**flicks lighter and sets Aug budget on fire**

[Deleted]

I actually stopped entering receipts in the August spreadsheet yesterday. Its ugly. Too much red. We went over on food, clothing, household stuff, eating out, new dog collars/Frontline, deck stain, H got a crown on Friday, and this month I've had like 5 requests for $ for various charity runs/relay for life.

I did however buy DS's Halloween costume already, winter clothes/snow pants, and new shoes so the next few months clothing should be like 0. We also needed garbage bags, Tide, Oxyclean, and some batteries--I should probably learn to stager that crap better. Ouch!

And just for kicks, I decided to buy a new TV for our living room, but that was out of my fun money. Oh, and Soma had a sale.

I think I need some major motivation to stay on track for the rest of the year!

[Pom]

Me too. It always seems to spiral out of control.
We moved into our new house this week, so it feels like we are bleeding money over here.
Unexpected expenses include....deciding to replace all the carpet in the 2nd/3rd bedrooms and closets in addition to the master bedroom closet, a new fridge since old one died. The rest was budgeted, but still painful.

Hopefully, we can all do better next month

[Deleted]

Oh, yeah, I feel like doing that too. This month is awful.

[Awkward]

Meeeee too. I'm over everything from gas to prescriptions to booze. I've never gone over my booze budget before. I want to do a spending freeze in September, but there's a good chance I'm moving and that would make it absolutely impossible.

Can I just start the month over?

[Deleted]

Same here. This month has been bad.

[chessie]

Its bad on our end too..unexpected repairs to the driveway and flooding pretty much screwed us completely.

[CallingAllAngels]

Here too. I've cut myself off online shopping until Oct 1. I still have a $100 tote that I ordered that hasn't arrived yet. For the sake of my marriage, I should probably return it once it gets here. I really overspent this past month.

[agnes]

Totally. We bought a sleep number bed and a laptop. We'll make up for it in September, hopefully.

[mollz007]

I'm with you there.. I stopped attempting to budget around the middle of August. It will just make me angry, lol September is a fresh start!

[thegooser]

I have been down about moving (long story short: job transfer, I don't want to go) and I didn't put ANY extra money toward debt or savings this month. I haven't looked at our bank balance in weeks. We're getting together for goodbyes with all our friends, which all seem to occur in restaurants. We will need more furniture. in the new place. Etc etc. I don't even care. I can save money sitting home by myself in the new place with no friends for the next few months.

[Deleted]

Last month was ugly for us too. Airlines tickets for a wedding in October ($700), blinds for guest bedroom/ office and nursery ($600), 3 road trips to see family/ attend funerals ($150/per). Ugh. Is it September yet?

[Deleted]

It was really spendy for us too. We spent 4 figures on gifts/donations and had some $$ car repairs.

[ondaflipside]

August is our nastiest month by far. Mint is having a field day with 'you've exceeded your budget for ___ by ___'. I know.

You name it: Pets, clothing, gift/donation, hotel, groceries, entertainment, blah, blah.

[phunluvin82]

Ugh...we were actually doing quite well for August until this last week and then things just went out of control.

Brake pads, vet appt, emergency supplies for this dang storm...

We went from on track to about $400 over in a matter of days...at the end of the month. Damn!

[Mashara]

Haha, I think I gave up checking Mint sometime around June.

It's been something different every month. For August, it's me ordering $500 in clothes, and my husband's $700 car maintenance turning into $2000. Dunno if I should mention we bought an extended warranty with this car (bad idea, right?) that is saving us another $2000 in repairs.

P.S. I deleted our budget limits from Mint at the beginning of the year. The notices were too annoying/frustrating because our overall budget number stays on track.

[honeybee]

Its nice to know its not just me. I'm afraid to tally up the CC receipts from this month. I know we've blown the budget and this is the first time in months. Ugh.

[BravoBravo]

I stopped inputting about halfway through the month. I just keep looking forward to September to get back on track and to have a nice new spreadsheet.

[sporky]

OMG, us too. We've had such a stellar budget year up until this month, and with August, we have completely blown everything out of the water. It's all still covered with savings, so nothing to panic about, but we're definitely in the red in several categories.

[ellipses84]

I will join the bonfire! We've been good about sticking to our budget line items but we've had unexpected house repair, car repair and vet bills this month.