I caught a most excellent post over at TeacHerFinance called “Thursday: Most and Least,” and I’m totally ripping it off today to play it with you guys ;) We’re calling it the “High/Low” game now and we’re doing it on a Friday, *Gasp*!
You pretty much just post up the most expensive thing you bought from the week, as well as the least expensive one , and then you mix in some fun ones too. Like the Most Exciting Purchase, or the Most Annoying One, and so on. I don’t know which we’ll do here exactly yet, but as soon as I check out my credit card statement I’ll make them up and we’ll get started :)
[Off to peruse my charges so far this week… hold, please….]
Okay, back. Here’s what we’ve got!
- The most expensive thing we paid for this week: $643.00 – My dang health insurance premium every month, ugh… The worst part about being self-employed :(
- The least expensive thing: $5.00 – A Hot n’ Ready pizza from Little Caesars! (There’s no rules!
- The most *exciting* thing: $9.99 – The new Macklemore & Ryan Lewis album, “The Heist”! The ones that did that hilarious thrift store video (nsfw) I linked to the other day, they’re freakin’ awesome… and since it’s music it’ll be the gift that keeps on giving :)
- The dumbest thing: $28.10 – I tried my first hand at bidding on my first online coin auction, and got too caught up in the excitement of the whole thing that I didn’t pay attention to all the fees and shipping costs associated with it :( Had I won more than one lot it would have been okay ‘cuz the shipping and handling/etc would have been spread across multiple items, but because I ended up LOSING all of them except for one, it more than doubled all my costs when everything was said and done. $12.50 for the actual items (a few old $2 bills with graffiti all over them – not even coins!), and then $15.60 just to get them to my door. Talk about lesson learned!!
- The purchase you’re most proud of: $50.00 – A donation to NAMI Walks (National Alliance on Mental Illness) on behalf of a friend who’s raising awareness for them. Since I don’t believe greatly in any one charity organization myself, I like to donate to my friends’ favorite places since they’re near and dear to their hearts. And it helps me to learn about other causes as well :) (The only downside? You then get signed up to a billion and one email subscriptions!)
Okay, your turn :) Take a quick coffee break and peruse YOUR online banking to see what you’ve been spending your money on this week. Just copy and paste the 5 categories there, and then tell us about ’em in the comments! Let’s see how well y’all have been behaving lately ;)
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The most expensive thing we paid for this week Groceries $117.00.
The least expensive thing: McDonalds Coffee Large $1.34
The dumbest thing: $2.00 for hash browns at same McDonalds just to play Monopoly!
The purchase you’re most proud of $4.50 Lakewood Organic lemonade on clearance rack for .50.
I bought 9 bottles, and they are 32 ounce bottles! I will reuse the glass bottles for Christmas presents
Most expensive: $73 on groceries
Least expensive: $5 on Burger King for dinner (it was an act of desperation, not enough time for real food!)
Most exciting: $38 on a sushi lunch date with my husband
Dumbest: I’m going to repeat the $5 Burger King meal. I always feel like crap after I eat fast food.
Most proud of: I don’t know… Can I say the fact that the 3 things I listed above are the ONLY things I’ve spent money on this week??? ;-)
Most expensive: $500 payment to my credit card
Least expensive: $1 for two cans of pepsi
Most exciting: $1 for the pepsis
This week we’re trying to establish a budget to pay off our credit card debts (remaining about 3K) doesn’t sound too much but we live in a country where most of the people makes about 4K a year (we do much better, but still paying it off is not as easy as it sounds). We plan on finishing our debts by mid February. Didn’t buy groceries this week because we already had our pantries full and we need to consume all our food before they go bad (which always happens, and that we are trying to fix that too)
Wow, we only had 16 transactions in the past week and a bunch of those were just transfers – impressive!
Our largest transaction was half our tithe for the month. Our most expensive purchase was $198 for two dental fillings. We don’t have dental insurance but we do have a discount plan.
Our least expensive purchase was $34.74 for groceries.
Our most exciting transaction was the small paycheck my husband got for his we-thought-it-was-a-volunteer-position-but-actually-it-is-paid part-time job! He trained all summer for the position and this was his first paycheck.
Most Expensive: $1,248.71 to payoff credit card. Typically don’t have this expense but my hubby is in the Air Force and currently is deployed for a year. He was home for his 2 week R&R earlier this month and we treated ourselves (we have 2 boys) to a trip to Busch Gardens and Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, VA. I have NO regrets with this bill. Was totally worth every penny!
Least Expensive: $4.67 to Caribou Coffee. This was hubby in the ATL airport. It was well deserved, I’m sure.
Most Exciting: Besides the credit card payment it would be a $25 check to my cousin for her recent nuptials. I can’t always be there for these events but I send a little love every chance I can.
Dumbest: $40 to Fantastic Sam’s for my 17 year old son to get a Mohawk and dye it BRIGHT blue for this weeks football game. He is a Senior on the Varsity team and tonight’s game is the BIGGEST game of the season as we play our rivals. Now…I thought this was dumb but I’m sure he doesn’t share the same opinion.
1.The most expensive thing we paid for this week: $66.22 for groceries
2.The least expensive thing: $3.38 tbell run
3.The most *exciting* thing: $24.12–local restaurant for an exciting first date!!
haha this week was pretty lame, apparently.
The most expensive thing we paid for this week: groceries, about $175 including the initial purchase and little stuffs throughout the week.
The least expensive thing: a large diet dr pepper from Sonic, $2.03. I wouldn’t have bought it since we have a SodaStream and make our own sodas at home, but the SodaStream stuff is JUST isn’t the same..
The most *exciting* thing: $30 on itunes: here’s where you and i are alike, J…music! i found some mixes of 80’s freestyle music i’ve been loking for FOR years…and then realized that the music i was looking for has a genre…so makes it much easier to search for.
The dumbest thing: $10-a 4-pack of pumpkin muffins from MiMi’s cafe…why is it dumb? see below’s response…
The purchase you’re most proud of: $19 on Amazon. had to buy 2 books on prediabetes and a diabetes diet. I got diagnosed Mon afternoon with prediabetes (not a big deal, knew it was coming), so books will give me the knowledge to get me back to normal and feeling better!
Most expensive- $590 for rent. YUCK.
Least expensive- $1.30 at Redbox. I’ve been babysitting a little girl everyday after school and we rented The Lorax. So cute!
Most Exciting- I got JK Rowlings new book at Barnes and Noble! YAY!
The Dumbest Thing- I ordered a Hufflepuff (one of the houses from Harry Potter) necktie from Amazon for Halloween. I’ve been wanting one for A LONG time, but the moment I ordered it I knew I shouldn’t have. But it’s been shipped so, too late now!
Most Proud Of- I paid off my Best Buy Card this week. SO EXCITING!
Not counting business expenses (it was payroll last week, oy):
1.) Most Expensive – $1200 for my car payment. I’m focusing on paying that sucker off fast.
2.) Least Expensive – $4.00 for the “ToDo” organizer app on iTunes. Totally recommend it as a mobile to do list
3.) Most Exciting – $196.04 at Tuesday Morning for two rugs and two lamps to finish up my bedroom transformation.
4.) Dumbest – $450 for the damn student loan payment. I wish I had been smarter with my money back in the day so I didn’t have this.
5.) Most Proud Of – $20 for a book by Dan Roper, editor of Georgia Backroads. We went to a history program to see him speak about child cotton mill workers. It was an interesting and eye opening experience and I hope the book sales he made that night help keep Georgia Backroads printing for years to come.
Most Expensive: $917 for doing a refi on my house to end up savings tons of money!
Least Expensive: $8.38 for a quick lunch at the down stairs cafeteria.
Most Exciting: Same as most expensive really, but for another bought some pumpkins for Jack-o-lanterns that I do up with huge flames coming out the top.
Dumbest thing: Probably the Dance off game to go with the Kinect, not sure how much we will actually use it but it was only $7.99.
Most Proud Of: Nothing really
Most Expensive: $10,000 for earnest money on new home purchase!
Least Expensive: $1.41 Slurpee from 7-11 for the wifey.
Most Exciting: $181 – my last months rent in my storage unit.
Most Proud Of: $61.00 – Ebay, Lot of boys 5T clothes for my son. we got 10 pairs of jeans, 4 button up shirts, 2 sweaters, 1 hoodie, and 2 pairs of rain boots.
Most Expensive: Filled our oil tank, $709
Least Expensive: Egg Salad sandwich, $3.50
Most Exciting: Christmas gift for hubby $65
Dumbest thing: Paid for coffee because I was too lazy to make some at home, $2.50
Most Proud of: The Hobbit book $7
Most Expensive: $1,130 to pay off one of our credit cards! :) Yippeeee!!
Least Expensive: $1.07 McDonald’s coffee.
Most Exciting: $12 to take my 3-year-old to his first movie theater movie, Hotel Transylvania. Great movie, great times, and he sat there the whole movie and never moved from his seat! What a wonderful experience. He’s still talking about it three days later. ;)
Dumbest thing: $10.55 at McDonald’s because I realized, once I got home, that I had forgotten to turn the crock pot on that morning! Had everything in it! Just didn’t turn it ON! I think this has to win the “dumb” award.
Most Proud of: $150 at Carter’s for fall AND winter clothes for my ever-growing boys. I only shopped the 40% off sale AND I had a 20% off coupon. The total bill was close to $300 before my coupons and sales went through. :)
MOST – $950 at Nordstrom for 4 formal (black tie) outfits, including a pair of shoes, for the black tie gala’s I have to attend for work.
LEAST – $1.94 for coffee at Whole Foods. It was good coffee.
EXCITING – $15.69 at a craft beer place, tried several rare beers on cask!!
DUMBEST – $31.45 to Ancestry.com. I haven’t used the site in a year, I’m just too lazy to get around and cancel my month-to-month billing.
PROUD OF – $14.69 at a food truck, where I brought 3 people to my favorite place, and it was their first trip to a food truck, ever!
Most expensive: $300 monthly chiro appt. Only 2 more months for my health benefits to kick in!
Least expensive: $1.25 dollar store scissors.
Most exciting: Seeing any interesting coffee table book at the bookstore for $29.99 and getting it out of the library for freeeeeeee!
Dumbest: $5.65 on new clips for my curtain rail. Dumb because I snapped a whole bunch off when I had to remove the curtains when my building replaced my windows.
Most: $597 to pay off the credit card. We were going to wait for a particular windfall that we’re expecting in the next couple of months, but decided that we could afford to just go ahead and pay it rather than letting it sit there nagging us.
Least: 1.96 at Dunkin Donuts. That was a 2-DD day, too. When the cold weather trickles in, coffee drinks are my Kryptonite.
Exciting: A hospital bill of $47.86 for my wife’s ER visit last month. Exciting only because it was nice to pay a medical bill in full with no qualms. It’s been an expensive 6 months with medical stuff.
Dumbest: $13 I paid for a (tasty, admittedly) salad from the deli/cafe next door to the office, because I’d gone off and left behind my dish for our potluck. I enjoyed the potluck and ate some good food, but I’d been very proud of the dish I’d put together that used up some pantry staples and some veggies that needed using, and was bummed that I forgot it.
Proud of: the credit card payment, since it’s the last of our consumer debt. all we have now are student loans. Lots and lots of student loans.
The most expensive thing we paid for this week: $311 car payment :( I hate this!!
The least expensive thing: $1.19 lettuce ?
The most *exciting* thing: $6.00 for a nice new messenger bag at a consignment sale!
The dumbest thing: $50 unexpected “re-registration” bill from my sons school (errr…daycare). He’s been enrolled for a year and apparently you have to pay a registration fee every year!? :/
The purchase you’re most proud of: $26! Purchased my sons entire fall/winter wardrobe at a consignment sale, he is all set now.
I love the additions of “dumbest” and “proudest” :) Wish I had thought of those myself!
Happy Friday!
I’m home sick so mine are going to be lame.
The most expensive thing we paid for this week: $12.00 at Trader Joes for Chicken Noodle Soup
The least expensive thing: $10 of Nyquil at Walgreens
The most *exciting* thing: Probably the Nyquil – hello crazy dreams
The dumbest thing: None.
The purchase you’re most proud of: My $100 donation to NightStrike, a homeless mission I’m involved with.
This is so funny, because I made 3 purchases this week!
1) Most expensive- I signed up to run in a race $100 (see # 5)
2) Least expensive – Dinner out 2 nights-Free (it was reimbursed by my hubby’s generous boss)
3) Most exciting-run in a race $100 (see #5)
4) Dumbest- would be paying interest on my credit card after being debt free for a long time. $70 OUCH. Stupid, stupid, stupid. (On my list to get rid of quickly)
5) Most proud of- I signed up to run in the Denver Gorilla Run, today actually. It sounds like so much fun, because I can run or walk in a Gorilla suit for charity. (You get to keep the suit and the money goes to help animals. There is also lots of entertainment and food afterwards. I can’t wait! (and who doesn’t want to walk around in a gorilla suit?!?!?)
1) Most expensive – $1174 for 4 airline tickets to go visit Grandparents
2) Least expensive – $4.52 for 6″ sub at Subway
3) Most exciting – Can I re-use my Subway???
4) Dumbest – $76 for school pictures for 2 kids. It is a total racket and I know it.
5) Most proud- $256 for vet bill….even though pets are expensive, I am glad we take good care of our cats (this included bloodwork because of her age….and it was all normal)
1. The most expensive thing we paid for this week: $240 for a building/renovation permit on the house!
2. The least expensive thing: $1.05 for a donut at Dunkin Donuts to go with my free coffee and to share with my little one. :)
3. The most *exciting* thing: A tie between $68 and $126 which each paid off medical bill payment plans for the same little one who is sharing my donut now instead of literally eating my money (one left to pay off next month and we are done!).
4. The dumbest thing: $3.50 for a copy of the deed to our house from the city because we haven’t figured out how to keep track of important paperwork while living between 4 places yet!
5. The purchase you’re most annoyed by: $262 automatic billing from PODS for one of our containers even though they were both delivered last Friday, emptied this week and picked up today! I didn’t make this most expensive because there better be a refund in the very near future!
The most expensive thing we paid for this week: cookware set – $149.00
The least expensive thing: my favorite brand of chocolate cookies – $2.50
The most exciting thing: $164.00 for a new Christmas tree. Yes, we are preparing for the holiday break so we are purchasing new decorations as early as now!
The dumbest thing: $9.61 for a new domain that I cannot set up properly. It keeps on giving me either Error 404 or Error 301 and the tech support of my domain provider is a big epic fail.
The purchase you are most proud of: bake-and-serve set – $29.96
1.The most expensive thing we paid for this week: $500.00 car payment. Over double the minimum, what what!
2.The least expensive thing: $2.18 at the gas station for coffee for me and the hubs.
3.The most *exciting* thing: $9.35 for fudge at Cedar Point. P.S. Pumpkin fudge in the greatest thing ever. Or $19.09 for a Loaded Baked Potato pizza at a local pizza joint. Also the greatest thing ever.
4.The dumbest thing: $15 for a gym maintenance fee. Lame.
5.The purchase you’re most proud of: Same as #1. Knocking that car payment out…almost there!
great post and comments!
1) most expensive, car payment $347
2) least expensive, walmart prescription $4
3) most exciting, hair salon $122
4) most dumb, eating out instead of in
for lunch $19.66
5) most coolest, buying weight watchers livelink, to automatically
track my activity level $39.95
This is an interesting idea. My least expensive thing was eating at McDonalds, $8.25. And the most expensive was eating at this Vietnamese place, $10 even. I didn’t spend money on anything else this week.
Glad y’all enjoyed this :) It’s always fun to see where everyone’s money is going and see how similar/different we are! Hope you guys had a wonderful weekend…
@Gina – HAH! That is awesome. I looooooove me some Micky Dee’s Monopoly! And had you won something big it would have been moved into your BEST purchase of the week ;)
@Stephanie – That’s pretty good if you only shelled out money 3 times last week – way to go!
@m1nts – I like it! $3,000 is still $3,000 so def. sucky. Glad to hear y’all are prioritizing it! :)
@Emily @ evolvingPF – Nice job Husband! A great surprise indeed :) And awesome y’all tithe too – we’re not so good at that :( Though I am much better at giving back than I was a few years ago which is something.
@Sarah – Go son!!! I hope they won the game – that’s awesome! (Though coming from someone w/ a mohawk I’m a bit biased ofcourse ;)) And also agree that quality family time like that is ALWAYS worth it.
@Renee S – Well nice job snagging that great date! Let’s hope there’s a 2nd and 3rd one too, eh? :)
@Trinnie – Yikes! I’m glad it wasn’t a big surprise though so you weren’t shocked or in denial or something :( Still sucky though. Bone up on that knowledge and work your way out of it my dear! :)
@Emmy – Congrats!!! One less c/c in the world is a nice feeling ;) You can do a happy dance in your Hufflepuff tie, haha…
@Jennlandia – I love Tuesday Morning!! And probably good there isn’t one around me, haha… TJ Maxx is enough of an addiction ;)
@Philip – You should be most proud of that Refi expense! Congrats :) Ours was like $5,000 when we did it last year, but our damn mortgage is pretty freakin’ high too… the only (and biggest) issue in our finances, ugh.
@Dave H – Dang, you guys rocked it this week! Congrats on the new home! That’s always exciting :)
@Beckey & Jeff – We treated ourselves to non-home-made coffee too this week ;) Back when I worked at a “real” job I’d do it every morning though, so I’m pretty proud of ourselves now. Though, to be fair, I also rarely leave the house Mon-Fri, haha…
@Jen – Oh no! Was the food still salvagable, or did you end up losing all that too? That blows, I’m sorry :( Yay for the movie and c/c pay off though – that FAR beats out the McDonald’s run ;)
@Sarah H. – WOW that’s a lot of money. Pretty cool you get to attend galas though! Are you allowed to share what you do? Haha…
@Slackerjo – I’m impressed by all you library people – I just can’t bring myself to do it :) If there’s a book or mag I want, I always buy it so I can keep it in my personal library. Other stuff I don’t do that with (like with movies), but for some reason it feels good hoarding books ;)
@Liz J – That’s great!! CONGRATS!! You share company with a few others here today paying off their credit cards :) Be very proud of yourselves!!
@Angella – Yeah consignment shops!
@TeacHer – Hehe, throw it into your next round :)
@Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager – Awwwww, I’m sorry to hear that friend. I hope this weekend brought you many blessings!
@LB @ Finanical Black Sheep – Woah, very cool! I didn’t even know they had stuff like that? Or enough suits for all those people to run around in? Haha… You better take pictures :)
@Mysti – You’re just like my wife w/ those pets and their bills :) She never regets spending a penny on her furry babies!
@Erin S – $1.05 for a donut? That better be one BIG and juicy one! :)
@Cherleen @ My Personal Finance Journey – Yeah CHRISTMAS!!! Best time of the year!! :)
@Erin – Nice work w/ the car payments – you’ll be saving SO MUCH by the end! :)
@jenn – What kind of hairstyle are you rocking these days? Pic please! :)
@Liquid – That’s not bad at all then if your only purchases for food for $10 and under – good job :)
Dumbest expense of the last week was $2 for a quarter. Stuck in line up to pay the toll to cross the bridge between Canada & US. The auto lane wouldn’t accept my $2 coin (Canadian Toonie) as the new 2012 coins are slightly lighter and cause problems. With all the change in the car I was still 25 cents short and the machine still wouldn’t take the $2. Ran to the car behind me in line (over 1.5 miles long) and offered him the $2 coin for a quarter – got it and ran back to my car, threw it in the auto-teller, the gate went up and I could continue on.
I’ve been totally agonizing over my dollar donut all week, especially since I am trying to not spend any extra money and I can usually get a free donut at Sheetz. Thanks! LOL
@Steeb – Yikes!! That’s super annoying, jeez… What happens if you just don’t have any change or no one’s behind you to ask? It’s not like you can just run through it if the gate is down yeah? Scary stuff… Happened to me once where I just ran though it cuz I wasn’t paying attention (late at night) but only the alarms sounded as there was no gate or anything… and come to think of it I don’t believe I ever got a ticket either? Huh…
@Erin S – Haha… it’s a good thing they’re so tasty! :)
I love pizza from LC. I go there about 2 times a week and it feeds me and my family and usually we still have a couple pieces left over for the following day.
Pam
Nice! Great deals indeed – glad it helps y’all :)