One of my goals for October was to do weekly budget check-in, both with the Big Guy and here on the blog. The hope is that this will allow us to drill down on our budgeting goals – like I discussed in 3 Things Our Budget Failure Taught us:
What do you and your spouse fight about?
Experts say that couples fight about three things: money, kids & sex. We fight about all 3 at times, but our budget is definitely the point of most contention. He wants gas to go places during the day in our SUV, but I want him to only go places 2x per week to save gas. He wants to grab subway on the way home, and because I’m hungry, I agree.
But even though I’m the saver and he’s the spender, It’s not his fault.
It’s mine.
Today is our second budget check-in, both here on the blog and at home with The Big Guy (You can read the first one here)
Groceries
Budget: $300
Spent: $333
Gas
Budget: $400
Spent: $341
Eating Out
Budget: $40
Spent: $46
Income:
Budget: $4,630
Actual: $7,430
Gift
Budget: $0.00
Actual: $$147.00
Overall Thoughts:
We hadn’t spent any more over last week’s budget check-in ($306) until The Big Guy got sick on thursday, and I had to run to the store for sprite and chicken noodle soup. But he’s feeling much better now :-) Some things can’t be helped!
Gas looks fantastic, and while we may have to buy 1 more tank before the end of the month, we’ll definitely come in below budget.
We also spend a few more dollars eating out, and it kind of made me mad. When the Big Guy went to mow his grandparent’s lawn this week, he also picked up donuts and chocolate milk from the gas station. But, when he gets paid for mowing, I’m planning to take it and put it towards eating out and…..
Our gift budget: not good. We went out to eat for 2 people’s birthday’s, my mother in law’s and my aunt’s. I really felt like we should have said no, but how do you even do that? What made it even more disappointing was that the food wasn’t even good! Grrrr…..
We already touched on income last week, but the Big Guy got his enlistment bonus, which with November’s personal loan payment and my extra paycheck in october, will allow us to pay off the Personal Loan at the end of November. Yipeee!
……So that’s it, our third budget check-in! How is your budget looking 21 days into the month?? Next time you hear from me will be our October and November Budget Update!
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Family outings are tough–you don’t want to say no but you don’t have control over how much you’re going to have to spend (or where you’re going to eat). So, I feel your pain there! Our October has been fairly uneventful, spending-wise, so I’m hoping we’ll have a pretty lean month.
Exactly – you don’t want to be the bad guy and say “no” but it’s just not in the budget! Glad to hear your month was pretty uneventful – at least someone has their budget locked down :-)
Those birthday meals can get expensive. I absolutely hate it when people invite us out to eat to celebrate someone’s birthday. Restaurant meals X 4 means you’re not getting a gift either because I just got coerced into spending $50 on dinner.
Totally – and the dinner wasn’t even good! Bah!
You can’t do much about family events.