Mid-month spending check-in (September 2022)

I posted about finances in July and then our baby was born early, so that delayed further posting about finances. Now I'm back at it. Budgeting is weird until December because I'm mostly on maternity leave. I'm seeing a handful of clients a month and have some ad revenue coming in, but it's a small amount - likely around $1,000/month. I also have some old insurance payouts coming in, which are hard to predict how much they will be, and someone I had working with me is no longer working with me, so there may be some money coming in from that. Or maybe not, it's been hard to track it, especially with my super lowered capacity and mood during pregnancy. We have $5,000 set for my income during my maternity leave, but if I talk to H that doesn't seem what we are actually doing and the sentiment seems to be just spend as little as you can. I get so defeated around budgeting, especially when H makes comments like, "we blew out the budget last month", and I don't feel like I even spent that much. Me tracking can hopefully help me start to understand the reality of the situation so I can tell if what H is saying is reality or is just him having a mopey day. So far this month, this is what I've spent:

Grocery: $343.93

Restaurants: $330.75 (H's lunches included)

Personal Care (Postpartum massage, Mommastrong): $224.75

Discretionary:

Birthday gifts for nephew, kid's friend, and kiddo: $128.82

Total: $1028.25 thus far

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How do I feel about the spending? Was it necessary?

Massage ($212): The massage was a glorious 90-minute massage and it was very nice for me to mark the end of my pregnancy journey. I went into labor unexpectedly, so it was good to have something predictable and concrete to mark that season of my life being over. This was our last kid.

MommaStrong: Worth it. I'd pay double or triple this price for this program. I trust Courtney's direction in caring for my body.

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How are we doing?

We have my personal care budget set at $500/month. I don't have therapy or any nail/massage appointments for the rest of the month. So doing good there.

Things I'm thinking about purchasing:

• Queen upholstered bed frame ($332.99): This is for the mattress in the nursery, which is currently just sitting on our floor. I don't mind that the mattress is on the floor (much) because I co-sleep often with our baby and it feels safest to have the mattress as close to the ground as possible...even though she can't roll. However, this week I had a roach crawl on me while side-lying nursing her and I almost died because how disgusting. I'm wondering if that would be less likely to happen again if the mattress wasn't on the floor.

• Oofos shoes for joint support and care ($59.95): I find it easy and acceptable to spend on anything related to care of my body because it helps my body image to do so. Anything that encourages positive body image is important to me after being plagued by negative body image for a decade. I'm dabbling back in running and want to give my feet and knees the best shot possible to not get injured and proper footwear seems to be part of that. Leaning towards purchasing these.

• Glow Body PT postpartum program ($130): Already decided against purchasing this.

• Friend's birthday gift ($30-$50): I would like to get one of my best friends a little something for her birthday - maybe chocolates or flowers.