Spending less during COVID?

[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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfin 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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ivinsfan 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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Out of Steam 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.

[HtownRose]

Thank you so much! Yes, doing much better with her mouth. And fully vaccinated now, so we may venture out to visit family in a month or so.

[YVRRocketSurgery]

We were pretty much flat, spending $1k less in 2020 than 2019. We spent about 1/3 of normal travel budget, getting some smaller trips in before everything started shutting down mid-March for us and got a regional trip in during the late summer when the case counts were low and they were encouraging travel within the province. Our normal travel, entertainment, and commuting spends ended up being redirected to home stuff. Eating out got redirected to higher food costs and buying groceries for our folks so they didn't have to go out.

[Katsmeow]

I suspect our spending much less due to Covid is about to change a bit now that we are fully vaccinated. When Covid hit we had just finished remodeling but still needed to buy some furniture for a room or two and needed to get window coverings. We even had measurements done but then just stopped on everything. I suspect that over the next couple of months we will get that all done. Of course, that is something we always planned to do and have the money set aside to do it.

I think some of our spending will stay lower for quite awhile. We will be doing takeout only for a while but I have a few things that I've put off for a year.

[DrRoy]

Spent more. Still travelled, but by car instead of air. Remodeled the house, including an already in the works new outdoor covered deck, which much helped with lockdown times.

[rayinpenn]

Finished our income tax return this morning and was surprised to see how little we spent this year. We had a pretty big medical/dentist spend included in it. It has me rethinking what our basic budget is. The cars sat, we stayed in, and we maybe did pizza/hoagies once every other week. One pricey Thai takeout for the kids; it was delicious, I discovered I like drunken noodles.

No Home Depot, No Lowe’s pretty much nothing. Anyone else discover this as well.