lindsay_g 

This was me at the beginning of the year, when I started YNAB.  "Oh, I have 5 months to accumulate the money I need to pay for camp this year!"  Ignoring entirely that when I've waited until the last minute, ie beginning of June, there are no camps available that my kids want to do.  In point of fact, I need to have the money in April.  Now.  Which I only realized about a week ago when I was looking at camps and remembering how it's always been better to do that the earliest I can, leading me to need to raid allocations to other categories since I didn't have a spare couple hundred TBB. 

On the plus side, next year I'll have longer to save and a lot of money will be available for other things instead of camp.  The only saving grace has been that a couple camps only require a deposit now and payment in full 2 weeks before, therefore I have been able to shunt several hundred dollars until next month. 

In point of fact, you just made me realize that my calculations of how much I'd need to save per month for camps next year were off because I'll only have June-April to save, since next month I'll still be paying for this year's camps and I'll still need the money by April if I want to PIF.  Dang it.  

Technicolor Cheetah Glad you're making progress on setting up savings goals! My kids are not on here to comment, but we've had t think outside the box for camps. Daughter wanted to go Leadership Camp advertised (thru the teacher selecting her) from school. That was around $3,000. Not anywhere in our budget for a 1 week camp! The next couple of years we looked around and found Girl's State (there's a Boys State too). It "cost" about $200. There was an application process and needed teacher references. However, it was all worth it. I feel the quality of Girl's State was 1000% better than any other leadership camp. Another time, the oldest two wanted to go camp and again many options were too expensive. However, there was FFA camp. The only problem, they were not in FFA in high school. That's okay, they do not turn you away. We had to join something related to FFA as a family, cost about $25 for the year. Again, a good camp, lots of friends, our children just happen to come from the city and they all came from farms. Lastly, they've gone to local colleges for free or low cost day camps.

Technicolor Cheetah Yep, I'm with you. Currently I'm shuffling funds about all over the place to cover deposits. Sigh.

I think after one year with YNAB (which will be September) I'll have all the numbers of what these things actually cost me, and I will revisit all my goals again. I was already able to make the Christmas one more realistic after Christmas actually came and went and I'm actually really looking forward to being able to budget more accurately for summer holidays, camps and so on next time.

Ha ha, if the old me had said the words 'budget more accurately' out loud the world would have actually ended!!

Ben Khaki Storm 

Since people are so cautious about leaving kids unattended now in my area, there are very few camps that are free since camp workers need to be paid.  Most parents both work, it's a high cost of living area, and not everyone has family that can provide supervision.  Low cost day camp around here is about $200 for a week of day camp that I've found, they largely run $350 on up per week.  

Technicolor Cheetah All the ones I was thinking about have adult supervision, none were unattended. I'm sorry to hear your area doesn't have any free ones. One we sent our daughter to was from a community college on CSI. Each day they did CSI like experiments in the college labs. 

Technicolor Cheetah I've never heard of free camp for kids either. The city-based all-day camp is $155/week for residents, $135/week for siblings, so we've been doing that. This year though, the oldest is aging out, so they'll both be home all summer. I work from home, so they will be supervised, but I foresee way wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much TV and devices this summer.

xgirlmama 

Camp is a break for me but largely is to keep the kids away from one another.  My oldest is on the spectrum and needs more quiet time than being home with his siblings would allow because they make so much noise.  So it's to help manage stress levels all around.  So I'm planning on sending at least my youngest for as long as I can unless the kids are suddenly better able to tolerate long term togetherness.  That day is not today, and it's not going to be this year, either.  So, camp category!  And by the time that they're not doing camp, I fully expect they'll have picked up other activities which may very well be more expensive than camp.    

Technicolor Cheetah Don't get me wrong, camp is GREAT! My younger one would hate me if her sister got to stay home all summer and only she had to go though. Boooo. Luckily, I work from home, so there is supervision

QC Congratulations on quitting smoking!

QC 

I've long said I couldn't afford to smoke and you've confirmed it.  Wow!  Think of the positive changes to your future health and budget that a choice now (and really, every day) will make.  If you can afford to divert half of your smokes budget to retirement or other long-term betterment goals, you'll be in a much better place later on!  

Technicolor Cheetah TBH affording it is easy but I have other things I’d rather spend the money on now.  And of course there are significant health and social benefits which make choosing to quit much more appealing than all the reasons I had for smoking. :)

Whiskey Mama 

what a huge help!  But who would let someone with a suspended license drive their car?!

Technicolor Cheetah I wondered the same thing, but then again, maybe they didn't know....

xgirlmama Great work on getting your kids on board. And how differently they feel about spending their own money rather than yours!

My son (9) has his own YNAB budget and online ‘banking’ (really a practice thing controlled by me) called GoHenry. Between these two he’s becoming quite savvy about money. Win. 😀

xgirlmama I love this! Have they brainstormed any ideas yet? Looking forward to hearing what they come up with. We have a few neighborhood kids that do lemonade, baked goods and even sell their crafts during summer vacation, and it's the best.

xgirlmama This is awesome!  I didn't come to know YNAB until my girls were older but I have managed to convert 1 of the 3 and she's doing awesome with her finances.  The one thing we did do right when it came to spending is that when we went on vacation, we gave the kids their spending money at the beginning.  That way they could buy whatever they wanted and didn't beg for stuff at every stop.  Great job mama!!

xgirlmama Excellent! Especially setting girls up to be financially aware - a big problem in the financial books I've been reading. Girl power! :)

Put in the request for a refund on the remainder of registration fees for the car we sold.  There were 18 months left until it expired.   

Peter Nice!

Peter congrats! 

Simeon 

You might find that you're more willing to eat left overs if you cook two nights/multiple meals and then alternated between the two when you were doing leftovers.  Or freezing one or two meals from each recipe and then eating them a week or three later.  

I'm not fond of eating the same thing two nights in a row but I'm much more willing to eat it on alternating nights, maybe it's just me?

Technicolor Cheetah Huh! That sounds really good!

Simeon 

Also, it's easier cooking 'family-sized' meals rather than just one meal for one or two.  Most recipes are geared for 3-4 people.  We cooked chicken breasts Friday and a lamb roast yesterday, and tonight will eat the beef skirt steak we cooked last week.   Last week the beef went into burritos, Saturday afternoon it went into cheese quesadillas for lunch, tonight we will serve with have taco shells with lettuce and tomatoes to finish it off.  We will eat the chicken tomorrow with asparagus we grilled Friday or the corn we grilled yesterday.  Wednesday we'll have lamb with a big salad with the lettuce we used in the tacos tonight.  We'll probably have a night of leftovers Thursday, and lamb again Friday unless we freeze it.  

Honestly we're not really big meal planners but we've been doing this a long time, have the knowledge and tools to cook, plus the knowledge and skills to make a roasted chicken into 6 different meals if the meat lasted that long, and a big pantry full of spices and staples.  Also a freezer for meals portions, some convenience foods that will keep us from eating out but are easy to cook, and meats that were bought on sale. 

If you're not used to cooking at home all the time, you might consider doing meal planning.  Or, if you have friends, you could spend an afternoon meal prepping and cooking together.  You could all work on the same meals or you could each pick one meal, cook lots, then portion out and everyone brings home different foods.  Food and companionship!  Cooking at home is a huge money saver over eating out but takes effort and time.  It also takes time to get easier when you're starting to cook more!  You may also want to spend a day on the weekend getting together meals for the week or prepping so you don't have to think about what to eat or it won't take as long.  Good luck! 

Simeon I'm always more successful in my diet and budget if I account for random cravings and unhealthy foods. Always need that secret stash of junk in the freezer (garlic bread and quorn fish fingers for me) and secret snacks in the cupboard.

Technicolor Cheetah So true!  I'm working on building up my wishlist (finding  my random notes and such for things I want and getting them actually into my Wishlist category in YNAB).  Most are Small things..but they add up quickly!

TechieM2 

The gutters, new roof, new windows, driveway, and HVAC repair/replacement are true expenses, just ones that we hopefully won't need right now or for a while.  My roof is only 7 years old but that means I could need a new one as soon as 10-15 years.  The windows keep water out but the seal on the double pain has broken in several and they get foggy and I swear one of them is growing mold between the panes.  The inner pane of one window is busted.  I suppose that's a want, not a need, but it would be nice to be able to see out of more of our windows.  They're certainly not as insulating as they could be.   But I'd like to be able to put money in these funds above more than $5-10 a month.  Unfortunately, I need to tweak the budget a lot more.  I have a bunch of sinking funds I'll be able to cap once they hit a certain level (I don't need $5000 to replace my laptop, for example).  Eventually.  Not today and not tomorrow.  

finn13 

I've been there, but in the store parking lot, counting out quarters, dimes and nickels from the car's ashtray to buy milk and a loaf of bread instead of the full grocery run I'd intended to do.  Not quite the same thing, but I certainly saved some money!

Move Light Sound Life I always have rewards in my classroom that are privileges. Have spent way too much $ over the years & you can't buy privileges so has more value. They earn raffle tickets that can buy passes once a month when I open the bank (have 2 students run it). Whole class works towards marbles which they can earn a class treat like an electronic afternoon. Raffle tickets earned weekly for winning group points, their agendas, home journals, random good work etc. I also have a Read-a-thon that they can earn awards when they reach the 1000 page (Grade 5) awards of a pass of their choice & marble for the class. I used to have points and would spend too much time calculating them. Now I only use the Raffle tickets & passes and if they lose them, tough. lol :)

MLB Awesome, congrats!!