August Recap / September Goals

SlurpeeLove · September 2014

I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes, but I really enjoyed answering and reading these last month:

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

3. What were your greatest achievements?

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month?

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

SlurpeeLove · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

Not that great. We did manage to put some money towards credit cards, but had to take money from savings for DH's dental procedure. Overall, only $125 towards our goals, which is better than nothing, I suppose.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

Tried to be more aware of our spending, especially as far as eating out.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

I was able to knock some credit card debt down

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

Just emergencies made it difficult as far as savings go. Also, we just overspent on vacation and really paid for it the last week of September

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month?

Get savings back up to $1000 by saving $392. Get our debt down by $326. And just generally stay within our budget

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

We have a new budget set up for this month and I'm tracking it on YNAB, which I haven't used in a very long time. We're also really communicating on what we want to see happen at the end of each week, to really see improvement.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

I really want to focus on getting our savings back up before getting to paying the credit cards. I'll, of course, be logging with you guys each week and tracking every Friday with my sister via text.

lifeonthehill · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Very good

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? We attempted to meal plan more than in July.

3. What were your greatest achievements? Paid for my college and books for this semester in cash!

4. What were your biggest downfalls? Darn grocery bills. We just never got it down to a science this year and I wish we had.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month? We will be able to pay off H's next SL on Oct. 1st so that counts as our September goal.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? We wont have a grocery bill and we are going to not do any nights out with friends this month to save the money for cheaper date nights instead. Our relationship has really been on the back burner due to work and we need to catch up.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? None this month! I think we are in great shape. If anything is left over it will go to H's loan but I think we are as bare bones as we can get this month.

vlagrl29 · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Pretty good. I really need to add up my august receipts and categorize on the spreadsheet to give a better answer.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? I try and not go out and shop much unless it's for items we specifically need. I put off a few things on my Target list because they weren't needed asap. I will buy them in September. Trying to keep my target shopping to a bare minimum

3. What were your greatest achievements? Paid off my hernia surgery. Replenishing the emergency fund and always trying to keep it at 3 months living expenses.

4. What were your biggest downfalls? Probably eating out too much. We really need to watch it.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month? Get the emergency fund back to where it was and still contribute to retirement. Sometimes I would like to take some of the money I make on gigs and put it in our joint checking so we don't always feel tight. I put it all in separate saving goals. I just need to remind myself that there is a reason I do this.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? Try and meal plan more, that will help with not eating out as much and keep the target shopping in check. We have a couple more expenses this fall for DD - pre school and dance class. Need to adjust a few things to afford the new expenses.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? see question above

als1982 · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Not too bad.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? We were really busy work wise for the last few weeks (and will continue to be in September). We decided to split our food budget and each put half into our mad money accounts, and be individually responsible for meals. We each bought our own separate bags of groceries with that, and I think it kept us from getting home tired each night and me running out for fast food (H, however did go through the drive through a time or two).

3. What were your greatest achievements? That we started adding extra into retirement.

4. What were your biggest downfalls? Fortunately, nothing this month.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month? Finish paying off the completely new HVAC system we had installed at the end of May. (Woohoo!!)

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? Just keep on keeping on.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? My mad money.

abrewer5 · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Not too bad. I cut up all my credit cards and on Friday the last one will be paid off completely! I also switched to a cash budget of $150 every two weeks after bills and it's going pretty well.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? Cut up my credit cards so I couldn't use them. Went to a cash budget which helped me stay on track.

3. What were your greatest achievements? Paying down debt and creating a budget. It really helped me to see where my money is currently going and where it should be going.

4. What were your biggest downfalls? We eat out too much... like WAY too much. And it uses up most of my allowance.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month? Cut down on eating out, start to repay our savings from the money I took out to pay off credit cards ($920). I should have $215 replaced this month. Not directly MM related- get new carpet for our basement, the current carpet is disgusting (budgeted for)

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? Meal plan to reduce eating out and stick to my budget for month.. I reduced my allowance to $100/pay check until my savings is repaid in Oct. I also plan to finished reading Dave Ramsey which has motivated me A LOT to shape up our finances.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? Saving more and sticking to the budget. Also need to work on spending my allowance differently.

smbenevides1989 · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

This was our first month using a monthly budget tracking instead of weekly. It worked out better than I expected it to - I don't know what I was afraid of... We did spend a little more in dining and entertainment, but we made a last minute plan of going out to an in-dining theatre on Friday as our last date night before baby, then going to an amusement park on Sunday for Labor Day fun with the family. If we didn't do those things, we would have been fine. But at least we didn't overspend and we were able to save more than planned.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

Just making sure that we stuck to the budget. It worked in a lot of areas other than the few stated above.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

I budgeted about $600 to go into various savings accounts. We ended up saving $900. I saved overall in gas (about $88) and I was also able to keep the grocery budget to $280.

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

Definitely the dining and entertainment budget. Also, DH wanted to spend a little extra on the pup (new leash and harness) so we overspent in that area too.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month?

Pretty much live tightly (while not suffocating) as we can since we will be going down to one income for the next 3 months. My last paycheck will be on the 12th and I won't get another until December 26th.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

We will still be keeping our lifestyles, but I won't be driving as much and we won't be eating out as much either. I already bought our groceries for the month (with the exception of dairy/eggs/veggies/fruits) and we won't be spending money on diapers since we are cloth diapering.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

I would like to keep fuel down since I won't be driving to DD's daycare for 3 weeks, plus keep from overspending in miscellaneous, dining, and entertainment.

Xstatic3333 · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

Not great. We went over on "fun" more than we have in a while, and H's planned and saved for stereo purchase ended up costing $200 more than budgeted. I didn't realize he'd made the purchases until they'd already happened, or I might have convinced him to wait.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

We did return to meal planning, but still went over a bit on groceries. Overall not too much to be proud of this month.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

Despite the above, we were able to make some progress since we both had bonus paychecks this month and got our security deposit from the old apartment back. We paid $1,200 towards principal on the cars, paid off a tiny SL, and banked money for some upcoming dental work.

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

Groceries, fun, general neglect of the budget and failure to work together.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month?

Keeping making big car payments! This is going to be harmed a bit by the fact that it turns out changing our registrations to RI will cost about $200 a car, which is way more than the $80 my research led me to believe it was going to be.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

Actually live by the budget and work together. I have committed to nagging H less, and he has committed to actually tracking his spending and discussing purchases with me, as well as making payments and savings transfers right on payday.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

I'd like to live within our $400 total fun budget. It seems ridiculously high, but we keep failing. I plan to do this by cutting back on alcohol and politely trying to put off social commitments. I'd also like to start planning for Christmas gifts.

jessica490 · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

Not bad, we had a few things come up in July (2 vet bills, new fridge) that came up and we are just about done paying off. We are a little behind in savings for our goals due to these bills. H also decided to buy 2 things that were a little expensive that weren't planned for. We also had to shift our goals a little bit bcuz we want to sell our underwater condo next year, so we are putting all savings into a mortg principle account so we will break even next spring.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

Made H work a lot of overtime. I've also been applying for part-time jobs.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

Paying off 1 vet bill and the fridge

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

The vet bills, fridge, and H's 2 purchases

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month?

Have H work extra shifts, get a part-time job, continue to save, save, save.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

Hoping the second job will help and just being more frugal

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

My cell phone contract is up the end of Oct, so I will be searching other cell phone options.

cbee817 · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

Pretty good- money is tight during the summer months with DH being off of work, but we didn't have to borrow anything from savings.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

Not much different other than the girls only going to day care 3 days a week. DH also did a lot of the home repairs this summer himself which helped with costs.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

Not borrowing anything from savings.

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

Felt like we were in better shape last summer so we'll plan a little better for next summer.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month?

Give our bedroom a makeover- paint, new bed frame, mattress, rugs, curtains, bedside tables, bench, lamps, bedding. We have great solid oak dressers so that's something we don't need. Hoping to keep it around $3,500- so far we've spent $820 on a bed frame, 2 bedside tables, and the small rug for our sitting area. We also have a $100 HD gift card so that'll cover paint for sure.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

We won't put anything into savings this month but will be able to start back up to $500/paycheck in October.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

Cell phone bill- our contract is up soon and I want to figure out a better plan. Right now we spent $148/month for unlimited everything for 2 phones... would like to get that down to $100.

hoffse · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Pretty good, considering we closed on the house. We wound up with more leftover than I was expecting, and we were able to do the home improvement items that were top of our list.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? I really tried to look at our cash flow carefully to make sure our expenses matched our income and timed well.

3. What were your greatest achievements? Probably not overspending in London. We came home having spent $200 more than I estimated... but we also finished more than half of our Christmas shopping and all the birthday shopping for this year (we have 5 family birthdays in September and October). So when all is said and done, we came home way ahead, and we really didn't scrimp while we were there.

4. What were your biggest downfalls? Eating out. It's me. I'm so bad about it.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month? Be able to generate a new budget once we see exactly what H is bringing home. He gets his first paycheck on the 15th.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? Try not to spend too preemptively and wait to buy a few larger items until after we see exactly what he's making to ensure we don't go over.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? I'd like to replenish our savings. We managed to not dip into our emergency fund at all, but we spent down a lot of our house/vacation/slush fund. That's ok - but I'd like to get it back up again.

brij2006 · September 2014

Not stepping on toes at all. I've been in and out this week, so anyone else is free to put this up any month if you don't see it.

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Great! We did better than we expected since it was going to be a month with more expenses.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? Planned meals that could feed us for a few days instead of only a couple of servings. It really helped our grocery budget.

3. What were your greatest achievements? Going on a 4 day weekend vacation 8 hours away and only spending $350 including our gas and tolls for the 16 hour drive.

Also finding some used maternity dress clothes on an exchange for $19. That was for jeans, dress pants, 3 pairs of workout pants, and 5 tops. Score!

4. What were your biggest downfalls? H's starter in his car going out, and then another part on the clutch breaking. He has been driving his sports car the 100 miles too and from work instead, and it only gets around 19mpg's. It's really hurt our gas budget.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month? Stick with our budget again and put $500 into savings, not including H's overtime and my commissions.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? We're really going to buckle down on any extras. It's in the budget for eating out and entertainment, but we're going to try and not use them much.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? It is slow at H's work this month, so he likely won't have overtime or much of it. So our income portion will be less than usual. It's going to take us definitely reeling in on what we do on the weekends. We're going to replace that with getting end of the summer house projects done and me doing some more canning and freezing garden items for the winter.

strickland8052 · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?
Excellent. We were finally able to stash away some savings, after a summer of unexpected home repairs and medical bills.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

It helped that the unexpected expenses calmed down. I also started couponing and eating out less to save money. We cancelled dish network and got Netflix instead. Also, we signed up for a website (rover.com) which has allowed us to dog sit a couple of dogs for some extra money.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

I finally saved my monthly goal and it is looking like I can save double that in September. Also I discovered semi-extreme couponing. I've saved at least $20 - $30 each week on groceries, and one week I got a 3 months supply of toilet paper and paper towels for $15.

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

This is small, but our bicycles keep getting flat tires. I think it is because we are transporting them incorrectly (putting them in the back of H's SUV instead of on a rack). We have got to buy a bicycle holder for the car, so that we can hopefully stop spending $10 every other week to get the bikes' tires fixed.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month?

Keep expenses low enough so that I can put away $1,000 into savings this month. Also, not get too carried away with spending money when I go on a work trip in a couple of weeks.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

Same thing I did last month. Save. Save. Save.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?
I'd like to continue to work on the grocery and eating out budgets.

KatieCutie05 · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

Not bad considering- with our unexpected car repairs it could have been a lot worse..

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

We tried cash, that failed. We did do the budget on paper tho instead of digital that seemed to help so we could easily adjust where we needed in the middle of the month. But... then the dog ate it! LoL seriously. my dog ate my budget. Good thing i had a digital backup!

3. What were your greatest achievements?

DH got a 2 dollar/hr raise at the gunshop so now he's going to be making 14/hr at a part time job. With his hours its about an extra 150 per month. He may never quit with that pay. lol ... And getting a 400 dollar refund check from a vacation we canceled. its funding our baby moon to the beach next month.

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

My car wouldn't start when i went to leave for my free ultrasound. I had to cancel the ultrasound altogether and it couldn't be rescheduled. We tried jumping it but it didn't work.

Then having my car towed to find out its the battery and the water pump. I ended up paying 250 for a stupid battery. But the water pump was still another 420 repair. But then thank God - a few days later i called a different dealer out of curiousity to see if it would be covered under powertrain warranty and it was! I nearly threw a party! lol. In the end we also had to pay 90 to replace the drive belt which was damaged by the water pump. They wouldn't cover it under warranty but i got it for just the cost of the part - no labor cost so i called that a deal.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month?

to survive this month of DH working crazy hours and having literally only one day off the entire month... without losing our minds and blowing every single budget category.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

Not sure what to do anymore. keep on keeping on i guess. Better tracking and better communication maybe.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

Groceries and again- Dh's lunches. Not sure what to do really. Nothing works because he doesn't think its a big deal to go over a little because he makes so much in overtime. When he's working insane hours and doesn't get a day off ever - its hard to get him to understand every little bit counts - when all he does is make money for us.

Xstatic3333 · September 2014

@KatieCutie05‌ that's hilarious that the dog are your budget! (Assuming he was ok, of course). Sorry about your car troubles. It's so frustrating when that happens!

kmurphy2131 · September 2014

I've been reading this board for a while and have got some great advice/ideas from reading. Finally decided to post today, as I am going through and updating my August budget spreadsheet and planning out september.

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

We spent $341 more than planned, which I consider pretty good considering we needed new batteries for both cars, each had an unexpected medical bill ($70 each so nothing crazy), and there was an extra week of grocery shopping. We saved $1100 more than planned as well.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

This is only month two of our new system. We got married in April and totally combined our money in late June so the whole thing is different! We pay everything out of our joint account but each have a personal account to spend for anything else. "Anything else" is clothes, shoes, beer (for him), yoga (for me), going out to dinner (we dont have an "entertainment" budget), etc. It is working great and my husband has a much better understanding of our money now.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

Thanks to preplanning my husband actually could have taken the whole summer off (he is a teacher) since we saved extra during the school year. He chose to work 3-4x/week this summer which means we had some extra money in August. We were able to save nearly $3500 in August which I am SO happy about (also it helped that this was a 3 paycheck month for me and I budget based on two a month so we have two "extras" a year)

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

I wanted to spend none of my personal money this month. I ended up having to purchase a new class card for yoga ($150), new orthotics ($45...non negotiable, I was having constant pain), a hair cut ($26), and starbucks once ($5, much better than 2-3x/week). I am still happy with not spending any money unnecessarily (or what I consider unnecessary.)

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month?

I want to beat August and come in closer to budget than $341. I figure if I get a little competitive with myself it will pay off with lower bills. I also want to spend only half of my "personal" money this month because I am trying to save for a new laptop.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

I have a bad habit of setting a budget then spending all month, and at the end of the month I go through everything and see how we did. Which isn't much of a budget technique. My goal is to try and update everything at least mid month. Eventually I want to be updating it weekly so that it will be easier to stay on track.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

Groceries!!!! To be honest, I have no idea how to go about it. Food quality is really important to me, I prefer to buy mostly organic and we eat a lot of fresh produce. I do not buy products with added sugar at all. I cook almost all our meals from scratch and the only processed foods I buy are crackers (usually gluten free since thats usually what is sugar free), cereal for my husband, and the occasional chicken burger/chicken sausage. I make all of our snacks for the work week or we eat fruits/veggies. I do meal plan so we very rarely are throwing food out. We eat breakfast at home everyday, and bring lunches to work 100% of the time for me and 95% of the time for my husband, and eat dinner at home 6-7nights a week. I spent nearly $1000 on 5 weeks of groceries in August. That does include some bulk shopping I did (we have coffee to last probably 4 months) and all of our toiletries/paper towels/toilet paper/cleaning products. I hear budgets so much lower than mine and I can't figure it out. Is that we dont eat out/eat a lot or am I doing something wrong. I would love any advice. I hear meal planning and couponing a lot but I already meal plan and there aren't usually coupons for what I buy.

mana8503 · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? So bad last month. I was so ready to start clean in September. We had H's kids for 2 weeks and did a week of day trips (zoo, river, carnival, etc) and a week we worked and my parents watched them. We also rented a van so I would be ok riding 500 miles to get them at 8 months pregnant. I wouldn't have went if MIL wasn't getting remarried. I budgeted for those activities but not the extra grocery bills, eating out, etc. We also finished the baby registries. I consignment shopped for a lot of it, and kept costs down, but it didn't counter the overspending above. We should be good on baby supplies for a few months to help make up for it, though.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? I should have kept a closer eye to the budget. I don't think I looked at the mint until the end...

3. What were your greatest achievements? My consignment sale shopping. I got the bigger items we needed for SO much cheaper than new, and really stocked up on the little things we didn't get at our showers (socks, bibs, blurp cloths).

4. What were your biggest downfalls? All the little things that add up with the kids, H overspending on his fun money, and miscalculating how many vacation days he got.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month? Break even with H taking 2 weeks without pay for the baby (no dripping into savings)

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? I tried to guess at a new budget for this month with me being on ML and a new baby. Will adjust as need be. We should be good since we paid everything off we wanted to before the baby got here, so our snowball is just money in the green. Oct will be awesome with both getting extra pays. If we come out ahead that's just money in savings.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? I feel like we will need to watch eating out, or more - take out/fast food. H loves fast food and it's so easy for him to come home and bring me lunch when I'm home (he works nights). Usually it's just Saturdays, but I'll be home everyday. I might keep a notepad out, so I can keep track on it, in case I'm too zombie'd to use a computer.

formerlyGDaisy09 · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?

We were pretty good, we revisited and refocused our budget mid-month so we're in transition right now. that said I think we did fairly well, summers are always a little more spendy for us, we get about 10 weeks of nice sunny summer weather so it's easy to justify going a little overboard to enjoy it while it lasts. (the leaves have been changing colors here for 3 weeks)

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?

I think getting re-focused on what our goals are has helped H and I check eachother more often.

3. What were your greatest achievements?

We paid off one of H's smaller SLs and We've got about 10% of what we need for our basement renovation in savings, if I've done my math right we should be putting almost 20% of what we need for that project away each month from now on.

4. What were your biggest downfalls?

home improvement projects are my achillies heel, I just get so excited and antsy that I sometimes jump on things before I make a full plan, I had a few garden projects that failed, or needed significant adjustments after my initial plan didn't work so well (read:pumpkin trellis that needed another $60 in lumber, ample amounts of veggies that need to be picked, canned, or otherwise preserved $30 in canning supplies and vacuum bags). I'm counting those as live and learn projects...next year I have the trellis, and I can budget for canning.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month?

work the plan. we spent a long time last month fine tuning our financial plan, now we just need to put it into action.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?

We're back into saving mode, we're doing more bulk shoping and pre-planned freezer meals, now I just have to keep H on the wagon.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?

our extra spending sometimes gets out of control, I'm hoping by holding ourselves more accountable to our new plan things will work a little better. My plans for the fall changed on me a few weeks ago, so rather than working with the ballet company Dog and I are half marathon training...since this is the first event dog has trained for with me we've had a few expenses come up that we weren't expecting (dog-pack so she can carry her own water and snacks) and I also wasn't planning on buying new running shoes this season, but now I need to. I think we can cash-flow most of it without hurting the budget too much...but I rarely skimp on my running shoes...not worth injury to save $20.

hoffse · September 2014

@kmurphy, I think most of us aren't as strict with dietary requirements as you are, and that's probably one reason most of our food budgets are lower. H and I eat all sorts of things with processed sugar. There's really not anything we strictly avoid.

We keep our grocery shopping low primarily by bulk shopping at Costco and trying to time things around their sales. We also buy off-brand as much as possible, with some very limited exceptions.

If you're into whole/organic foods you might want to look into starting a vegetable garden. I know Gdaisy has one that sounds like it produces enough food to feed the whole neighborhood

If you have more veggies than you can eat, you can freeze, can, etc. Obviously it's the end of the season right now, but that might be something to look into for the spring.

H and I now have a deep freezer, and we are starting to investigate buying a pig or half a cow or something for our meat. It's a once or twice a year large expense, but for most people it ends up being way cheaper in the long run.

formerlyGDaisy09 · September 2014

strickland8052 said:

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month?
Excellent. We were finally able to stash away some savings, after a summer of unexpected home repairs and medical bills.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped?
It helped that the unexpected expenses calmed down. I also started couponing and eating out less to save money. We cancelled dish network and got Netflix instead. Also, we signed up for a website (rover.com) which has allowed us to dog sit a couple of dogs for some extra money.

3. What were your greatest achievements?
I finally saved my monthly goal and it is looking like I can save double that in September. Also I discovered semi-extreme couponing. I've saved at least $20 - $30 each week on groceries, and one week I got a 3 months supply of toilet paper and paper towels for $15.

4. What were your biggest downfalls?
This is small, but our bicycles keep getting flat tires. I think it is because we are transporting them incorrectly (putting them in the back of H's SUV instead of on a rack). We have got to buy a bicycle holder for the car, so that we can hopefully stop spending $10 every other week to get the bikes' tires fixed.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month?
Keep expenses low enough so that I can put away $1,000 into savings this month. Also, not get too carried away with spending money when I go on a work trip in a couple of weeks.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal?
Same thing I did last month. Save. Save. Save.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that?
I'd like to continue to work on the grocery and eating out budgets.

Are you fixing the tires yourself or is a shop doing it for you? We use a rear mounted bike rack and haven't had a problem with flats. if you're changing them yourself make sure you carefully run your fingers along the inside of the rim to make sure that there isn't something in the wheel rim that is puncturing your tires.

another idea is that if the wheels are easy release pop the wheels off before you mount the frame on the back of the car.

brij2006 · September 2014

@kmurphy2131 Groceries is definitely a hard one for us to get down also. At the beginning of the year I was doing gluten free/ PCOS diet. So it was low carbs, low sugar, minimal dairy (or dairy free), and no processed food. Along with no added hormone meats. Our grocery budget then was around $600-650/month.

Here's just a few tips on how to get it down. I was able to get ours down to around $500-$550/month. Now we're down to $400/month, but I'm only 75% GF and have re-introduced a few processed foods.

- Invest in a deep freezer. It's so worth it to buy/make things in bulk.

- Buy meat from a local farmer. Ask the butcher who they get their grain free/grass fed cows/pigs/chickens from. Let the butcher know that you want to ask them a few questions. Usually the farmers who do this type of farming are very open with their customers and their operation. Then ask them if you can buy from them directly. This means buying 1/4th of a cow or 1/2 of a pig, but it's so much cheaper than buying it as needed.

- Make EVERYTHING from scratch. Pasta, breads, soups, muffins, breakfast wraps, stir fry, granola, granola bars, etc. You can even go as far as making your own almond butter, almond milk, peanut butter, etc. Then you know exactly what is in the food you have made and it's immensely cheaper than buying the pre-made ones from the store that say "Organic" or "Natural." A lot of these items can also be made in bulk then frozen so you can just pull it out whenever you need it.

- Start a garden. Even if it's just in pots out on the patio. The more vegetables you have on hand, the more you will save. You will also know what chemicals have been used on them (if any), which makes it so much cheaper than buying the ones labeled organic.

- Cut out things you normally would have had, that are now expensive to buy pre-prepared. I LOVE corn dogs. Yeah, a 2 pack of GF corn dogs were $5. I stopped eating corn dogs.

There are plenty of ways to still eat great but keep the budget in check. It just takes a lot of time and effort along with planning. My H always called it my "meal planning on crack," but you bet it saved our budget.

strickland8052 · September 2014

Are you fixing the tires yourself or is a shop doing it for you? We use a rear mounted bike rack and haven't had a problem with flats. if you're changing them yourself make sure you carefully run your fingers along the inside of the rim to make sure that there isn't something in the wheel rim that is puncturing your tires.

another idea is that if the wheels are easy release pop the wheels off before you mount the frame on the back of the car.

Thanks, GDaisy! We have been taking them to a bike shop. That is a good idea about popping the wheels off. We should start doing that. We have been putting them in the back of the SUV.. like inside the car with the seats folded down.. on top of each other..with the wheels still on. I'm sure a rear mounted bike rack would be much better! We just have to break down and get one. Any suggestions for brand/where to buy?

Also, when is your half marathon? I have my first on Oct. 11.

eek!

formerlyGDaisy09 · September 2014

@kmurphy2131, like hoffse said, I do have a fairly extensive garden (I've been passing veggies to neighbors and have been my boss's personal CSA for the summer, and still spent the weekend freezing and canning part of my harvest).

This year we were definitely not net positive on the garden front, however I'm confident in future years we'll net positive. as far as productivity from a garden, raised beds and companion planting and space saving measures like trellising squash-family plants that like to sprawl is the way to go to get the biggest bang for your buck. The raised beds, while expensive ($400 on lumber and $450 on a 50/50 topsoil compost mix to fill those beds...this gave us about 380 sqft of growing space) definitely solved weather-related gardening problems that could be caused by a wet summer, last year I spent $200 on seeds and seed starting supplies to get almost nothing from my in-ground garden because the summer was so wet all my squash, tomatoes, cabbage, etc got root-rot, the drainage offered by a raised system means that it's easier to control the moisture in the soil.

I do shell out $25 a year on a garden planning site that helps with crop-rotation and companion planting (ie. corn sucks nitrogen from the soil and beans like low-nitrogen soil so they should be grown together and not in the same space in simutaneous years).

Happy to chat garden strategy more...I definitely recommend finding friends who would go-in on a seed order with you...most catalogues ship way more seed than you need and cost-sharing with-in a group can save a lot.

vlagrl29 · September 2014

I have a few more goals for september after going thru all the receipts of August. We went over a bit in the grocery store and eating out categories. Goal is to keep eating out to $150 or less and Grocery at $400. I had to get my breaks on my car fixed today and that was $400. Our emergency fund is for every big thing, not just emergencies because I don't want to deal with tons of accounts since we already have enough. we need to replenish our emergency fund with $1500 to get it back to the original amount. I think I may put half of the gig money I make instead of 1/3 of it into the E Fund and then what we save on eating out and groceries - I will put that money back in and see where we are at on it by the end of Sept.

bjlucas1 · September 2014

I lurk on this board religiously and am so inspired by you all. I figure this is as good a time as any to start participating a bit more

Im hoping it will help me become more accountable.

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Pretty good. I went on maternity leave early august and have been pinching pennies since we are going to be a single income family for 3 months. August wasn't as bad as Sept will be because I received some income at the start of the month.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? refrained from making some major purchases (came really close to buying a large ticket item from pottery barn during labor day sale) and was more mindful about eating out & impulse shopping.

3. What were your greatest achievements? having an additional 1000 at the end of the month to apply towards short term expenses during the next 3 months.

4. What were your biggest downfalls? due to my leave, we are covering only bare bones expenses. Im not contributing to my retirement account for the next 3 months or putting extra towards my mortgage (goal is to pay extra in order to stop paying pricey PMI after we've lived in the house for the requisite 5 yrs).

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month? grocery shop only 3 times instead of 4, refrain from buying non-essentials (especially impulsive amazon buys!), and minimize eating out

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? be more accountable

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? shopping/food

Wulfgar · September 2014

AUGUST

1. How good were you at keeping your money goals for this month? Not too bad, MW did go to Once Upon a Child and got us a new stroller.

2. What did you do differently this month that helped? Nothing really, we just let our budget flow through since most of our fixed costs didn't change.

3. What were your greatest achievements? Being able to keep our grocery costs down for the month.

4. What were your biggest downfalls? Some extra spending for LO #2, MW did a great job of using a 20% discount to save money on a used stroller. Our current one is basically dead and with #2 on the way, we needed a larger one.

SEPTEMBER

1. What are your goals for this month? To accelerate debt repayment as we can.

2. What do you plan to do differently to get to your goal? Use my raise and hopefully MW's raise and bonus to help offset our "bad" time of the year where we have a lot of semi-annual and annual expenses between September 1st and January 1st.

3. What area of your budget do you want to work on this month, and how do you plan to do that? Work on saving ahead of time for medical expenses later this year while trying to keep our savings up. MW may get a bonus either this month or next that should help and my pay raise and hopefully her pay raise should help.

kmurphy2131 · September 2014

thanks @hoffse, @brij2006 & @gdaisy09. Unfortunately I live in a small apartment so gardening is out (I also have a black thumb so the fear of spending money then kiling everything is huge haha) but I am thinking maybe next summer I can do one with my mom, who has a raised bed but not enough time to take care of a garden herself. I am planning to do some reorganizing in my apartment too to see if I can find some storage space to start buying more in bulk. I might look into getting a second freezer and keeping it at my parents where they have space, I am there weekly so if I plan ahead I can get things out/put them in as needed. Thanks for your ideas! Brij2006 - I am hoping I can keep it around $600 (a year ago I did) I am impressed you have it down to $400!

formerlyGDaisy09 · September 2014

@kmurphy2131, if your mom already has an established bed it wouldnt' be too costly, if you planted most things from seed (depending on the area of the country you live in).

if you have a small outdoor area you can always try some container planting...Gardener's Supply Company sells a tomato success kit...I laughed, but my aunt bought one and ended up with an 8-9' high tomato plant absolutely loaded with fruit, one plant from that kit got her way more than my four plants in my garden. Pinterest has some cute ideas for patio/deck container gardens.

August Recap / September Goals

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