Monday Accountability

als1982 · July 2016

1. How MM was your weekend?

2. Any progress toward your goals?

3. What is your favorite splurge?

als1982 · July 2016

1. Good! We spent 5 days in Boston with my mom, arriving home last night. We allocated $1,000 for food and fun. (We prepaid the hotel through MrRebates.com and Hotwire.) We don't quite have the final numbers, but I'm certain we came in way under budget.

2. I'll move any extra from our travel budget over to the student loan once everything has cleared out Barclay card today. Then, next Tuesday we have an extra $2,000 to move over (I sold 80 hours of PTO). We are so close to dropping a digit!

3. Travel, eating out and experiences. We're also working at being more generous in giving to charity.

csuave · July 2016

1. OK. I saw a couple of tiny ants in the pantry on Friday and cleaned the whole thing out. We are just in time with food so we didn't have a ton in there but I decided to just pitch a lot of things that were already open like honey, karo syrup and crackers. We will have a cost to replace those now if/when we need them. It was probably overkill since I didn't see ants actually on or in any food and those items were well sealed to begin with but those buggers inspired me to purge.

It was H's birthday so we went out to eat on Friday without a coupon and on Sunday when we were supposed to be having a free activity the friends we were with wanted to get something to eat and that turned into about $40 unplanned on food and drinks.

Other than that we did a lot of free things so it wasn't too bad plus we made $300 BnB income.

2. NA. Waiting for H to get regular on paychecks from his new job and then we'll get into the new budget and goals.

3. We don't live by family so we either have to drive or fly to visit. We don't "splurge" per say on the travel because we still try to get the best deal on tickets, etc. but we also don't let the cost of gas or tolls limit the number of trips we take to see them.

We will splurge on bakery treats. If we are by a nice bakery we will stop in and get something. Luckily for our waistlines this is only about 4-6 times per year.

ETA: I forgot that a cleaning lady is a splurge we have now. Worth every penny!

labro · July 2016

1. How MM was your weekend? My dad generously took everyone out to dinner on Saturday night for my mom's birthday so that saved us quite a bit in expenses. Otherwise - $30 on Friday night eating out with my mom and sister that came from my personal fun money, and then $90 on groceries yesterday.

2. Any progress toward your goals? Nope. Extra car payment happens at the end of the week though.

3. What is your favorite splurge? Vacations, hands down. My vacation time is super limited so when we go, I'm planning on having fun and not worrying about saving a few dollars here and there. We keep a special vacation budget so we don't have to worry about how much we spend when we go.

brij2006 · July 2016

1. How MM was your weekend?

Good and bad? We ended up having an impromptu date night while MIL took DD for us. It was beyond needed, but we went to a bit nicer of a restaurant and each ordered a beer. It ended up being $52. We budgeted $75 for eating out for the month. We'll have to reallocate a bit, but H has working a ton of overtime so that will wash it out plus some.

Otherwise just the usual stuff. Groceries, gas, tithe.

2. Any progress toward your goals?

Just the usual.

We did sit down and discuss whether or not to try and swing Hawaii this winter. We need to run some hard numbers to figure out if we can fit it in.

3. What is your favorite splurge?

Traveling. 100%. We really don't care where we go or what we do, but that we travel. We make a lot of cuts so that we can do it.

formerlyjessica490 · July 2016

1. Crappy weather weekend so we mostly stayed home and organized and went through all the unpacked boxes in the basement to find things to keep/purge/sell. $20 Tractor supply, $20 CVS, $23 Gas. Made $100 selling A/C unit on craigslist

2. $100 towards Home Depot CC. We have extra money in our checking account but haven't done anything with it yet, but it will go to one of our savings account

3. We like to splurge on travel and fun activities/memories, electronics and house stuff

cbee817 · July 2016

1. How MM was your weekend? It was pretty spendy but the bulk of it was for the bathroom. Groceries ($128), plumber ($1300), bathroom supplies ($800- sink, vent, drywall, cement board, primer, paint, rollers, etc, etc)

2. Any progress toward your goals? Yes- $500 went to savings and we're cash flowing the bathroom remodel. The electrician is coming by today. We also have another company coming on Wednesday about the outside work.

3. What is your favorite splurge? fabric to make a new quilt for sure but I'm being good about using what I have first.

Mustard76 · July 2016

1. Spendy. $22 on a tank of gas to get to my parents' house. We boxed and moved stuff most of the day, but I stopped for some work clothes and shoes on my way home. I spent a total of about $300, but I was in pretty desperate need of some work pants. I also bought four new pairs of shoes, so it wasn't too bad overall. I paid $8 for my White Sox ticket, but I was so carsick that I had my carpool drop me off at a gas station and H had to come pick me up. That was a miserable experience, but I'm glad I only wasted $8.

2. No paychecks for us this last week.

3. Stuff for our house, hands down. I think it started because we move so much, that each time we moved I was trying to make our new place feel like home. And now it's just important for me to love where I live. We don't get to travel much because of our work schedules (ex. we were scheduled for a road trip all of next week, and that trip was cancelled because of my job) so we spend a lot of time at home. I want to love my space, so we're always changing the looks of things until we're happy.

hoffse · July 2016

1) Ours wasn't terrible, but we had a spendy grocery weekend because it's been 3 weeks since going to Costco or really buying any significant groceries. We spent about $200 at Costco and other smaller groceries. We did a good job eating stuff down before we left for our trip. We also spent about $40 on grass seed to fill in the bare spots from where we moved dirt to build our firepit/patio.

2) We are kind of in a holding pattern until my last LLM tuition payment is due at the end of the summer. Then - after 18 months of having my reimbursements seriously lag behind my payments - I will FINALLY be getting caught up in reimbursements!

Totally unrelated but I'm also going to buy an iPad this week. My laptop crapped out in a serious way this weekend and will no longer even turn on. It was an old one I got for free a couple years ago when my office was upgrading, so I was never expecting it to last long. We have enough amazon gift cards and points to pay for most of the iPad purchase. I think we'll only be out of pocket like $40 total. I've wanted one for awhile - especially for travel - but I was determined to wait until my current computer died completely before getting it.

3) My favorite splurge is travel. I only wish I was able to take two weeks off at a time. Eventually I think H and I will be able to swing that, but we're still too junior at our jobs.

Xstatic3333 · July 2016

@als1982 what did you think of Boston?

1. How MM was your weekend?

It was bad. We're going to a wedding in October where they have rented out the whole resort and are trying to allocate people into various condos with other couples. We were placed with a couple we know and like and all that is fine and good, but I was randomly named "point person" to call and make a 1-night's deposit on our condo ($240!). This wedding being in October, I certainly hadn't budgeted to pay its hotel expenses this month but I was too embarrassed to say no. This couple are the nicest people, but I wish they'd spent a little time on TK before coming up with this plan! I'll come right out and say it, no interest will be charged but this is getting paid for with August money.

In additional wedding expenses, I spent $25 on a shower gift for that same couple (reduced from my usual $40-$50) and have made an appointment to get my grossly too large bridesmaid dress for an August wedding altered. I had to pay the balance and shipping on that dress last Thursday ($80 I think? My head is a mess of annoying numbers). Basically, it's just one of those wedding years for us.

2. Any progress toward your goals?

Big 'ole nope. Keeping up with token savings contributions but that's it.

3. What is your favorite splurge?

Travel for us as well. In regular times, really high quality beer is a close second.

LillibetteV · July 2016

1. How MM was your weekend? Pretty good! We bit the bullet and hired painters to do our hallways and stairwell (because I just don't feel like balancing on a ladder on the stairs - I'm getting old lol) so we put down a $350 deposit for that work. We went to visit family on Saturday (my uncle built a huge old fashioned see-saw for the little kids.....which my husband and I then played on by ourselves lol) so that was a tank of gas ($28) and I made some brownies with emergency box mix I keep in the pantry. Then we came home and drank some beer leftover from the 4th and watched The Big Short on Netflix (such a good movie!) Sunday was grocery shopping ($30ish I think) and laundry day. I see a few charges on Personal Capital so it looks like the hubby may have done some online shopping so I'll have to scope out what boxes appear this week...

2. Any progress toward your goals? Same old same old. I love getting paid weekly - it's satisfying to watch the savings balance slowly climb each week. We are going to be able to cash-flow our recent vet bill (doggy broke a tooth on a chew toy and needed an extraction..) so that was a relief.

3. What is your favorite splurge? Travel and dining. I'd rather go out for dinner less often and really do it up than go out every week. Funnily enough travel is the opposite - I'll cheap out just so I can go to more places more often!

vlagrl35 · July 2016

1 - A little spendier than I would have preferred. We saw the secret life of pets friday. Tickets for 3 were $21 and bringing in sonic for dinner was $20. Went to the pool on Sunday - $18 , Lowes - $37, and hy-vee to get some grillers for dinner - $17.

2 - $50 to retirement, Dh's sheetrock is done and now they are painting the inside

3 - Traveling and I'm sure missing it this year. We haven't been on any trips in 2016 yet. Currently I love splurging on massages and pedicures. I also bit the bullet and had my greys covered by my hairstylist. I decided it was time and I want to do it a couple times a year.

short+sassy · July 2016

vlagrl35 said:

1 - A little spendier than I would have preferred. We saw the secret life of pets friday. Tickets for 3 were $21 and bringing in sonic for dinner was $20. Went to the pool on Sunday - $18 , Lowes - $37, and hy-vee to get some grillers for dinner - $17.

2 - $50 to retirement, Dh's sheetrock is done and now they are painting the inside

3 - Traveling and I'm sure missing it this year. We haven't been on any trips in 2016 yet. Currently I love splurging on massages and pedicures. I also bit the bullet and had my greys covered by my hairstylist. I decided it was time and I want to do it a couple times a year.

If you have an Aveda Institute school near you, I've been very impressed with the work done at mine. I have very long hair, all the way down my back. I just got it trimmed and colored there for only $52 a few weeks ago.

I've been there many times and they do a better job with my color than most salons do. I have light brown/dark blond hair that is difficult and has a strong tendency to go red when I try to lighten it, but they get the color perfect every time.

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