Jenny -- what does "proud maker of red things" mean?
Check my avatar. 
Those are my red things. My brown haired husband and my brunette self unexpectedly made two redheaded children. We affectionately call them our "red things". Kinda in the vein of Dr Seuss' Thing One and Thing Two. 
My Key:
Budgeted, planned spending (includes groceries, gas, other necessary or well planned items- NOT impulse items)
No Spend
No Drive
Impulse, Unnecessary Spending
Eat Out
Nov.1-
Nov.2-
Nov.3-
Nov.4-
Nov.5-7- Budgeted for Girl Scout Hiking trip in the mountains and a night at my bff's new house stayed within budget, ate out 2x, bought gas, and souvenier's
Nov.8- 
Nov.9- 
Nov.10- 
$120 at the Vet
Nov.11- Spent a ton of money but almost all was planned/needed
Nov.12- Spent a ton of money but almost all was planned/needed
Nov.13- Spent a ton of money but almost all was planned/needed- okay so maybe not ALL of it but most, I am now done for awhile other than groceries
Nov.14- Groceries and other necessities, gas
Nov.15- NO SPEND NO DRIVE
1. gas
2. $20 gift for DD "from the new baby" for when he arrives.
3. 
4.
5.
6. groceries, paint for spare room, Christmas cards, 
$1 for library fines 
.
7. gas
8. shelving for the new kid's room, Christmas gifts ($65), lunch out with DH, DD & step-MIL $40
9.
10. $350 into savings
11.
12. Christmas gifts ($35)
13. groceries, gas, Christmas gifts && tree ornament for DD from fair trade sale ($35)
14.
15. $55 to sign DD up for art "class" through parks & rec for next term
16. Should be a technical "no spend" day, but I also transferred $1000 out of savings today to cover the $3600 cheque I'm going to have to write tomorrow for our new front porch. I was really hoping to not have to move stuff out of savings, but I had forgotten about another bill that we had to pay this month and about the annual furnace maintenance, DD is suddenly in need of new shoes, and - honestly - I haven't been as good as I wanted to be about keeping my spending down. 
7/15 no-spend days
14/25 planned spending days
-$650/$700 into savings
$185/$400 holiday spending
My key: no-spend day budgeted/planned spending frivolous spending
Argh! I just accidentally deleted my whole post. :( Let me try again....
It was a rainy day today and dh had a broken windshield wiper blade. I'm estimating how much that'll cost. He did get his check yesterday, thank the Gods. It was a couple of dollars more than I was estimating, so that's good. I'm hoping that he'll make enough in tips tonight to pay for the wiper blade and put gas in his truck.
As for me, I carpooled to a meeting (300 miles round trip), so saved over a tank of gas -- woohoo! I packed a drink & snack & lunch was provided, but on the way home I found $34 in my wallet (I NEVER carry cash!) and bought a soda. I'll use the rest of the money to put gas in my car and buy some supplies for dd#1's class that I committed to donate this week (before I knew all personal financial heck was about to break loose). I took an online peak at my paycheck (won't get it until Friday) and it's about $20 more than I was estimating. Yay!
DH reminded me that we need some bedding for the chicken pen. I'm going to see if I can grab some shredded paper from work to get us through the month. Otherwise tomorrow I'll be spending $5 on a bale of wood shavings that will last us 2-3 months.
15th: $45.47 (gas for me and dh)
16th: $1.50 (soda for me); $10 (wiper blade for dh's truck)
17th: no-spend
18th: no-spend
19th: phone bill, daycare, October mortgage payment
20th: no-spend
21st: no-spend
22nd: no-spend
23rd: no-spend
24th: no-spend
25th: electric bill
26th: car insurance
27th: no-spend
28th: no-spend
29th: no-spend
30th: November mortgage
Frivolous spending: $1.50
Necessary but unbudgeted spending: $10
Gas: $45.47
01.. $9.98 Wendys
02.. $10.90 Subway
03.. $15 Costco Lamb Blanket
04.. 
05..
06.. $11 hat, $3 Starbucks
07..
09..
10..
11.. $6 McDonald's
12.. $9 the makings for s'mores
13.. $5 Starbucks
14..
15.. $17 fleece pjs
16.. $13 party supplies for baby shower tomorrow
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My Goals:
7/20 No Spend Days
1/5 Let the Car Rest Days
eck my avatar. Those are my red things. My brown haired husband and my brunette self unexpectedly made two redheaded children. We affectionately call them our "red things". Kinda in the vein of Dr Seuss' Thing One and Thing Two.
That is cute! You have two beautiful children! I have a red-headed daughter too...with blue eyes. She was quite unexpected. All the rest of us have brown hair and brown eyes.
I'm quitting the thread this month. Things have been crazy and it has just been too hard with too little time to sit down and keep track of it all. I enjoyed it while it lasted and might be back!
Just a note to Heathen Mom,
I understand what a hard time you and your husband must be going through. I just wanted to put a little shout out to let you know that in our area there is something call EFA (emergency family assistance) that can help pay rent for 1-2 months when you are in need for just a little bit of time. If you do not have the money yet and are getting even more scared, I highly suggest seeing if there is something like this in your area or calling social services and asking if there is something like this.
Good luck - sending good vibes and prayers your way 
------
Edited to Add: Just saw that your husband got his check in your more recent post. Glad to hear that. A note on wiper blades - could you use the good wiper blade in front of the driver's seat and put the less efficient one/none in the passenger spot? (Haha, can you tell we've done this before??) That way he could see when he is driving and you might not need to buy a new one just yet.
ysm, that was a GREAT suggestion! Unfortunately I didn't see it until after he'd already bought 2 new blades. 
Thankfully they were only $5 a piece and he had cash to buy them (yay, tip $). RE assistance, if I thought we'd qualify for any I wouldn't hesitate to apply, but we (I) make too much money. It's embarassing to me that we're even in this situation ... I have a great job and even with my dh's long-term unemployment we should have been ok. But I let him talk me into overextending ourselves and now we're paying the price. A good thing that I hope will come from this is that he seems to have finally woken up and seen that I wasn't just being "Debbie Downer" and trying to suck all the fun out of everything. Financial restraint is a Good Thing. I have hope that working through this crisis together will strengthen our marriage.
My Key: Budgeted, planned spending (includes groceries, gas, other necessary or well planned items- NOT impulse items) No Spend No Drive Impulse, Unnecessary Spending Eat Out
Nov.1-
Nov.2-
Nov.3-
Nov.4-
Nov.5-7- Budgeted for Girl Scout Hiking trip in the mountains and a night at my bff's new house stayed within budget, ate out 2x, bought gas, and souvenier's
Nov.8-
Nov.9-
Nov.10- $120 at the Vet
Nov.11- Spent a ton of money but almost all was planned/needed
Nov.12- Spent a ton of money but almost all was planned/needed
Nov.13- Spent a ton of money but almost all was planned/needed- okay so maybe not ALL of it but most, I am now done for awhile other than groceries
Nov.14- Groceries and other necessities, gas
Nov.15-
Nov.16-
7/10 no spend days
2/10 art/work days
2/4 eating out days
$260/$400 grocery budget
$170 FUN money
no spend day
unnecessary spending
budget spending day
art/work day
1.
2. , $177 groceries, $65 toiletries
3. , $50 cat food
4. ... getting an insurance-covered massage today! woohoo!
5.
6. $688 on winter tires!! 
. we did obviously budget it, but it was still a shock to the system. now i REALLY have to stick to our budget this month, since that ate up pretty much any wiggle-room we normally have
7. slightly unnecessary grocery spend of $5 for dessert
8. 
$20 on a weekly yoga pass
9. 
plus, set up my desk, unpacked my art supplies, and did some sketching WOOHOO!
10. 
yesterday was a tough one. my dd needed some new winter clothes, but i went shopping with a friend. bad idea, mixing shopping with socializing... spent $56 on clothing, $15 on assorted snacks, parking and other little things. i may return the one full price item i bought... an adorable sweater dress. not the most sensible purchase for a crawler 
.
11. $58 on groceries, $20 on boots for dd and a new pack of pacifiers.
12.
13. 
. $30 for dinner with friends
14.
15.
16. $20 for groceries. entirely unnecessary and unhealthy (but SO delicious) $5 on chocolate croissants from our local baker.
17. $20 for gas, $7 for snack at play group, $75 for yoga classes. win, i guess? i'm going to add the gas to the FUN budget since i really have no reason to be driving except to go to playgroup and see my friends this week... no necessary errands or anything. my friend asked me to look after her son when she goes back to work! and i started work on a series of paintings.
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24.
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27.
28.
29.
30.
14. $27 groceries, $30 household (tea tree oil and a $20 community coupon book)
15. $73 groceries, $13 household (supplements and cosmetics), $9 Starbucks
16. $61 yarn and knitting needles. $20 comes out of the xmas budget (I'm knitting DH a hat for xmas). The rest was unnecessary, but will make me happy to finally knit something for myself.
17.
18.
19.
20.
budgeted spending
$314/$400 groceries
$41/$50 eating out
$258/$300 household/Christmas
$250/$500 put in savings
15/30 not buying clothes days
8/15 stay out stores
4/10 no-spend days
11/20 planned/budgeted spend days
= no spending! = necessary, budgeted spending = necessary, unbudgeted spending
= unnecessary, unbudgeted spending mortgage payment, $32 for pizza to thank our niece and nephew for help with yardwork (comes out of entertainment allowance) $74.48 at Meijer for groceries (and only groceries, yay!) + $11 for apples at the market to make applesauce $45 for eye doctor, $15 for the prescription, and $5 for coffee $6.50 for Chinese for lunch + $24.29 at Meijer + paid for car repairs $12 for lunch, $8 for dinner + $3.80 for coffee electric bill + paid off credit card (never carry a balance, but "launder" money through it to get freebies) student loan payment + $3 for potatoes at market + $6.50 for Chinese for lunch paid phone bill + $79.99 for groceries $17.70 at Barnes and Noble for a book and coffee for DH and me + $21.35 at Dick's Sporting Goods for gloves for work + $55 at Carabbas for dinner and dessert (budgeted, but more expensive than I'd have liked!!) $12-ish for dinner at Culver's for niece and I $12.XX for a book at Borders + $9.XX for soup and coffee for lunch $4.80 for coffee $29.55 for groceries + $4.80 coffee + $4.35 lunch
November
1 - - all day meeting = $4 
2 - 
3 - $2 pizza slices
4 - $62 shoes for girls, $4 recipes
5 - $2 Fall decoration that was on sale
6 - $10 postage to return something I shouldn't have bought in the first place
7 -
8 - $10 stuff from the dollar store
9 -
10 - $11 Breakfast & lunch
11 - $5 breakfast
12 - $13 breakfast, $20 lunch
13 -
14 -
15 -
16 - $24 lunch
17 -
7/20 = No spend days$167 frivolous spending
WHY do I go to the store hungry? I know better than that! Everything I bought today was bought with "found" money, literally. There's enough left over to fill my gas tank tomorrow.
DH normally works his p/t day job Monday - Thursday and his p/t night job 4 random days/week. He asked to be put on the schedule every night until further notice at the night job. The kids will HATE this (me & dh too) but as he so plainly put it, we need to keep our house more than he needs a night off. The actual paycheck from these hours won't get here until the 1st week of December, but I'm hopeful that tips will be good.
15th: $45.47 (gas for me and dh)
16th: $1.50 (soda for me); $10 (wiper blade for dh's truck)
17th: $2.25 (drink/snack for me); $9 (bG test strips); $2.25 (craft supplies for dd#1's class)
18th: no-spend
19th: phone bill, daycare, October mortgage payment
20th: no-spend
21st: no-spend
22nd: no-spend
23rd: no-spend
24th: no-spend
25th: electric bill
26th: car insurance
27th: no-spend
28th: no-spend
29th: no-spend
30th: November mortgage
Frivolous spending: $3.75
Necessary but unbudgeted spending: $21.25
Gas: $45.47
= no spending! = necessary, budgeted spending = necessary, unbudgeted spending = unnecessary, unbudgeted spending mortgage payment, $32 for pizza to thank our niece and nephew for help with yardwork (comes out of entertainment allowance) $74.48 at Meijer for groceries (and only groceries, yay!) + $11 for apples at the market to make applesauce $45 for eye doctor, $15 for the prescription, and $5 for coffee $6.50 for Chinese for lunch + $24.29 at Meijer + paid for car repairs $12 for lunch, $8 for dinner + $3.80 for coffee electric bill + paid off credit card (never carry a balance, but "launder" money through it to get freebies) student loan payment + $3 for potatoes at market + $6.50 for Chinese for lunch paid phone bill + $79.99 for groceries $17.70 at Barnes and Noble for a book and coffee for DH and me + $21.35 at Dick's Sporting Goods for gloves for work + $55 at Carabbas for dinner and dessert (budgeted, but more expensive than I'd have liked!!) $12-ish for dinner at Culver's for niece and I $12.XX for a book at Borders + $9.XX for soup and coffee for lunch $4.80 for coffee $29.55 for groceries + $4.80 coffee + $4.35 lunch $3.35 for lunch + 4.76 for coffee
14. $27 groceries, $30 household (tea tree oil and a $20 community coupon book)
15. $73 groceries, $13 household (supplements and cosmetics), $9 Starbucks
16. $61 yarn and knitting needles. $20 comes out of the xmas budget (I'm knitting DH a hat for xmas). The rest was unnecessary, but will make me happy to finally knit something for myself.
17. $3 starbucks, $11 groceries
18.
19.
20.
$325/$400 groceries
$44/$50 eating out
$258/$300 household/Christmas
$250/$500 put in savings
16/30 not buying clothes days
8/15 stay out stores
4/10 no-spend days
12/20 planned/budgeted spend days
12: :thumb Haircut $20.00
13: :bag Latte and muffin, $4.71
14: :thumb $16.00 DS's Christmas presents, $85.00 groceries.
15: :
What happened to the guy with the bag on his head??? $10.00 lunch out.
16: Nada today.
17: . . . Or today. I'm kickin' some tailfin! 
18: $20.00 planned lunch out, $13.00 for new, firsthand copy of Total Money Makeover (50% off!)
The power company misread our meter and the bill was more than DOUBLE what it should have been! Everybody should know how to read your meter, and if your bill looks wrong, check it! They agreed that it was obvious there was a mistake and are sending someone out for a re-read tomorrow.
15th: $45.47 (gas for me and dh)
16th: $1.50 (soda for me); $10 (wiper blade for dh's truck)
17th: $2.25 (drink/snack for me); $9 (bG test strips); $2.25 (craft supplies for dd#1's class)
18th: $25 (gas for my car)
19th: phone bill, daycare, October mortgage payment
20th: no-spend
21st: no-spend
22nd: no-spend
23rd: no-spend
24th: no-spend
25th: electric bill
26th: car insurance
27th: no-spend
28th: no-spend
29th: no-spend
30th: November mortgage
Frivolous spending: $3.75
Necessary but unbudgeted spending: $21.25
Gas: $70.47
14. $27 groceries, $30 household (tea tree oil and a $20 community coupon book)
15. $73 groceries, $13 household (supplements and cosmetics), $9 Starbucks
16. $61 yarn and knitting needles. $20 comes out of the xmas budget (I'm knitting DH a hat for xmas). The rest was unnecessary, but will make me happy to finally knit something for myself.
17. $3 starbucks, $11 groceries
18. $$$ huge car repair, $18 PTA family skate night
19.
20.
$325/$400 groceries
$44/$50 eating out
$258/$300 household/Christmas
$250/$500 put in savings
17/30 not buying clothes days
9/15 stay out stores
4/10 no-spend days
13/20 planned/budgeted spend days
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