Monday Accountability Post

Xstatic3333

Happy short week everybody!

1. How MM was your weekend?

2. Any progress towards goals?

3. Favorite TG food

Xstatic3333

1. Okay. We saw dear old friends and went $20 over budget for dinner and then about $25 over for the weeks groceries, mostly because I was low on baking staples.

2. We each put $100 of each paycheck to our e-fund, which we'll be doing for the foreseeable future. Otherwise, things seem tight as we save for Christmas and adjust to H's new retirement contributions. We also paid off the new boiler/hot water heater and will use the CC points to buy tickets for our upcoming FL trip.

3. I love pumpkin pie. I've started making it with real pumpkin and its not too hard but sooooo tasty!

jessica490

1. $50 for friends housewarming gift, $20 for kitchen items,$46 Petsmart grooming

2. $177 to house DP

3. I love stuffing!!!

brij2006

1. How MM was your weekend?
Definitely not cheap, but all budgeted.  $200 on groceries (we're hosting Thanksgiving), $32 eating out (I wasn't happy about spending this but it was in the budget), $14 for movie, $1.50 at Redbox, $150 at Menards
2. Any progress towards goals?
It looks like we may be putting a good chunk into savings at the end of the month.  Even while cash flowing the remodeling project and getting our 1/4th of a cow at the beginning of next month.
3. Favorite TG food

Juicy turkey.

cbee817

1. How MM was your weekend? Pretty good- groceries ($127), dinner ($33), target $(54), DH's Christmas present ($199)

2. Any progress towards goals? Nothing new this week

3. Favorite TG food? Stuffing- can't wait!

strickland8052

1. How MM was your weekend?
Horrible. $35 on a baby shower gift. $20 at Petco on misc. dog things. $120 at Lowes for a fire pit and some other things. $165 on groceries for Thanksgiving.

2. Any progress towards goals?
Nope.

3. Favorite TG food
Cornbread dressing!!!

hoffse

1. How MM was your weekend?

Not too bad, considering we are hosting 5 adults for 5 days over Thanksgiving... We spent about $150 in food, but that includes the turkey, etc. so we are ready to go for Thanksgiving.  We also spent $28 on gas (less than $2.60/gallon down here!!)

2. Any progress towards goals?

Last week I called Fidelity to find out about the timing rules to do a Roth conversion for 2015.  Since we have to do it by the end of the year, we are going to have to rework a couple things next year.  However, I spent some time going through it month by month, and I think we can still accomplish everything we want to accomplish - we just have to do some house projects in a different order than we originally intended.  H and I have also (tentatively) decided to send extra money we don't spend from our budget to a vacation fund.  After our trip to France next summer, we aren't actively budgeting for vacations anymore for awhile.  But we typically wind up with at least $200 leftover each month, and we figured that in two years that would buy us a nice babymoon when we're TTC.

3. Favorite TG food

I love stuffing.  And mashed potatoes with an obscene amount of butter in them.  Oh and yesterday I made Gordon Ramsey's cranberry sauce (to freeze ahead of time), and it was out of this world.  For years my mom and I have been trying to find the secret to making a really good cranberry sauce, because it always seems to end up being too bitter or too runny.  Gordon's secret: caramelize the sugar first (with some whole spices - we used cinnamon sticks), before adding the cranberries.  It made a huge difference in flavor!

formerlyGDaisy09

1. How MM was your weekend?
pretty good. $76 on groceries saturday and another $14 yesterday because i forgot a few things. $45 on gas on sunday
2. Any progress towards goals?
just chugging along.  H is seeing the possibility for lots of overtime, so I'm hoping that will mean more for us to stick in savings this month. 
3. Favorite TG food

I make the stuffing, so that is one of my favorites (I usually make one that has raisins, cranberries, and apples, this year I'm thinking of adding a sausage stuffing to the mix too). I also love the rolls we have...my great grandmother's recipe...we call them "gram rolls".  I don't know if they're actually good, or if they've just become such a family tratidion that I can't get enough of them....I'm betting they're actually good, the first step in the recipe reads "melt 2c of butter"

blondie42107

1. How MM was your weekend?
$150 for groceries, $50 vehicle maintenance supplies (oil, filters, fluids, etc for both cars), $25 date night

2. Any progress towards goals?
Not really now that the holidays hit. I just increased my health flex spending account for 2015. We already max out the daycare.

3. Favorite TG food?
A classic turkey dinner. And probably cranberries because I think I'm the only person in my family who eats them!

KatieCutie05

1. How MM was your weekend?
Good. 20 on groceris since we're leaving wednesday - 20 for parking and 25 for food at the concert - And then 37 on maternity clothes after returns and a coupon so 110 down to 37 is pretty good.
2. Any progress towards goals?

Our friends gave us 140 for the tickets - so I put all that into our "car payoff fund". Wont know our monthly progress until after thanksgiving. Thanks to the lovely snowstorm on wednesday night during our long drive up north - we may end up having to pay for a hotel which is ofcourse not budgetted but safety comes first. i hate snow! This is why i moved south!
3. Favorite TG food

Mom's Mashed Potatoes and gravy, Pumpkin Coffee, and Pumpkin Pie. 

Sparty10

1. How MM was your weekend? Friday- $40 for happy hour and pizza with DH and friends, Saturday - visited the Christmas story house $20 (we had both been wanting to do this for a while), $40 target trip, and $19 to go to the movies, Sunday - Groceries for $40

2. Any progress towards goals? The holidays have me all in a tizzy even though I have budgeted for it, I always find myself going over for presents/decorations :x We did put $1750 towards down payment, still on track with savings   

3. Favorite TG food - Definitely stuffing and love me some pumpkin pie

vlagrl29

1 - $20 on dinner friday night, $53 on a new winter wreath and mantel piece for the house, $30 on xmas dress for DD, $1.30 on red box DVD, $28 at walgreens for script, chocolates and passport photos.

2 - $200 into savings

3 - Pumpkin Pie!  LOVE that stuff!

hoffse

vlagrl29 said:

1 - $20 on dinner friday night, $53 on a new winter wreath and mantel piece for the house, $30 on xmas dress for DD, $1.30 on red box DVD, $28 at walgreens for script, chocolates and passport photos.

2 - $200 into savings

3 - Pumpkin Pie!  LOVE that stuff!

**Stuck in the box (again! why?)****

You and my H!  He gets an entire pumpkin pie to himself at Thanksgiving.  It's his favorite day of the year...

SmrBrd2012

1) We bought some paint/painting supplies and took a trip to petco and the grocery. All of that = $150.

2) Nothing new this week.

3) it's a toss up between mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and sweet potato casserole. Yummmmmm....

CuriousKiddosMama

Weekend was good. We spent $200 on a bed I'm not sure we will be able to keep, but besides that we stayed in. I actually had 2 parties this weekend so I made $500!

No real progress on goals. Starting our extra mortgage payments in December, and looking into cash flowing a patio. Hopefully getting our quote back this week.

Stuffing is by far the best thanksgiving food ever! My mom always made it in the crock pot so we had enough and it got really crispy around the edges of the bowl, which was always the best.

Wulfgar

Happy short week everybody!

1. How MM was your weekend? Not too bad since I took LO to see Santa, I got my free oil change and got them to put on a new wiper blade that I have broke a few times and reassembled.

2. Any progress towards goals?  Got a total of $215 going to my credit card, almost got it paid off.

3. Favorite TG food  Pretty much the staples, turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes, corn.  I don't really like pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce.

als1982

1. How MM was your weekend?  Pretty good!  Open house at H's work on Friday, so no money spent then.  Saturday we had dinner at a local Italian place for $25.  And Sunday we did literally nothing.  It was awesome.

2. Any progress towards goals?  No.  

3. Favorite TG food.  Stuffing.  Definitely stuffing.  We're going to Vegas this TG, so I can't wait to see what a Thanksgiving buffet in Las Vegas looks like!

vlagrl29

I thought of you guys on saturday when I was shopping for a new wreath and mantel piece for our house - both of ours were 8 years old and needing replacing.  I couldn't believe the price of some of the wreaths at Hobby Lobby - $80-$140?!  Luckily all xmas decor was 1/2 off, but I'm sure people heard me saying "how are wreaths this expensive" "maybe we should check michaels"….LOL, I'm sure I sounded like a cheap person, but there was 1 lady that told me she was glad she wasn't the only one that thought they were kinda highly priced.

Xstatic3333

vlagrl29 said:

I thought of you guys on saturday when I was shopping for a new wreath and mantel piece for our house - both of ours were 8 years old and needing replacing.  I couldn't believe the price of some of the wreaths at Hobby Lobby - $80-$140?!  Luckily all xmas decor was 1/2 off, but I'm sure people heard me saying "how are wreaths this expensive" "maybe we should check michaels"….LOL, I'm sure I sounded like a cheap person, but there was 1 lady that told me she was glad she wasn't the only one that thought they were kinda highly priced.

Michaels is just as bad! The last time I was there they had Halloween centerpieces for $40-$60 that I could have made myself and, to be honest, were kinda cheesy. It was odd! Really good deals on some lawn decorations, though.

CuriousKiddosMama

As a former micheals employee I can tell you that floral arrangements are one of the worst products you can possibly buy. The designer totals up the cost of everything she or he uses (regular price even if it is on sale that week) and then marks it up from there for their labor and supplies. And most of it you could make yourself with a hot glue gun. They aren't trained, they are just people who are creative and have a good eye for that kind of thing.

lifeonthehill

1. How MM was your weekend? Great. $40 on a big night out for H and I. The first is a long time. 

2. Any progress towards goals? Not this week. 

3. Favorite TG food? Cranberry sauce. I eat it straight from the can year round. 

vlagrl29

Xstatic3333 said:

I thought of you guys on saturday when I was shopping for a new wreath and mantel piece for our house - both of ours were 8 years old and needing replacing.  I couldn't believe the price of some of the wreaths at Hobby Lobby - $80-$140?!  Luckily all xmas decor was 1/2 off, but I'm sure people heard me saying "how are wreaths this expensive" "maybe we should check michaels"….LOL, I'm sure I sounded like a cheap person, but there was 1 lady that told me she was glad she wasn't the only one that thought they were kinda highly priced.

Michaels is just as bad! The last time I was there they had Halloween centerpieces for $40-$60 that I could have made myself and, to be honest, were kinda cheesy. It was odd! Really good deals on some lawn decorations, though.

we ended up going ahead and buying those 2 items at Hobby Lobby since we were there and they had 50% sale on it.  After we bought what we needed and it totaled to $53 - I didn't feel so bad, but still! 

Xstatic3333

vlagrl29 said:

Xstatic3333 said:

vlagrl29 said:

I thought of you guys on saturday when I was shopping for a new wreath and mantel piece for our house - both of ours were 8 years old and needing replacing.  I couldn't believe the price of some of the wreaths at Hobby Lobby - $80-$140?!  Luckily all xmas decor was 1/2 off, but I'm sure people heard me saying "how are wreaths this expensive" "maybe we should check michaels"….LOL, I'm sure I sounded like a cheap person, but there was 1 lady that told me she was glad she wasn't the only one that thought they were kinda highly priced.

Michaels is just as bad! The last time I was there they had Halloween centerpieces for $40-$60 that I could have made myself and, to be honest, were kinda cheesy. It was odd! Really good deals on some lawn decorations, though.

we ended up going ahead and buying those 2 items at Hobby Lobby since we were there and they had 50% sale on it.  After we bought what we needed and it totaled to $53 - I didn't feel so bad, but still! 

I think you hit the other issue-those places price things with their awesome sales and coupons in mind. I know Michaels is my one planned Black Friday morning stop. 30% off sale prices yes! Glad you got a deal!