Monday Accountability

simplyelise · August 2015

1) How MM was your weekend?

2) Any progress toward goals?

3) GTKY: Recommend a book or author you love for us to check out.

simplyelise · August 2015

1) How MM was your weekend?

Yikes. All the car issues. We spent about $10 on food. Then we spent $1115 on DH's car getting a new tie rod, brakes, rotors, and callipers, and then balancing and brake flushes after all that. He took it in for an oil change with our regular mechanic last week and that's when we found out about the other needs. I've got about $600 in maintenance coming on my car this month for a new timing belt and other nearing-100k miles replacements. So that's fun.

2) Any progress toward goals?

Nope. We used $1000 from our emergency fund for DH's car repairs and then we covered the rest with a maintenance sinking fund. My maintenance will just lower what we can send to debt in September.

3) GTKY: Recommend a book or author you love for us to check out.

I love Rainbow Rowell. I've read all her books except the latest one (Landline) and they are just so realistic and moving. I also love to get Malcolm Gladwell books on CD for long drives. If you're at all nerdy, you'll love his stuff.

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2015

1.) $180 on groceries. $95 on dog food. we're switching food again, the food we had the dogs on they did so great on, but the calculations I did for how much we'd have to feed them were off, so we were spending $70 every 10 days on dog food, and both dogs were still down 4-5 lbs. maybe someday we'll find something that works for their tummies and our budget!

2.) at the moment we're just trying to minimize the number of bills we actually reimburse from our construction loan, so we're cash-flowing as many construction related things as we can, so things feel tight.

3.) it's been so long since I've sat down and read something. If you've not read Dan Brown's latest novel (Inferno) I recommend it.

als1982 · August 2015

1. Fair. Ate out and drank too much. On top of that, I spent $150 on groceries and household items. I also went shopping with my mom and spent $200 on clothes (mad money), but she generously offered to help accessorize our new bathroom for us which will save us a few hundred dollars!

2. Sent more than $2,800 to H's student loan. Over the last week, we also decided that we couldn't let H's five remaining 2015 vacation days go to waste (his company has a stupid use it or lose it policy) so we booked flights to Florida in November. We used points and have a SW companion pass, so we're only out $23.00 so far. Otherwise, we hope to get away with a budget of $3,000 for 10 days.

3. I love anything John Steinbeck. My favorite is Cannery Row.

jessica490 · August 2015

1. $300 Home Depot, $4 Ocean state- cash for all

2. Nothing yet, we get paid this week

3. I love Kimberla Roby- great books, and Sophie Kinsella- she cracks me up

bridejl · August 2015

1) How MM was your weekend? $23.66 for dinner with the girls on Friday, $8.54 for two storage totes, $16.54 on groceries, $15 for our normal Sunday church donation, $30 for mini-golfing with H and ILs. Not terrible overall, although the ILs stayed over and the bulk of the food we bought for the weekend was purchased last week. So this weekend's purchases don't accurately reflect the true cost of the weekend.

2) Any progress toward goals? No, won't be much progress until we return from our trip mid-September.

3) GTKY: Recommend a book or author you love for us to check out. I don't know specific authors, but I've been loving historical fiction from the Tudor time period.

brij2006 · August 2015

1) How MM was your weekend?

Not necessarily MM, but was all budgeted.
$40 at the fair for admission, some deliciously unhealthy fair food, and pit passes to the demo derby. $200 on groceries. Woof. $1.17 on clothing. :-) Spent my Kohls cash and a coupon on 5 pairs of underwear and a top.

2) Any progress toward goals?

We rounded out August by cash flowing the lawyer bill, chiropractor, licensing and titling my brothers' trailer and a towing vehicle, and vacation. All while still putting $1,000 into savings. Yay! H worked a bunch of overtime, and my commissions were pretty high. So made for a good month.

3) GTKY: Recommend a book or author you love for us to check out.

Hmmm, that's a hard one. For just an easy love story type read, I love anything from Nora Roberts. But am a huge sucker for Harry Potter.

cbee817 · August 2015

1) How MM was your weekend? Pretty good - Friday breakfast ($30) and zoo ($0- membership with free parking passes/brought lunch), Saturday birthday party for DD#1's friend ($15 for gift), Sunday baby shower ($40), food prep/dinner (groceries from last week). DH and the girls are grocery shopping today.

2) Any progress toward goals? No change- DH's first day is tomorrow- he'll get his first paycheck on Friday for 3 days and hopefully all of the summer training he had to do. DD#1 starts kindergarten next Tuesday!

3) GTKY: Recommend a book or author you love for us to check out. Oh boy- I am not a reader.. I read a ton to the girls but that's about all I do.

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2015

oh @brij2006 you reminded me, I spent $10 at kohls on underwear, #pregnancyproblems.

csuave · August 2015

1) How MM was your weekend?

Pretty good. $18 for dinner out on Friday. $20 for raffle prize tickets on Saturday, but then we won $100 in gift cards. $50 for groceries/drug store on Sunday.

2) Any progress toward goals?

Staying the course

3) GTKY: Recommend a book or author you love for us to check out.
I really like Into Thin Air. It is the true story of disaster on Mt. Everest. A real page turner. I think it is being made into a movie.

brij2006 · August 2015

@formerlyGDaisy09 You may get more use out of those undies than you intended. I still wear my pregnancy ones. They're big and comfy.

vlagrl29 · August 2015

This weekend was non stop and exhausting. We did so much. DD went to a bday party saturday afternoon, spent the evening with grandparents while we had a date night. Sunday we went to yoga, DD saw frozen on ice with grandparents and then we met up for a visit with them in the afternoon.

1 - more spendy than usual - Friday went to hyvee for some grillers ($25), Saturday spent $60 on frames and michaels and hobby lobby, $42 on dinner out and $36 for foot reflexology massage for the 2 of us. Sunday $5 for yoga and lunch with the grandparents $42.

2 - $50 in savings

3 - I don't have any recs as all the books I read now are kid books.

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2015

brij2006 said:

@formerlyGDaisy09 You may get more use out of those undies than you intended. I still wear my pregnancy ones. They're big and comfy.

nowhere here sells maternity wear...no actual maternity underwear at kohls...so I ened-up just buying a larger size of some basic cotton hanes. fingers crossed they work for the next 3 months.

hoffse · August 2015

1) Our weekend was pretty spendy, but it was expected. The kitten had his last round of shots, I got new tires for my car, and we ended up ordering those jackets from LL Bean for both of us. We also found this crazy motivation and painted our entire basement. We had leftover paint from other rooms in the house and just used that, so it didn't cost anything but looks MUCH better.

2) Our credit cards closed so our budget in September is set. We are going to be under by a couple hundred bucks, which is nice.

3) I really like Leon Uris - he wrote Exodus, which is an incredible book. I also really liked QBVII, but I will say that it's very dark and could be disturbing.

One of my favorite books is Gone with the Wind. I thought the movie sucked, but the book is wonderful. Scarlet is a much more complex character in the book. She has multiple husbands and has children with all of them. It was a pretty radical novel for its time.

Anything by Philip Pullman. His Dark Materials trilogy is incredible, and so are his other books (I've read most of them). He's a great writer in multiple genres. He's pretty obviously anti-Catholic-church, and as a Catholic... I still love everything he's written.

Finally, I am convinced that Mark Twain wrote the Great American Novel with Huckleberry Finn. I think that's one of those books people should read every 10 years because it changes as you age. I also recommend Twain's Letters from the Earth and The Bible According to Mark Twain. These books are posthumous compilations of unpublished short stories and essays. Some of them are very funny, others really thoughtful, almost all are irreverent.

I also occasionally browse banned book lists and add things I haven't read to my reading list. I've been doing that for as long as I can remember, and thankfully... my parents never said no to a banned book.

dragonstarjk · August 2015

1) How MM was your weekend? Not too fabulous. Friday-had to go pick up all of the supplies for our weekend siding removal project, $200. Saturday-About $60 more at Home Depot because....that's what happens with projects. $12 lunch, $6 cold beverages. Sunday-$100 groceries, $25 gas. The HD trips weren't exactly budgeted because I forgot to think about that stuff when we were planning our porch. Protective gear was a requirement. So, close to $300 that had to come from somewhere (vacation savings, sad) However, we probably saved close to five grand by removing the asbestos siding ourselves, so it's still a win!

2) Any progress toward goals? Nothing out of the ordinary. I feel like we have been bleeding money the last few months between getting ready for our porch construction to start, plus our emergency vet visit, plus we had a really expensive A/C bill because our unit is on it's last leg....just trying not to drain all our savings at this point!

3) GTKY: Recommend a book or author you love for us to check out. My favorite author of all time is Michael Crichton, but honestly I'm up for reading most anything. I loooove to read.

brij2006 · August 2015

formerlyGDaisy09 said:

brij2006 said:

@formerlyGDaisy09 You may get more use out of those undies than you intended. I still wear my pregnancy ones. They're big and comfy.

nowhere here sells maternity wear...no actual maternity underwear at kohls...so I ened-up just buying a larger size of some basic cotton hanes. fingers crossed they work for the next 3 months.

I should have rephrased it. That's exactly what I bought as well. They aren't actually pregnancy undies. Just some cotton ones in a bigger size. I still find myself grabbing them if I'm wearing jeans. Hey, things don't just go back to normal, and those cute ones pre-pregnancy still aren't happening.

vlagrl29 · August 2015

brij2006 said:

formerlyGDaisy09 said:

brij2006 said:

@formerlyGDaisy09 You may get more use out of those undies than you intended. I still wear my pregnancy ones. They're big and comfy.

nowhere here sells maternity wear...no actual maternity underwear at kohls...so I ened-up just buying a larger size of some basic cotton hanes. fingers crossed they work for the next 3 months.

I should have rephrased it. That's exactly what I bought as well. They aren't actually pregnancy undies. Just some cotton ones in a bigger size. I still find myself grabbing them if I'm wearing jeans. Hey, things don't just go back to normal, and those cute ones pre-pregnancy still aren't happening.

don't judge but I still wear my size small maternity jean shorts during the summer. I LOVE that elastic waist band. I am back to wearing pre pregnancy underwear though.

short+sassy · August 2015

vlagrl29 said:

brij2006 said:

formerlyGDaisy09 said:

brij2006 said:

@formerlyGDaisy09 You may get more use out of those undies than you intended. I still wear my pregnancy ones. They're big and comfy.

nowhere here sells maternity wear...no actual maternity underwear at kohls...so I ened-up just buying a larger size of some basic cotton hanes. fingers crossed they work for the next 3 months.

I should have rephrased it. That's exactly what I bought as well. They aren't actually pregnancy undies. Just some cotton ones in a bigger size. I still find myself grabbing them if I'm wearing jeans. Hey, things don't just go back to normal, and those cute ones pre-pregnancy still aren't happening.

don't judge but I still wear my size small maternity jean shorts during the summer. I LOVE that elastic waist band. I am back to wearing pre pregnancy underwear though.

Despite the fact I have never been pregnant, I actually have two funny maternity clothes story. I bought a denim skirt on clearance at Target a number of years ago and I especially liked it because it had an A-line instead of being straight. But I always wondered why there were these weird 2" pieces of elastic on each side. I must have worn that thing dozens of times before I noticed the inside tag had "maternity" on it, lol. Still wore it, it was cute!

I used to complete mystery shops for a maternity clothing store in a local mall. One of the requirements was I had to buy something. I often bought maternity underwear on those shops. I swear it seemed like the cotton was so extra soft!

Now for my accountability:

1) How MM was your weekend?

It was okay. Friday: spent $112 at Walmart for groceries, pet food, and some clothes. But I had BOGO coupons for some of the pet food, so I ended up getting almost $20 in dog food for free.

Saturday: spent $48 at Rite Aid. They had a good BOGO sale going. Including Ben and Jerry's. Need I say more, lol.

Sunday: $41 breakfast with my H at one of our favorite spots. It was a mystery shop so, once I receive my pay, I will actually make $4.

2) Any progress toward goals?

YES!! My new tenant moved into the other side of my duplex on Saturday. I reduced the rent from the $1200/month I had been getting to $1100/month, but I am just so glad to be done with showings and to be able to add that $1100/month back into my budget.

3) GTKY: Recommend a book or author you love for us to check out.

I primarily read mystery novels. I like Kathy Reichs, she writes the books that the Bones tv series is based on. With that said, although I like both the books and the tv series...I actually don't find them to be very similar, other than the name of the main character.

MissKittyDanger · August 2015

Hey,

I'm here from the TheKnot! I couldn't find an intro board, so figured I'd say high before throwing in my answers for this forum

1) How MM was your weekend?
Good! We actually didn't end up doing much, so didn't spend much.

2) Any progress toward goals?
{goal is home buying in 2yrs max} Not much yet. I'm still paying down some debt.

3) GTKY: Recommend a book or author you love for us to check out
hmmm .... nothing really jumping out. I've been re-reading a lot of my own books lately because I want to buy a new kobo after xmas so I can't justify buying books. I re-read a series recently - "Alice in Zombieland" by Gena Showalter. It's weird but good.

short+sassy · August 2015

MsKittyDanger said:

Hey,
I'm here from the TheKnot! I couldn't find an intro board, so figured I'd say high before throwing in my answers for this forum

1) How MM was your weekend?
Good! We actually didn't end up doing much, so didn't spend much.

2) Any progress toward goals?
{goal is home buying in 2yrs max} Not much yet. I'm still paying down some debt.

3) GTKY: Recommend a book or author you love for us to check out
hmmm .... nothing really jumping out. I've been re-reading a lot of my own books lately because I want to buy a new kobo after xmas so I can't justify buying books. I re-read a series recently - "Alice in Zombieland" by Gena Showalter. It's weird but good.

Hello and welcome! This board is the most active one on The Nest. We've lately had a number of GTKY (Get to Know You) posts, so definitely jump in.

brij2006 · August 2015

short+sassy said:

MsKittyDanger said:

Hey,
I'm here from the TheKnot! I couldn't find an intro board, so figured I'd say high before throwing in my answers for this forum

1) How MM was your weekend?
Good! We actually didn't end up doing much, so didn't spend much.

2) Any progress toward goals?
{goal is home buying in 2yrs max} Not much yet. I'm still paying down some debt.

3) GTKY: Recommend a book or author you love for us to check out
hmmm .... nothing really jumping out. I've been re-reading a lot of my own books lately because I want to buy a new kobo after xmas so I can't justify buying books. I re-read a series recently - "Alice in Zombieland" by Gena Showalter. It's weird but good.

Hello and welcome! This board is the most active one on The Nest. We've lately had a number of GTKY (Get to Know You) posts, so definitely jump in.

Welcome to MM. And I'm assuming congratulations on your wedding.

Feel free to jump in whenever.

Mustard76 · September 2015

I'm late to the party. I had a really long day.

1) How MM was your weekend?
- So very not good. It was planned; we've known for weeks that we were going to be living in hotels for awhile, but we have spent more eating out in the last few days than we have in the last three months combined. Two of our hotel nights will be reimbursed, and we're using hotel points to get a discounted rate the rest of the time, but when it's all said and done, we'll probably be looking at $600-$700. Ugh.

2) Any progress toward goals?
- $350 in our move money account. Friday was the last check for funneling money in there since we (finally) close on Thursday!! Our belongings get here Friday, so we'll be looking at another expensive weekend coming up.

3) GTKY: Recommend a book or author you love for us to check out.
- I'm not good at this game. I love to read, so I'll read anything I come across, mostly from my mom's circle or the bargain shelf at Barnes and Noble.

ETA: formatting

Xstatic3333 · September 2015

1.) Medium. We were camping last week and then at a wedding around 7 hours away. I'm still sorting out receipts and it looks like we spent a lot but stayed within budget. Surprises were $40 on forgotten personal care items at Walmart and $60 on drinks (common in that area, so no judgement), but I planned on a $100 buffer so we're all good there.

2.) Nope, getting through wedding season first! Another one next weekend. Just my automated Roth contributions.

3.) I read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer while camping and found it fascinating. I also really liked one of his other books, Under the Banner of Heaven.

short+sassy · September 2015

@Mustard76, the "eating out more" is something I ALWAYS forget about or underestimate when I am staying at a hotel! I wish the majority of hotels/motels had small fridges and a microwave instead of only a minority having them.

csuave · September 2015

short+sassy said:

@Mustard76, the "eating out more" is something I ALWAYS forget about or underestimate when I am staying at a hotel! I wish the majority of hotels/motels had small fridges and a microwave instead of only a minority having them.

Some hotels have a few mini fridges that can be brought to rooms by request.

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