So, at the beginning of November I was all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and renaming the month YESVEMBER in an effort to make it awesome.

Alas, in true November fashion this past month reared its ugly head and evolved into a downward spiral of shittiness. Which lead to goals being forgotten about, or just plain ditched, in favour of short-term sanity and an alternative to prescription drug abuse--retail therapy.

Without further whining and ado, here's a recap of how I did with my November goals.

Spending goals for November:
Rent: $1,500--CHECK! Can't avoid that baby.

Car insurance: $1,222--CHECK! Paid two weeks early too. Holla!

Car expenses (gas, tire change, oil change, bridge toll, etc.): $200

I actually came in a little under. I think I spent $90 in gas, $30 on the bridge and $60 on my tire change...so that's $180. HOWEVER, I also got a parking ticket for $25, which puts me $5 over budget. DISLIKE BUTTON.

Groceries and household expenses: $100

I spent about this much in groceries, pretty much bang on. I spent $60 earlier in the month and $25 more recently, plus I'm sure there were other assorted foods and errands here and there totalling pretty close to $100.


Gifts: $500*

Just doing the rough math in my head, I'm at $400ish with plenty more to come.


Wedding thank-you cards and postage: $125

Our thank-you cards cost $38! And our postage will probably be about $20. We'll be well under budget on the thank-you cards and mailing, so that's a nice surprise.


Miscellaneous: $200

I'm sure this was blown out of the water. I bought:
-lunch 3x this month--$30 total(ish)
-cupcakes--$6 (Peter bought us lunch at the Mongolie Grill. I figured I could spring for dessert!)
-clothing--$66
-personal care--$55 (moisturizer and eye cream, hair cut, shave gel, nail polish)
-date for Peter and I (movie and Swiss Chalet) $55--we went out after work on Friday to unwind from the week with a little Festive Special and New Moon action. It was nice to take HIM on a date for once and I'm happy about this expense.
-CD--$16. When out Christmas shopping I spotted the Glee soundtrack and picked it up. The music makes me happy and it seems wrong to steal happy music from Limewire. This is the first CD I've bought in years, but now I want lots of others (Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack, New Moon soundtrack. I'm a fiend for soundtracks apparently).
-lattes--$12. I had two Caramel Brulee lattes from Starbucks and a much more affordable but not as yummy McCafe.

Goals:
-no new clothes. I don't need new clothes. I don't need new clothes. I don't need new clothes. This will be my mantra. (Bet your little buttons I'll be marking catalog pages and leaving them around the apartment as Christmas hints!)

This didn't happen. I had to buy black stretch jeans for our dance competition (I found them at Garage for $30. The expense wasn't a total waste because I WILL wear them again.) I bought a sweater dress at Old Navy for $10 and a shirt from Joe Fresh for $5, plus a Smart Set necklace--$16. What can I say? Christmas shopping means "one for them, one for me" in terms of buying presents, apparently.

-bring my lunch every day this week. I brought lunch today. Tomorrow I'm on a video shoot all day and catering is provided. So that only leaves three lunches I'll need to pack--totally doable.

I did pretty well, buying lunch only three times all month. Once was Subway on the most stressful day of the year. Once was lunch with a former colleague, so it was a bit of an outing. The third time I went out for lunch with two coworkers and we just badly needed to get out of the office. Next month will be bad for lunches out because we want to do "Festive Special Fridays" with trips to Swiss Chalet for the Festive Special leading up to Christmas.

Stay tuned for December's budget and goals. I'm sure it will be a real hootenanny.