money diaries vol 3: a very pricey week

I wasn't kidding when I announced our financial goals for 2020 and said that we were being extremely mindful of our money this year, so don't be surprised about seeing lots of these money diaries around the blog. 

As a head's up, this week is definitely not typical of our average spending. But not every week is a frugal balanced week. In particular, we had a lot going on with making purchases for upcoming holidays, birthdays, and travel. 

financial goals for 2020

As promised, I will be sharing a bit more about money and budgeting in this space. And what better way to kick things off than laying out our goals with money for 2020 to show how we plan to start this decade on good financial footing.

tackling six-figure student loan debt

Confession time. As you might have surmised from the title of today's post-we have six figures worth of debt. And every last dime of it is student loans. As it turns out, pursuing higher education for nearly a decade doesn't exactly come cheap. 

Even though we had financial support from our families, each earned more than a $100k in scholarships & free tuition, and worked during school--we still finished with six figures worth of student loan debt. It's not something that I'm ashamed of or embarrassed about. It's just a fact of life. We made a conscious decision to invest in our education and I 100% do not regret it.

money diaries vol 2: what we spend in a week

Here for another money diary! Compared to last month where we were indulging in the holidays, this week feels like a much better depiction of our regular spending. 

how much did we spend $$ on Christmas?

I love the holidays and tend to be one of those people that go completely overboard. Over the top with decorating and excessive gift giving. That being said, I still have a Christmas budget that I stick to because at the end of the day, I want to enjoy the holidays and not have to stress about money. 

We normally save up for Christmas well in advance, but found ourselves cash-flowing the entire thing this year instead. I always base our budget on the year before, but somehow it keeps increasing. Ha! Here's what we spent on Christmas 2019...

money diaries vol 1: holiday edition

Money has always been such a taboo subject, but ironically, it is also one of the most important factors in our day to day lives. Yet, no one wants to talk about it. I love that my generation is stepping away from this faux pas and is being more honest and upfront with series like CNBC's Millennial Money and Refinery 29's Money Diaries. 

And while I've always shared our travel budgets, I'm hoping to talk money more in this space in the coming year, and I thought doing my own version of a money diary series could be a fun way to do that. With the holidays in full swing, I feel like we are definitely indulging and spending more than usual. Juggling between trying to enjoy the holidays while not jeopardizing our financial goals has been quite the balancing act, so I thought  this would be a good time to share my first money diary. Here is everything that the Husband and I spent money on last week. 

summer 2018 clothing budget

Happy Labor Day!

With summer on it's way out, I thought it would be a good time to share my summer clothing budget---all the clothing purchases I've made these past few months. 

year-end clothing budget review

With 2017 having come and gone, it's time to see where I ended up with my annual clothing budget. I did things a little differently in 2017 by starting out the year with 3 months without buying clothes. When I did end my spending freeze, I shared my budget seasonally for Spring, Summer, and Autumn. 

This was a rare year because I would absolutely re-purchase every single item I bought.

Autumn Clothing Budget

Time for another clothing budget update since my last one was back in August...summer clothing budget. I've definitely picked up quite a few staples over the past few months. Also added a few more pieces of outdoor gear to my wardrobe with purchases for recent trips to Alaska and Iceland.

No-Buy Month Challenge: The Results

Back in January, I mentioned that we were planning to do a no-buy month challenge to help detox from the holidays. And it's about time that I share the results. We planned for January to be a month with no discretionary spending. Aside from bills and you know, feeding ourselves, we weren't supposed to spend anything extra.

What did we cut out of our budget? 

You are supposed to cut out anything unnecessary. And for the most part, we did that. No unnecessary purchases, that meant nothing for the house, no new clothes, and no salon visits. We even cut the dog's toy budget, not sure how he felt about that.  

What did we keep in our budget? 

A kept a few things that were technically unnecessary within our budget. For example, date nights. We have a category for this in our monthly budget. It's nothing excessive, just enough to cover a nice dinner out once a month and a little extra for activities in the city. This is really important for us in terms of fostering our relationship, so we didn't touch our date budget. Also, we didn't completely eliminate eating out. We did spend significantly less, but I knew it would be impractical to believe that we would cook 3x day. So yea, we still left a little money for Chipotle.  

Did we Cheat? 

Well yes, yes we did. How much we cheated depends on your definition of cheating. We had a nice little stack of gift cards from Christmas. Between the lure of the after Christmas sales and gift cards, we did a little shopping. Gift cards bought a couple of trips to Starbucks and Tom got new pants from J.Crew. We also picked up a few things for the apartment (nothing over $10) like dish towels and new clay pots for our succulents. You don't really realize how often you just "pick" things up at Target until you're not supposed too. 

Did we Save any Money? 

Even though we cheated a little, we definitely saved a bit. Obviously, we couldn't go every month forgoing dry cleaning or not buying dog treats. But we can work to spend less. 

What did we learn? 

I'm thankful we tried this challenge because is was a good lesson in living with less. We ended the month with savings and identified the categories in our budget where we can stand to improve in the future. We will absolutely be trying this again in the future.