Spending less during COVID?

[Finance Dave]

lol albyndyz...post a pic of the money coming out of your ears.

 

[Lagniappe]

My 2020 spending was almost exactly double my 2019 spending.

I decided to do a major condo renovation in the middle of the stay at home restrictions. Floors, kitchen bathrooms, office, wetbar, etc. I had to move out for a few months, and since I was going to be out, I just went ahead and did everything I could think of. My AC could have limped along another couple of years but got a new one, I added redesigned closet system to the mix that I was originally going to do a few years down the road.

Apparently lots of people had the same idea. I am still waiting for closet doors to be delivered (8 months and counting) and a few other items had crazy delays.

But it was worth it.

This year I will hopefully be able to travel, and come home to my beautiful newly renovated condo!

 

[W2R]

I spent more in 2020 than in 2019, but it was in the same ballpark.

 

[Finance Dave]

My 2020 spending was almost exactly double my 2019 spending.

I decided to do a major condo renovation in the middle of the stay at home restrictions. Floors, kitchen bathrooms, office, wetbar, etc. I had to move out for a few months, and since I was going to be out, I just went ahead and did everything I could think of. My AC could have limped along another couple of years but got a new one, I added redesigned closet system to the mix that I was originally going to do a few years down the road.

Apparently lots of people had the same idea. I am still waiting for closet doors to be delivered (8 months and counting) and a few other items had crazy delays.

But it was worth it.

This year I will hopefully be able to travel, and come home to my beautiful newly renovated condo!

Wow, you’ll never want to move now!

 

[sengsational]

28% less, mostly due to not traveling.

But that doesn't count the home improvement (which, with increase to value of house, didn't affect the balance sheet), and the new car (which, if I bothered with amortizing, would have been the same year-to-year).

But looking at cash flow (with the excluded items above), we're up 32%.

Who was it that was looking for a "one armed accountant" so they could never say "on the other hand...."?

This is the curse of an engineer that got temporarily "drafted" into becoming a financial analyst at the megacorp. Now I can't just make a one-armed statement when it comes to finances.

 

[street]

We spent more not due to any other reason then we just spent more. Our life style didn't really change any with the virus. We don't travel much and live in fly over, very rural area so if we hadn't heard everyday about the virus on news etc. we wouldn't have done much different. Really never see anyone or it as a one on one conversation and did use all safety guidelines thou.

 

[iloveyoga]

We started out spending less due to no travel....but then with time on our hands and knowing we would be home we did some home improvements and ended up spending more. I love to travel but we do have some good stuff to show for our 2020 spending.

 

[Rambler]

I think we’ve spent about 25-30% less. We’ve both spent more on hobbies, but significantly less on eating out (just the two of us), eating out with out DD and SIL (where we pay because they can’t afford to yet), and travel. Pre-COVID, we typically made 10-12 trips a year...some were just 3-4 days, others 7-10. Last year, we went to Disneyland in January, before COVID blew up, the Grand Canyon for 3 nights (also pre-COVID),, and twice to Idaho to see our new grand baby. We skipped out annual trip to Hawaii for the first time in over 20 years (many years we go twice).

This year, we’ll spend more...we just got our vax appointments, so we won’t feel so afraid to get out and do things, even if we are still required to mask up in most places. I’ve got three RV trips planned, and in the process of booking 4-5 more, most of which will average 7-14 days each.

 

[Retired Expat]

For the first for the first 8 months we spent much less. The 6 month trip that was planned to our vacation home and also around Europe died a quick death. Dinners out. Zip, shopping Zip. Housekeeper less but we still paid her. Then we found a home in an area we have been looking at but there is never any turn over. Bought the house and undertook a major renovation project. Boom! COVID savings gone. Boom rental income from vacation house since we weren’t there gone! So Net for the pandemic it would have been much cheaper to have been in an expensive hotel in Paris having flown first class and never having known that the house we bought came on the market!

 

[6miths]

CC spending is way down. Travel, restaurants, gas. More than made up for it on a substantial landscaping project.

 

[Caskem]

Spending less for sure. Retired in September and DW retired a couple years before. Not working and covid shutting down travel and recreation allowed us to live on our SS and stimulus checks alone. This was unexpected. We don’t drive anywhere much and eat out far less often. Our retirement accounts are going up radically.

 

[FIREarly]

No, DW and I got a puppy and spending as much or more. Oh, and DW and I got a new Hyundai Palisade on loan. We removed Lifetime gym membership and got Peloton. DW also has 8 OTF sessions per month.

Now DW is looking at new single family home in neighborhood we just refied our townhouse less than a year ago.

Only one of us understands/cares about income creep.

Sorry if grumpy post by me

 

[Finance Dave]

Looks like a few common themes on here...with most people spending less on travel and more on home improvements. Thanks everyone for comments.

 

[Out of Steam]

Because our daughter moved in with us for the duration, our spending hasn’t fallen as much as it would have otherwise.

It still dropped off about $1K a month (15%) early in the pandemic. More recently, we have spent a little more on our house and a couple of AirBnB rentals, so have settled in about $400 a month lower than before.

Because of residual risk from COVID-19, I suspect that reduced domestic travel and restaurant meals may be long-term changes for us.

 

[ivinsfan]

Because our daughter moved in with us for the duration, our spending hasn’t fallen as much as it would have otherwise.

It still dropped off about $1K a month (15%) early in the pandemic. More recently, we have spent a little more on our house and a couple of AirBnB rentals, so have settled in about $400 a month lower than before.

Because of residual risk from COVID-19, I suspect that reduced domestic travel and restaurant meals may be long-term changes for us.

Well we'll be completely vaccinated on the 15th and we'd definitely do domestic car travel in the US. Not right away since so many places are closed and limited. But it wouldn't be fear of COVID that kept us home. We aren't big restaurant eaters anyway, but it is one thing we do when traveling.

 

[davidfin]

No, we spent way more.
Dividing expenses between normal daily living expenses and asset purchases. Normal year, we travel a lot. Domestic and international. Definitely no international travel but a few Covid safe trips locally. So daily living expenses are down 10 to 15% maybe a bit more.

After discussing for years buying an RV, we pulled the trigger on a lovely class C in September to allow safer travel in the time of Covid. So overall, expenses increased by several 10s of $1000s.

So in a weird way, Covid helped us get off the fence RV wise, and we couldn’t be happier.

 

[FIREarly]

After discussing for years buying an RV, we pulled the trigger on a lovely class C in September to allow safer travel in the time of Covid. So overall, expenses increased by several 10s of $1000s.

Imagine if Tesla releases a RV or some version of long distance traveling truck. They have the Cybertruck being released soon and the top of the line starts at $70k (?) and gets 500 mpc (miles per charge). It does not have a kitchen or bathroom or shower in it. They say it's great for tailgating

It's also bulletproof to 9mm... hahahaha

 

[JustCurious]

My total 2020 spending was 70% of my total 2019 spending. Some of the spending reduction was unrelated to Covid, but most of it was reduced travel and entertainment and eating out.

 

[Golden sunsets]

25k less, or 22%, comparing YOY core expenses before income taxes which were dramatically less as we didn't take our RMD's and before lumpy expenses as we boughtincreased. which we had planned for 2020.

Reduced expense categories included travel, entertainment, pet care, and clothing, while groceries increased.

 

[Broland]

We've spent a LOT less on travel, about the same on food, and a LOT more on home improvements (which is never-ending)

 

[Out of Steam]

Well we'll be completely vaccinated on the 15th and we'd definitely do domestic car travel in the US. Not right away since so many places are closed and limited. But it wouldn't be fear of COVID that kept us home. We aren't big restaurant eaters anyway, but it is one thing we do when traveling.

We'll be doing most things once vaccinated, which I'm guessing will be in 45-60 days, but I'm somewhat skeptical about the prospects for herd immunity in the US.

My assumption is that there will be some continuing COVID risk, but we will be taking car trips, mainly to see family and friends.

 

[disneysteve]

I'm somewhat skeptical about the prospects for herd immunity in the US.

My assumption is that there will be some continuing COVID risk

We really can't achieve herd immunity at least until there is a pediatric vaccine since about 25% of the population is under 18.


Most epidemiologists are expecting COVID to become endemic, meaning it stays with us long term, like the flu. We'll likely need regular/annual booster vaccines. Hopefully at some point they can come up with a combination flu/COVID shot to make things easier.

 

[Crewer]

Like others, our spending is down significantly, ~$25k, mostly because of no travel but also from no gym membership and no rowing club fees. The gym and rowing clubs are nonprofits so I donated more than I usually do to them but haven't paid membership or summer league fees. And we've decided to keep our car longer than previously planned.

We will have 2nd doses in about 2 weeks but things won't change much for us until many more people get their doses. DH isn't keen on my rowing starting in May but I'm hopeful since probably everyone on my team will be vaccinated before then. I miss doing more things with our kids, though we only need better weather to remedy that, and getting together with friends and better weather will help with that, too. DH is really missing travel. We have a Caribbean cruise scheduled with lots of family in Nov and I think that will go but I doubt that in 2021 we will be able to take any of our other deferred international trips.

 

[HtownRose]

I switched to working from home so saved a lot on gas & tolls, but household spending is way up due to my 85 year old Mom falling on her way into the grocery store in October. Her hands were in her pockets searching for her mask so she landed mostly on her face / mouth. $15,000 to the dentist & oral surgeon. We had hoped the store would pay since the paint on the curb was faded at the accessible entrance but they denied responsibility & offered only $1000.

 

[Finance Dave]

Htown, so sorry to hear about your mom...hope she is doing better and gets good care. I have an 88 YO MIL so I know how fragile they can be.