How This Married 37-Year Old CPA and Financial Planner in Chicago Spends Her Money

When my colleagues, Scott and Tania, joined this Last 10 Buys Challenge on Forbes, I took a look at my spending and initially thought, “No way…this looks BAD!” But then I thought about how I actually like it when my instructor at the gym confesses to struggling with her diet so I figured I should bare it all with thoughts on how I could have done better. Here are the last 10 things I spent money on this week:

Thursday

Jewel-Osco: $29.59

Humble brag alert! My husband does most of the cooking around our house as well as the weekly grocery shopping on Mondays. (Believe me, I know how lucky I am.)

But he works late on Tuesdays and Thursdays so those nights we either have leftovers or I cook, and this was one of those nights. I decided it was Taco Thursday so I made a run to the supermarket for the necessary supplies. I was hungry, which is breaking a cardinal sin of sticking to a budget, so a bag of fun-size candy bars and some chips also made their way in the bag. The upside: I walked to the store so I couldn’t buy more than I could carry home.

USPS: $5.85

During a visit to Canton, Ohio last weekend, I visited Ben Heggy’s Chocolates, the BEST chocolate to ever have passed my lips. My parents agree so I picked up a pound of their favorite varieties and this was the cost to mail the chocolate to Traverse City, where my parents live. The postage might have been higher, but I reduced the weight of the package a little before getting it to the post office.

Friday

Home Depot: $15.17

Even though I’m a city dweller, I’m a tree hugger at heart so besides recycling as much as I can, I have a worm compost bin in our condo. We put all our food scraps and even the shreds from the paper shredder into the bin, which means we only need to take the trash out about once a week. My worm colony was starting to outgrow its bin so I headed to Home Depot to buy a bigger container. I’m hoping they don’t outgrow this one before spring, when I can simply spread some of the compost outdoors without worrying about cruelty to worms by exposing them to the Chicago winter.

Marshalls: $224.96

I’ve been slowly transitioning my wardrobe over the past year to reflect the fact that I work from home so after Home Depot, I detoured into Marshalls to stock up on some basics for the fall. I was in a hurry to get home to be on time for my Financial Helpline shift so I didn’t try anything on, which means I need to make a trip back this week to return three things. But I’ve already worn three out of the six items I’m keeping, which means I did well! (It’s important to note that I haven’t purchased any clothing for myself since summer so this is more of a quarterly expenditure.)

Parking: $2

The shopping complex only validates for the first 90 minutes so my Marshalls detour cost me an additional $2 in parking. It’s not a lot of money, but I avoid paying for silly fees like this whenever possible so I was a little annoyed at myself for not watching the time better.

Nico Osteria: $198.55

My husband and I celebrated the anniversary of our first date with a special dinner at the restaurant where we went for our post-wedding brunch. This is about five times what we would normally spend on a meal out, but it was a special occasion and a memorable meal. We paid for this with our joint account so there was no awkwardness about who was treating whom.

Uber: $15.87

This was the cost for round trip rides to dinner. Parking in that neighborhood is upwards of $30 and it is not really accessible via public transportation, which is how we usually get around on date night.

Saturday

Starbucks: $20

I use the Starbucks app so I can collect stars. Once I get to 12 stars, I earn a free treat so it’s worth it to me for the few times I go. This purchase was to reload my app. The last reload was in March! I treated myself to a tall caramel macchiato after I taught my BodyPump class with this reload.

FedEx Office: $115.26

One of my best friends ran the Chicago marathon on Sunday so to cheer her on, I had poster-size prints made of her husband and two cats. I had NO IDEA it would cost this much so if I had to do it all over again, I would have ordered a smaller size, which I wasn’t aware was an option when ordering. Lesson learned. (although the posters were AMAZING!)

Sunday

DoorDash: $90.23

After celebrating completing the marathon, we had an impromptu get together on our rooftop with several friends. We ordered tacos from Big Star Chicago on my card. This reminds me that I need to collect from everyone! Key takeaway here: if you’re ordering for a crowd, collect funds when the food arrives or you may just end up paying for everyone.

Favorite purchase?

I hate to be such a stereotype, but it was Marshalls. The wardrobe refresh was exactly what I needed to get me through fall feeling fashionable without spending TONS of money. This is a lot of money, but since it’s only once per quarter, my clothing budget for the year is less than $1,000. Not bad.

Biggest regret?

It’s tough to say FedEx Office because my signs were such a hit, but I wish I’d spent less by ordering smaller prints. The effect would have still been there.

As I look at my spending, I realize it doesn’t reflect the fact that I’m saving enough in my 401(k) to retire at age 62 or that I pay my AmEx card off every month and am free of credit card debt. If that wasn’t the case, I would forgo many of these purchases as I did back when I was digging myself out of debt a couple years ago. Additionally, it only partially reflects the fact that I eat most of my meals at home. The tough part about measuring your spending against someone else’s is that you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. Keep that in mind as you read these stories and just make sure your spending is in line with your values, your goals and your earnings.

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