Anyone want talk about money? :)

[mlkgls]

Does anyone have a favorite budgeting app, other than Mint or YNAB? Similar to a monthly envelope system?

[imimahoney]

I only buy fruit on season. No $6 raspberries or $8 strawberries. In the summer I try to buy direct from farms or pick your own for cheaper prices.

[ktstorm]

Meal planning and grocery shopping 1x/week. As katfco said, it's key to have ingredients for no/easy cook meals on hand for those days when you don't feel like cooking. I normally keep a frozen pizza and pasta & sauce on hand for those nights.

We have an allowance in our budget to go out to eat 1/week and coffee/donut run per week. The rest of the time we make coffee at home. I try to mix up the flavored creamers and splurge a bit on the ingredients so that the temptation to buy is less.

We have two museum memberships (that have reciprocal benefits at a bunch of other museums locally and Nationwide), so we stick to those activities, the pool at the gym or free ones except for birthdays. The local libraries around us buy year passes to some museums that you can check out for a day.

My H and I both have republic wireless cell phone plans - similar to cricket, but the lowest plan is cheaper. Republic wireless uses the T-Mobile network, whereas cricket uses the at&t network when not on Wi-Fi. RW is cheaper than cricket, and shuts off your data once you hit your limit unless you upgrade so you don't get socked with extra charges unknowlingly. It's $20/month for talk,text and 1 gb of data. You can upgrade at any point for a higher data limit plan, and then downgrade the next month again.

[fusion]

If I want to buy something frivolous online I put it in a cart and then wait a day and think about it. Most of the time I don't buy it. Fruit is bought in season only here as well.

[imimahoney]

Apr 29, 2017 7:37:24 GMT -5 fusion said:

If I want to buy something frivolous online I put it in a cart and then wait a day and think about it. Most of the time I don't buy it. Fruit is bought in season only here as well.

I do this as well. And by the time I remember I have usually moved on to something else/realize it wasn't needed.

[mlkgls]

katfco - I think I'll definitely be adding Aldi to the weekly grocery run, especially if their store brands are comparable. I went in to look around and left with a cart full! Lol.

[sunshineluv]

Updated with my goals for May .

[sunshineluv]

May 1, 2017 8:37:27 GMT -5 jamaicam said:

sunshineluv , good work!

I've been tracking all my spending (every cent!) since I got paid at the end of April. I get paid monthly so that makes it easy to plan. I had a great money weekend - I literally spent no money! Went to birthday parties on Saturday and Sunday (I buy presents in bulk so had them already) and a friend came round with wine on Saturday evening.

I miss getting paid monthly, for planning purposes. I went from monthly to being paid the 1st and 15th, which I liked too. Now I am biweekly, which is harder to plan for. I liked being able to think, these bills come out of this check.

Good job not spending anything this weekend . And sounds like a fun weekend!

[blane12]

Good goals sunshineluv!! I'm going to start doing this - on Thursday after our mini vacation tomorrow and Wednesday!