How have your expenses changed with the Corona Virus?

[Retired Expat]

I am just about to sit down and do my accounting for the past two months and budget for the next two. I expect that my spending in most areas will be way down.

Wondering if others are saving money during this period and if any of these changes might become permanent?

Having cancelled a trip in March and another one coming up in June, there have been lots of refunds and the travel budget will be maybe 1/3 of what it was. Dinner or lunches out a least 3x a week plus coffee etc are out, gym memberships is out but walking and working out at home are in, could get some more stuff and give up the gym, movies are out but there is a ton on the big screen at home. Cost of going to the movies one time for 2 (dinner and a movie) will pay for a year of a streaming service .

We do less laundry since wear less and the same things more, and zero dry cleaning. Would be saving on the house keeper once a week but are paying her regardless, but realizing we don’t really need her.. groceries are up but buying in bulk and making larger meals for storage may balance it out. Liquor consumption hasn’t increased surprisingly.

So how have your expenses changed? Lots of food delivery? Online shopping from boredom? Purchased a 10 year supply of Toilet paper and hand sanitizer? Higher Walter and electric bills?

So what are you all seeing, what changes to your lives might become permanent?

 

[bobandsherry]

Waiting for 16 day cruise to be cancelled, and probably August cruise too, so that will be big reduction in expense for travel. Entertainment down. Gas/Fuel down. Groceries may go up. Guess will be in holding pattern regarding health.

Most other expenses basically recurring costs such as water (won't change much, largest cost there is irrigation), electric, real estate taxes, car payment, insurance, cable, cell phone, landscape maintenance, etc.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Our expenses are down since we aren’t leaving the house.

 

[Fermion]

Travel expenses way down.

Food budget is down...we don't eat out much normally but now we don't eat out at all.

Starting to build a house though so overall expenses are way up. Just getting a few trees removed safely is $$$.

Some things don't seem to get cheaper. My car insurance and boat insurance seem to still want their payment on time, as well as the marina seems to still want full payment on our boat slip.

 

[HadEnuff]

I noticed that the last time (two days ago) that I went to the grocery store I ignored prices altogether. they had it, I wanted it, and BOOM! into the cart. At check out I didn't wait for the check out lady to hand me the receipt, or tell me how much I saved, I just grabbed it myself, eliminating one pair of hands on the receipt (although she touched all of my groceries so I guess that was stupid), and looked at the receipt when I got home, and then after I resumed consciousness and got up off the floor I entered it into my Quicken register.

 

[Carol1862]

Way down. 2 trips cancelled. One was for this week actually and another in July. Our “entertainment” budget item is significantly down as we’re not going out to eat and socialize. Food will probably be same as I still am buying same items. I stocked up last week but am not planning on overbuying. Gas down. And if this keeps up my hairdresser bill will be down too (making my DH happy until he sees how I look without a cut and touch up)

 

[Lakewood90712]

Down.

 

[ls99]

Sure has, three breakfeasts, and multiple coffe shop visits are cancelled each week, as are the corresponding tips. Am stuck with eight skating passes ($5 ea) until September, on the up side, 180 miles not driven weekly to skating rink.

 

[Ready]

Aside from groceries there is not much we can spend money on right now. No travel, no theater, no restaurants. We are even trying to cut back on toilet paper and paper towels since we can’t find any to buy right now.

 

[jebmke]

Gas expenses are down due to volunteer tax work suspended. Not much change otherwise.

 

[W2R]

My spending is down a lot in some categories, and I love it!

I hardly spend anything on gas. I drive my Venza for a couple of miles once a week to keep it in good working order, but otherwise I just stay home since I am old, diabetic, overweight, and generally super vulnerable in the statistical sense.

My food expenses have gone down too, since I have not been grocery shopping for 25 days. But they did not go down as much as I expected, because I got suckered into some wildly overpriced things online due to scarcity. Also, even though we don't eat lunch out any more, we have ordered take-out or delivery from our favorite restaurant five times since we stopped eating out. And when we do that, we tip pretty lavishly because we truly empathize with the plight of the employees and restaurant owner.

No gym fees at all this month since the gyms are all shut down tight by order of the state.

No need for new clothes since I have been spending my time at home wearing my nightclothes all day half the time. Nobody but F sees what I wear any more. I should probably get dressed just to raise my own spirits, though.

I need a haircut but can't get one and my hair keeps growing and growing. That's OK; I feel like I have adopted the 1960's "long haired hippy look", so to speak. All I need are love beads. And so no spending on haircuts.

And finally, little to no discretionary spending on Amazon. I am so glad to see signs that Amazon is recovering from the avalanche of orders they were experiencing earlier. When they do get completely back to normal, I'll be prowling through their site more often once again looking for doo-dads or whatever.

I love the fact that I am spending less without even trying.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Carol, I was scheduled to get my haircut and colored and then the shutdown. I had waited 3 months so things are looking pretty bad. The dogs can’t get groomed either. Of course these are all minor issues in the big scheme of things.

 

[Sunset]

Travel expenses down, but will end up paying for non-refundable expense of about $1,000.

Grocery expenses are up, as price is not as important as availability and certainly not going to go around to 5 different grocery stores looking for things.

I've stopped drinking except to have 1 glass of wine/night on weekends, as it would be too easy to guzzle booze out of boredom. So at the current rate, I have about a year's supply.

Auto usage is down incredibly, as nowhere to drive, even reducing visits to older relatives as don't want to kill them by accident.

Am currently trying takeout from some restaurants to keep them in business, but have to admit the ambience of the food experience is largely reduced.

 

[athena53]

Definitely down. I'm still waiting on some refunds from a cancelled tour and some cancelled flights (once cancelled by Delta so they are required to refund, an alternative on UA I booked and purchased cancellation insurance- claim still pending). In the meantime, of course, charges are hitting my credit card anyway so there will be a short-term cash outflow.

Unlikely to make a planned visit to Europe this fall- fortunately I hadn't booked anything.

Most other expenses about the same except that gas is down; didn't eat much in restaurants, anyway. Gym membership suspended but it was only $11/month anyway. The books I download from the library to pass the time are free- my tax dollars at work!

 

[Dtail]

Less money on gas and definitely travel plus the refunds in travel count as contra expenses in our budget.
Yeah it is good overall as a side benefit, but not long term.
Got a really short haircut and now those places are closed.
DGF might have her hair person come next month to the house for her stuff, but not sure yet.

ETA - Actually our food costs are about the same, since we still order in or pick up the same 3 days a week instead of eating out 2-3 days a week.

 

[Moemg]

Our expenses are down. No gym fees , no dinners out ,no meeting friends for drinks . We ordered take out twice and it was just not that good . I also need my hair done .I could stand the length but I need a color touch up.No trips planned even if they lift the bans we are staying close to home .

 

[aja8888]

Spending Down.

(less gasoline, no eating out, frivolously buying crap we don't need, etc)

With DW handicapped, and on O2 100% of the time, I am not "escaping" enough to spend money on frivolous stuff and have some personal time off. So I am in the house about 22 hours per day.

This feels like cave dwelling.

But it's OK.

 

[timo2]

Ours our about the same. Because the delivery services are so slow now, we are ordering June supplies now in hopes of getting the stuff in late April. Eventually they will decrease though.

 

[aaronc879]

My grocery costs are higher since I can't get a lot of the sale items I usually get. Instead I am limited to 1-3 items depending on item and store so no stocking up. Instead I am buying things I don't usually buy and paying full price which I hate. Gas costs are down some but I don't dive much normally so it's not much savings. Everything else should be unchanged so probably slightly more spending due to the food issue.

 

[kcowan]

Travel way down.,not only local trips but future booked tours. Food is up slightly as we eat in and order in from higher-priced grocery stores that deliver. But offset by the costs of eating out especially with a bottle of wine.

 

[John Galt III]

Up. Panic buying of beer and wine. My usual cheap places are both closed (state store and local beer distributor). I'm left with beer and wine from the grocery store, which is still available, but at 10% higher price. C'est la vie. Blow that dough.

 

[jollystomper]

Net down. The rise in grocery expenditures has been more than offset by reduced/eliminated planned spending for entertainment, recreation, and vacation/travel. Our net cash flow will be up about $2K in march because of this.

 

[RetireAge50]

All of ours are about the same except travel will be down about $20,000.

Our spending plan is variable (loosely set at 3.5% of prior year end portfolio balance (plus pensions).

If they keep us home too long I’ll have to buy a pinball machine or something.

 

[Dash man]

Way up. Had to buy all that toilet paper before everyone else got it. [emoji23][emoji23]

 

[FIREd]

My core expenses for March are just about the same as in February and January. I spent a bit more on food due to stocking up early in the month while gas is down (virtually no driving in the last 2 weeks). Discretionary spending is about the same as well..