How has your spending been this month?

[catsareme]

Groan!!  The annual septic maintenance visit (that I had budgeted for) turned into a septic pumping (a MUCH more expensive project).  We had been told a pumping would most likely not be needed for a couple of years.  Hah!!   THEN, DH discovered a leak by the well house today.  Oh goody, now a visit from the plumber to determine where the leak is and get it fixed.  Visualizing dozens of flying dollar signs as the emergency fund takes a major hit.

[Iggy aka IG]

Ugh, I am so sorry, catsareme!

[catsareme]

After anticipating the worst we ended paying $65 for parts and the plumber (bless him) did not charge us for stopping by and checking out the well house.  The emergency fund is intact, at least for the time being.  

[oped]

Holy Toledo Batman... 2 kids in college. I must have spread the first move in stuff over a longer time frame. I won't even tell you the Target bill for daughter's dorm. 

[vetswife]

My trip to see friends cost me only $90; I insisted on paying for one meal but they didn't want me to do that.  I have very kind and generous friends.  This month should be okay.  There's a trip for family day at DGD's university but it's already paid for.  And I'll get some extra money for playing the organ for church, which should more than cover my tickets to the Nutcracker and off Broadway shows my DD is planning for us to attend.


The main thing I have trouble with keeping under control is groceries.  I don't know how one person can spend so much on food.  I really need to look at my spending there more closely.

[plugginaway22]

Not a good month. Garage opener replaced, plumbing work done, bought new living room rug, new refrigerator, took 2 trips, bought baby stuff for soon to be grandbaby, hmmmm I'm sure there is more.

[Deleted]

August really wasn't that bad.  The leaky refrigerator was covered by the house maintenance fund.  It looks like I have enough left from my retirement check (got it in addition to my regular check for the last time) to cover the SS check that I won't get until the fourth Wednesday in October.

September is already a little worse.  I had the front flowerbeds cleaned out and landscape fabric/mulch put down.  Now we are going to have a ramp so that DH won't have to do the steps.  It's expensive ($1500), but DH is going to pay for most of it.  He isn't spending much money, anyway, these days.

[Blonde Granny]

My end of month looks really good.  I managed to have about $600 left to move into savings.

My one account that was so depleted in June is also now to its full amount.  Overall, Ive managed to make some good decisions and keep my credit cards under control.

[Deleted]

August wasn't too bad.  Stepson seems to have decide that he doesn't need our money for this semester of school, which is great for both him and us.  DD has decided she wants to save the environment, which meant not replacing much in the way of clothes or school supplies for back to school shopping (besides needing yet another TI calculator and paying to retake the SAT).  DH was traveling for work and now he is sick, so we haven't spent much. 

Next would be DD applying for college, which comes with fees.   

ETA:  I forgot, we finally registered DH's 17 year project car ($240) and put it on the insurance (liability only) .  I also increased the coverage on the insurance, so that is a total of an extra $20 a month.  

[catsareme]

Our recent shopping trip to Safeway combined on-line coupons, Just4U savings and promo gas reward points. We ended up with an additional 7 gas rewards while saving 35% off the final bill. Filling the truck at the end of the month will be less painful as we now have enough gas rewards for a $1 off a gallon (max. 25 gallons). Yahoo!!  I plan to put an additional chunk of money against the HELOC loan this month and savings like this helps.

[zibazinski]

I’m a YM failure. I spent 3k on Italy and Tuesday I’m getting a 5k roof. Plus DD is coming this weekend so that’ll be spendy. 🙄

[Blonde Granny]

I've had too much stuff going on this month to pay much attention to my spending.  Chimney sweep guy was here to check the gas fireplace, HVAC should be here when it gets colder.  both items are budgeted for.

I bought a pair of black booties type shoes for $87 but even that was within my monthly clothing budget. Have ordered some thank you Philosophy gifts from QVC...3 lady friends have gone above and beyond to help me , so it's a nice way to thank them.

[azucena]

Oct 20, 2019 12:45:57 GMT -5 Blonde Granny said:

I've had too much stuff going on this month to pay much attention to my spending.  Chimney sweep guy was here to check the gas fireplace, HVAC should be here when it gets colder.  both items are budgeted for.

I bought a pair of black booties type shoes for $87 but even that was within my monthly clothing budget. Have ordered some thank you Philosophy gifts from QVC...3 lady friends have gone above and beyond to help me , so it's a nice way to thank them.

This is on our to do list since our "new" (moved 2 yrs ago) house has a fireplace, and we've never had one before. How often do you have someone look at it?  If it's gas, does the chimney need to be cleaned? How much did it cost?

Sorry it took me so long.  My fireplace is natural gas and non-vented. Guy cleaned the fake logs, put new batteries in the remote control part of the fireplace.


I really don't have much knowledge of wood fireplaces these days than I know frequently home fires are started due to creosote building up within the chimney due to poor cleaning.

[catsareme]

Frugal failure here.  I let my guard down and expenses got away from me.  DD1 and DD2 and their spouses came to visit at two different times and we ate out more than usual.  Shame on me.

[Deleted]

I have more money leftover than usual, but that is good because there are a lot of expenses associated with DH's death. He only wanted to be cremated and buried at the National Cemetery so that isn't it. But every time I switched an account to me, I had to pay. That is because he didn't renew it because he was sick or it was up for renewal, anyway.

I am also expecting about $600 worth of medical expenses. That is entirely reasonable, but DH won't get another SS check.

I am anxious to work out a new budget.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

UGH!  I paid my AmEx bill and it was ugly.  I had picked up all the hotels over Labor day weekend/week for my brother and sister and they hit my card.  I forgot about those and when I opened the bill when I got home, I thought it was going to be squat.  Joke's on me.

I spent more on this trip than I intended.  I pulled out nearly $700 in various currencies from ATMs in the 3 weeks we were gone.  That pretty much paid for all of our food outside of the cruise, taxis, tours and tips to tour guides.  My Visa took a pretty good hit from the sweaters I bought at Dale.  

[buystoys]

So far for the year, I am $86 under budget.  We had a couple of sizeable unplanned expenses, so I'm surprised that I'm not over budget by a lot.  I guess that tells me that we have a lot of fat in there, because we haven't been doing without much.

[countrygirl2]

This last month has been bad.  Spent a lot on the rent house and just spent to much personally.

I think in November will have to pull back.  I just spent on a lot of stuff this month I should not have.  Going to have to be more careful.

[Blonde Granny]

I have been super good this month. Spending way under budget and it'll provide a nice cushion to start the month of November. I also have a large CD coming due on the 7th and still debating what I'm going to do with it.

[Iggy aka IG]

It was an expensive month.  $455 for food, $95 for HBAs, dining out just over $100 (just when I bought, doesn't include when DH treated), a new mattress set, and a Halloween party for 15+.

This month will start out with DH and I buying a 1/4 cow.  The good news is we won't be buying beef any time soon.

Next up: Christmas shopping. 

[hopetoberich]

It will be horrible.
My rental needs a fair bit of work. No new tenants until work is done.
7k should be the limit. Wipe out any profits but will finally bring it up to standard.

[swamp]

HOrrible.  I bought a house, and furniture, and a snowblower, and hired a contractor to fix the bathroom and porch.  

[Happy prose]

Nov 5, 2019 14:14:19 GMT -5 swamp said:

HOrrible.  I bought a house, and furniture, and a snowblower, and hired a contractor to fix the bathroom and porch.  

Are you moving, or is it a vacation type home?

[swamp]

Nov 5, 2019 14:16:42 GMT -5 Happy prose said:

Nov 5, 2019 14:14:19 GMT -5 swamp said:

HOrrible.  I bought a house, and furniture, and a snowblower, and hired a contractor to fix the bathroom and porch.  

Are you moving, or is it a vacation type home?

neither. 

it's in the town where my kids go to school to satisfy the residency requirement we've been fighting about. 

[Deleted]

Nov 5, 2019 14:26:24 GMT -5 swamp said:

Nov 5, 2019 14:16:42 GMT -5 Happy prose said:

Are you moving, or is it a vacation type home?

neither. 

it's in the town where my kids go to school to satisfy the residency requirement we've been fighting about. 

 

[Deleted]

This month was bad for me.  It wasn't just funeral expenses.  As I moved everything over to my name, I kept having to pay.  He had let things slide over the last 5 months, which is understandable.  I had paid his credit card bills (with his money), but I didn't realize that everything wasn't on automatic.  And even if it was, I had to change it to bill to me.  

It's ok.  It was just a lot of small expenses that I wasn't expecting because I don't normally pay them.  I need to put them on my radar for next year.

[zibazinski]

Terrible. Besides Italy and the new roof I need to replace the boards on my deck. Then property taxes are due. It’s Nasty November for me!

[Apple]

I bled money last month fixing my bathroom (original toilet, pipe, etc, and I didn't want to risk screwing it up, plus I wanted to finally get a shower over the tub after 14 years of not having one in that bathroom).  Contractor has sucked for reliability/respect on top of it all.

This month, I'm hiring someone to clean up the property for me.  Out of acres worth of junk and literal garbage, the items I want to keep for myself take up less than a 10' x 30' space in the pole barn (and over 1/3 of that space is the flooring I brought up myself).  There were some things that would have been really cool, but the old owner just let them get destroyed.  The clean up guy is estimating a price that is exceedingly reasonable for me to have this headache gone forever.  No idea what my attorney fees will be when it is all over though, so all I can do there is hope for a good judge.

Overtime has been almost non-existent for a few months, and is looking that way into the next few months as well.  I have no issues living within my means of my base pay, but the OT is what helps me increase my savings rate to do all the extra things I want/need to do, so I feel the pinch.

[vetswife]

HOA dues this month, plus I'm having some work done to the yard.  But it was all planned for and expected so the money is available.  So far, so good.

[Blonde Granny]

So far the HVAC guy hasn't called.....won't waste my money this spring on this auto-service type thing. It's just a good thing the furnace is working, but I paid for the inspection, now that it's 10 degrees outside I guess I'll call and insist they come out.

My CD has matured and Pen Fed still hasn't transferred my money. I'm like that commercial. " It's my money and I want it now". It's close to a week since it matured and it's costing me money to not have it transferred to my account.

So I guess it's 2 phone calls today I'd rather not have to bother with. Sheesh, I just need to move back to Florida.

I still want to move back to Florida, but I can quit bitching about Ped Fed, the money has now been transferred to my account.  Now, what to do with it.