AUGUST GOALS RECAP

1 / Give Maggie's room a refresh.  Yep.  The change isn't dramatic, but that's okay with me because I was pretty happy with the starting point.  I finished up the painting just this morning.  (Hugs to Rachel for taking over playdate parenting duties so I could get that last bit done!)  Maggie's pretty(!) bed is now up and she has a fresh gallery wall.  Plus - her closet is more organized.  It's a win all around.  

I will share photos on Instagram in the next couple days! 

2 / Track grocery spending for the month of August.  Done and the total was more than I would have anticipated.  We are ending the month at $603.67.  I'm guessing this is pretty typical - I just hadn't calculated it for a long time.

This included things like vitamins, sandwich bags and diapers.  It did not include our restaurant meals, Sam's lunches at school or a couple small ($10ish) trips to Whole Foods that Brian paid for with his fun money.

I don't think the amount we spent is crazy, exactly - there are five of us to feed.  Still, it was more than I expected.

Of course, months that we spend more in restaurants will lead to fewer grocery expenses and vice versa.  Our restaurant expenses for the month were $129.22 - (again, excluding any restaurant food purchased with fun money).  This brings the total food expenses for our family to $732.89.

I'm going to keep tracking this and see if I can do better in future months.

3 / Finalize a "40 before 40" list.  Yes and I'm still pumped about it.  Here is the full list. 

4 / Documenting catch up (Project Life family pages and also kid book pages).  Done.  Finishing the pages of the kids' stuff was pretty quick.  The family PL pages took longer - because I do two spreads per week and because I had almost twenty weeks to do.  But, I got it done and now I can document in real time again. It feels pretty great to be be caught up.

5 / Digital clean up.  This ended up as a sort of half-win.   I did unsubscribe from a lot of the emails and deleted A LOT of photos. So there was progress,  I just still have a ways to go.  The image above shows what I would like my entire camera roll to look like.  I would love to "keep" all of the images that show important moments, are "pretty" or have otherwise been used in our family scrapbook.  I would like everything else to be deleted.  Oh, but it's a process.  I deleted about 5,000 photos, but still have several months to sort through. 

HOW I SPENT MY FUN MONEY - JAN AND FEB

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As part of our monthly budget, Brian and I each get $80 to spend freely.  We call this money "fun money."  Some months, I am very intentional with my fun money and use it to purchase things with some sort of value, like items from my wishlist or to pay for meals out with friends.  Other months, I kind of just squander it away with $1 sodas from drive-throughs or other small and unplanned purchases that don't really add up to anything worthwhile.

In general, the fun for me is just in having some money that I don't feel guilty about spending.

Occasionally I will use my fun money to buy things that should technically be purchased from our regular budget (like clothes for me), but most of the time I spend this money on treats - items that definitely fall into the wants (vs. needs) category.  

In February, I realized that it would be interesting to keep track of how I spent my fun money over the course of a year.  So, I plan to share this every few months.

January

$70ish

I spent the majority of my fun money on fabric for the top of the quilt I just finished.

$10

I hadn't yet decided to keep track of this spending and don't remember how I spent my last $10.  

February

$25

Sushi and drinks with girlfriends.  We went out the evening of the Super-Bowl and that was a perfect time as the restaurants were empty.  We went to a sushi restaurant first and then walked across the street to a sports bar / restaurant and each had a drink while not really watching the game.  

$16

Batting for the quilt.

$5 

A lent devotional...or that's what I thought I was buying.  It ended up being just a Bible reading plan and was - ultimately - a poor purchasing decision.

$22

A big canvas tote bag to take to the library.  The bag I've used for the last many years got ruined a month or two ago.  I've been improvising, but it's a big pain as I don't have another bag that is big enough to carry our usual stacks home.  So I bought a new big bag and love it.  

$6

A dry body brush.  I bought this in an attempt to help my super-dry knees before summer / short weather arrives.  

That leaves $6 that I am going to carry over into March.  Hooray!

BUDGETING - FUN MONEY

I've heard it called "pocket money" or "walking around money."  At our house, we call it "fun money."  It's the cash we budget each month to use for fun and incidental items.  And, it's the kind of budget buffer that makes budgeting possible, month after month.  

Brian and I are both natural savers.  We've never had issues with spending more than we make, but we haven't always lived on a written budget.  When I was a few month pregnant with Eli and we knew that I would switch from full-time employment to being a stay-at-home mama by the next fall, we decided to get serious about making our money work for us.  

In October of 2013, we started living off of Brian's income and banking all but daycare expenses from mine.  To make it work, we had to follow a written plan.  It took some lifestyle adjustment, but it also meant that we were able to ramp up our savings pretty quickly and (as a saver by nature) I loved seeing our account balances go up, up, up.

The sudden shift to a new level of discipline and a much tighter monthly allotment of money could have easily led to frustration and failure.  To give ourselves a bit of wiggle room and allow for some splurge-y items each month, we included a "fun money" category in our budget.

Our fun money budget is $160 each month.  Each of us get $80 in cash at the beginning of the month and it is ours to do with as we wish.  No need to keep receipts or document how it is spent.  No need to feel guilty buying a new book, going out for lunch with friends or buying a clothing item that is outside of the clothing budget.  This little bit of "fun" within our otherwise pretty tight budget does a lot to keep us on track.  

I used to feel guilty about any "extra" thing that I purchased and now I don't.  I am still pretty cautious about what I buy, though.  Eighty bucks really doesn't go that far over the course of a month, so I usually spend some time considering how much I want a just-for-fun item before making the purchase.  It is a good exercise in self control, while still allowing me to buy a few things here and there.  

It is also a relationship helper as it lets Brian and I buy things that are important to us individually, but not priorities for the family.  Without "fun money," I'm pretty sure I would be more begrudging about the money that Brian donates to political candidates.  He would probably feel the same way about the sometimes exorbitant amount that I spend on scrapbook products.

Right now, $15 of my monthly fun money goes to my Happy Mail subscription.  The rest of it usually gets spent on a meal or two out with friends, books or crafting supplies.  

And, I almost always have some left over at the end of the month.  I squirrel that away for a potential future bigger want.  Yesterday, I dug through my leftover fund and pulled out money to buy Elise's Get To Work Book.  I had been telling myself I didn't need it ever since I learned the price, but then I caved.  I counted the money in my extra fund, had plenty and really didn't have anything else that I was planning to purchase with that money.  So I went for it.   

Without our "fun money" buffer, I think we would have a much harder time sticking with our budget.  It is hard to be responsible day after day and month after month.  I sometimes hear people who diet talk about having a weekly "cheat meal."  The concept is the same.  It's an outlet for a bit of fun within the more disciplined framework.  I need that.  

I've mentioned before that I am thankful for our budget.  That is 100% true and the "fun money" category is definitely my favorite part.