulk dish soap (hopefully several years worth); $50 headphones (old ones broke); $45 headphones (DH’s also stopped working); $5.51 deodorant
Eating & Drinking Out: $168| $419 - $35.51 dinner out; $10 drinks w/coworkers; $9.79 work lunch; $75.87 Q3 wine subscription; $4.21 coffees at work; $145.5 drinks w/ friends; $65.57 drinks/ coworkers; $72.27 drinks out
Internet, Phone, & Electric: $62| $60 - $30 internet; $29.49 electric
Other: $264| $343 - $14.99 HBO; $14.16 Netflix; $49 Classpass subscription; $95 cc annual fee; $20.91 Mother’s Day cards; $55.13 bday gift; $56 tickets to Rent; $25 transit; $6.53 movie rental; 6.45 ATM fees

January: $2951 | February: $3549 | March: $3394 | April: $2944| May $3278

MrGrossGoatee

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #298 on: May 29, 2019, 06:03:32 PM »
I spent $70 on alcohol this past weekend, and I feel shame. My judgement and my mustache becomes much weaker, and suddenly having one or two drinks at a bar becomes 6 margaritas. I think in the future, I will try to limit drunk me by only using cash in the bars and taking out exactly what I intend to spend ahead of time. Stupid booze....

Don’t worry I’m about to post my monthly results and our booze category will make you feel better. I think I actually blushed when I added up our May going out expenses. This past weekend we fell prey to the charms of a scenic patio bar.

I’ve definitely felt the wrath of the scenic patio bar! Overall, my booze spending has gone way down after taking a month off from drinking, but this past weekend was a moment of weakness, for sure.

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #299 on: May 30, 2019, 10:13:45 AM »
[/size]
Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |    MAY |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $    7 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 | $   3 | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   13 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 | $   0 | $    0 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $  120 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 | $   0 | $  425 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  144 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 | $   0 | $   54 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $   11 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 | $   0 | $    0 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  295 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 | $   3 | $  482 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1445 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 | $ 641 | $ 1657 |


All things considered, I'm okay with how this month went. Had two crazy, extravagant trips (Denver, Hawaii) with lots of friends, food, drinks. Still managed to save a good amount, and feel refreshed to return to the hustle in these next couple of months.

Also, all my 5 target categories are in the green for 2019 average (under my goal). Took a while for shopping after a rough January.