Five things on Friday

/ Meg

Pumpkin spice drinking

1. To my utter delight, my sister and I went for our first pumpkin spice lattes of the season last week! Since then, I’ve also sampled the pumpkin wares of Tim Hortons and Dunkin’ Donuts. If you think I’m ridiculously happy, you’re right. Late summer is suddenly back — temps in the 90s! — with a vengeance, but I’m sipping that sweet autumnal nectar of the Starbucks gods and totally don’t care.

2. We were on Baltimore on Thursday for a doctor’s appointment (everything is cool), and I couldn’t get over how exhilarating it was to be out on a day when you’re “supposed” to be working. I mean, my job is very generous with vacation time, so it’s not like I’m chained to my desk all year. And never mind that we just got back from a five-day break in New York last weekend . . . but, you know, being off in the city on a random Thursday? Bliss. Also, we totally chowed down at an Irish pub serving Guinness French onion soup and poutine, so — double bliss?


photo

Poutine: fries/potatoes, gravy, cheese curds. See also: paradise


3. In a concerted effort to get myself together this fall, I started a budget worksheet. It’s a working list of what I’m spending in an attempt to figure out where my cash is going (and hopefully scale back). Though I don’t consider myself a spendthrift, per say, I don’t think I should be downright shocked to get my credit bill at the end of the month. That’s . . . probably not responsible. Anyone have any favorite budget tips, apps, methods?

4. In that vein, I was already pondering my New Year’s resolutions for 2015 when I realized I don’t have to wait for a freshly-scrubbed year to throw confetti and make some changes. The changing of seasons is as good a time as any, so I’m back to actively tracking my meals with Weight Watchers — I, er, took a “summer break” — and will commit to tracking spending with the aforementioned worksheet.

5. And that’s quite enough of the boring adult talk. Let’s talk about shopping! Perhaps dovetailing with my previous budget talk, eh? (I’m a mess, what can I say.) While I’ve definitely cut out most personal spending that isn’t house-related, I do find myself obsessively looking at dresses on Zulily because apparently that’s my new thing. As it’s nearly fall, that means sweater dresses and boots and scarves and . . . yeah, I’m just going to go run off and hunker down in my happy place.



P.S. I hope to get back on a normal posting schedule next week. Between the holiday and busy work week, I just couldn’t seem to get myself together! Hope y’all have a great weekend.


24 thoughts on “Five things on Friday”

  4. That poutine looks yummy. I don’t think any of our restaurants serve it.
    Budgeting is something I just can’t get the hang of. Happily, but my second (very part-time) job makes me feel a little less guilty about spending money on fun things.

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  6. Sweater dresses and boots and scarves and PSLs … I’m in heaven right now. I had my first pumpkin spice latte last week (at one of the ‘early’ release spots) and even though it was 80 degrees that day, I didn’t care. In my mind, it was 58 and windy with lots of multi-colored leaves fluttering all around me. 🙂

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  9. Tips for budgeting:
    A lot of online bank accounts will section out your monthly spending. So Wells Fargo shows me monthly how much I brought in, how much I spent and then how much of that went to Bill, Entertainment, Food/Groceries, and Shopping. It’s honestly one of the best tools I’ve used. I found out I’m spending quite a bit of money on groceries but started looking into it and realized it’s because I’m eating healthier, so we decided not to cut back on that but watch more closely for sales and stock up!

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  11. Budgeting is difficult. We each have a small amount of cash to spend each week, my husband rarely spends his, mine is for coffees, lunch out, etc. We eat dinner out once or twice a week, we can pull that back if we need..no fun. With 2 in college and one child in HS our money seems to be all for bills, cars, car insurance, and stuff for our kids…ugh. When I buy clothes I am thrilled, but slightly guilty…ugh. Let me rephrase, budgeting isn’t fun…but it can be done!!
    Happy fall….almost. I only like hot Pumpkin spice lattes but I’m looking forward to one soon, even if I have to turn the A/C down.

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  12. First: as a Canadian I have to say YAY to Tim Hortons and Poutine!
    Second: I’m 100% with you on embracing all things pumpkin, especially PSL.
    Third: while I don’t follow this method religiously, Dave Ramsey has fantastic ideas when it comes to budgets. I listened to his book a Total Money Makeover and loved the way he outlines everything. Definitely recommend it.
    Have a great weekend!

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  13. You have me craving poutine now and I just ate! Dieting is hard… And so is budgeting. I’m also trying to scale down my spending and my calorie intake and for now, it’s an uphill battle 😦

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  15. One…Zulilly is that awesome. And two, the “summer break” is just what we do. I am also on the hunt for the Pumpkin fare. Donut place down the street makes Pumpkin donuts every year from Oct to Dec..I’m buying a dozen for sure

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  17. Budgeting was one of the points on my 2014 To Do List that has just gone completely out of the window so far this year (its my first year in full time employment, I’m allowed to enjoying the pay cheques right? – that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it). However! I do have one tip that I used recently to scare myself back into saving. Print off your bank statements for the last few months (I did the last 6) and go through with a highlighter and mark anything that was unnecessary expenses and calculate how much it came to each month. It was horrific but the push I needed to stop throwing money away!

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  18. First off, yay to pumpkin spice season! I love this time of year! The fashion, the food, the falling leaves … all good things!

    Second, I have also been working with budgeting lately. I have been using Quicken for years but the newest version that came out for the Mac is really nice! Depending on what banks and credit cards you have you can have the app sink everything through the internet so that you just enter your goals and then see how you stack up. I love this feature as it means less work for me!

    Best of luck with the Weight Watchers and the Budgeting. Like I said I’m finding myself in similar shoes. I’m trying to get back into the healthy eating bandwagon AND budgeting smarter. I know that treating myself is important but I also know I can’t let myself get too crazy. I have a puppy and house renovation dreams!

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  20. I need some budgeting help also! At the end of every month, I’m basically just hoping I didn’t spend crazy amounts on my credit card…which is not a good way to live lol.

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