Etc etc etc gets expensive, you guys

HELLO from what will be— for a little while —a regular feature of this blog, which is a Monday post where I whine about money. YOU ARE WELCOME.

My goal is to get a better handle on what I am actually spending in 3 tricky categories: groceries, Target/household stuff, and weekly impulse buys. I kicked this endeavor off last week with a no-spend week, and I am continuing my frugality kick this week (Owala released a special edition glow-in-the-dark water bottle, and I didn’t even click on it, you guys). ** 

New this week: Ben is joining in the fun and tracking his expenses, too. (Yes, we share our bank accounts, but we are both stupid bad about checking in on them EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE AN APP).

Groceries: I got a ton of comments on my previous budget post about how groceries are not part of a no-spend week. I agree because, I mean, we gotta eat. BUT ALSO-- this is a HUGE and really amorphous spending category, and it seems to be the biggest thing between us and tidy budget boxes on a spreadsheet. We are very all-or-nothing people when it comes to spending money. We either keep neat track of everything OR we just spend without even blinking an eye. And when categories get messy, we just start spending and stop caring. 

Household: MOST household stuff comes from Costco-- and we still have it, so I haven't been lately--OR from Amazon subscribe and save, which I never count in weekly spending because it's a subscription.** So, paper towels, toilet paper, ziploc bags face wash, deodorant, body lotion, Cereve, exfoliating foot balm, etc etc etc JUST SHOW UP. But then! There are things I buy at Target every week like household cleaners and seasonal Mrs. Meyers soaps (at least one thing runs out every week-- last week was Magic Erasers; this week I am out of LimeAway for the showers and Pledge, etc), some specialty snacks that are cheaper in bulk there and we don't eat fast enough for Costco sizes (technically grocery? This is why I think TARGET is its own line), random grooming products that I see are low when I clean bathrooms, laundry stuff because Costco doesn't have our faves. Just like groceries, I do a large weekly order and then pop in for more as needed-- as you can imagine, this gets SUPER EXPENSIVE especially when I throw in random makeup items or clothes for the girls, etc etc etc. Tracking the Target/house category over time should also help me figure out how much is actually going out the door there, too.

(The etc etc etcs in the above paragraph are THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS A MONTH, I am pretty sure, and that's precisely what I am trying to get a better handle on).

Random surprises: Last Monday, we spent $130 on dishwasher repair (**shakes fist at universe**), and it is good, for once, to actually keep track of these things (welcome to adulthood; you're ALMOST FIFTY) (also the dishwasher is suddenly in WORSE SHAPE than before it was fixed, so we will probably be spending more soon **shakes both fists at universe like the guy in Caps for Sale**). We know that things like Coop's bday party, an appliance breaking, an extracurricular expense, etc, (there is that pesky ETC AGAIN) crop up every single month, so tracking those is also helpful when we are thinking about projected spending. I paid for our holiday card photo shoot last week, randomly— stuff like that!

Those of you who are used to paying attention to your money will be like DUH, LADY, but neither one of us is the person you would choose in your marriage -- or in Monopoly-- to be in charge of the bank. So TEAM WORK, amiright?

Impulse buys: I mean. Listen. This is the ONE PLACE we have been able to stop spending. Does it help? WHO KNOWS. Just this past week, I did not buy a new Owala color drop, the Clinique gift with purchase at Macy’s, Lulu studio pants for Dorothy when another mom told me they’ll hem them at the store, these super cute silver Mary Jane’s from Target, or coffee at the dorm Starbucks when I was observing classes. SO MAYBE? But! Not buying is not the same as SAVING.

**Subscriptions: Ok. I have a shampoo and conditioner subscription that comes every 4-8 weeks depending on when I need it, a moisturizer subscription that comes every 10 weeks, Book of the Month that is billed monthly (but I have the option of paying yearly, and this is maybe what I should do for bookkeeping simplicity), and Audible that’s billed monthly. Plus! We get a monthly Amazon subscribe and save order that always has paper towels and toilet paper and also has a rotating cast of other random stuff from this one kind of tea I like some months to quarterly bulk toothpaste. How would you account for these? Just record them when they hit the bank account? Figure that you are spending x amount of money per week for them? Give them their own category? Lump them in with other monthly stuff like streaming platform subscriptions and not weekly spending? Ben and I argued about this for awhile and didn’t reach a conclusion that makes sense to both of us. I think he thinks most of the stuff is stupid and I should just cancel it, but I am not going to do that and think the subscriptions are better because they save time and a little money and/or are things I really use (the books). Neither of us is satisfied with how they “count” on a spreadsheet. How do you account for things like this? (I could buy hers shampoo and conditioner at Target, for example, but it is $10 cheaper to just have it show up at my door. If I bought it at Target, I would track it as a POS purchase, so I guess account for the delivery the same way?)

Apropos of nothing, some random pics.

Dollhouse turned bookshelf in Dorothy’s room: (she is on the cusp of a room reno, but we are waiting for Minnie to outgrow her toddler bed)

Minnie all of the sudden started playing with the Christmas guys.

FUN BUNS

We made a PERFECT veggie lasagna— it was so good, and you can swap out the veggies for whatever you have (I happened to have the ones in the recipe, but I think mushrooms would be great in a future iteration. I also would probably do thin zucchini circles if I were doing it again— same with carrots)

** I am sort of LOLing at “frugality kick” because we came in $450 OVER our weekly budget, and we spent MORE THAN $500 on groceries (big Sunday shop; local store for coffee, ice cream, etc; Costco for pizza and salad, and another $100 on odds and ends from Metro Market, our Kroger-branded go-to store). Also! In terms of rules of a "no spend" we also did not buy ANYTHING this week (family pics, I guess?). Figuring out the burn cost of our life is... kind of a bummer.