After you FIRED and retired, were there expenses you immediately cut or stopped?

[cyber888]

I'm sure that many here live by frugal rules to achieve FIRE. And even though many of you have squirreled away enough for retirement and even for FAT Fire, I know that many tend to cut some cost after the paycheck stop.

I told my DW that I'm not going to spend on clothing, jackets, and shoes, because I still have brand new walking & running shoes I have not worn and we've had enough clothes bought. I still have basic cable with the fewest channels, and was thinking that could go, but I don't know yet. But we're going to spend more on travel.

Care to share what expenses you cut or downsized?

 

[MarieIG]

The NYC subway and for the most part the Long Island Rail Road.

Also "shopping the stash" for clothes and jewelry which I (or DH) bought while working. I might as well enjoy some of my own vintage stuff.

 

[Gumby]

We eat at restaurants far less than when we were working. Back then, we would go out by default on Friday night because we were tired, and we ate at least lunches out on Saturday and Sunday because we had so many other chores to do. The food wasn't better, but we were freed of the need to cook and clean. We now have plenty of time to do both.

We also took the opportunity to cut the cord on overpriced cable TV that we never watched.

 

[street]

Care to share what expenses you cut or downsized?

I really can't think of one thing we cut back on. If anything, we spent a lot more now on things than when we were working. I really did change my thinking after the first couple of years in retirement. I was going to spend on whatever and whenever I wanted. It comes a time when keeping on saving makes no sense. If you want it and you have the money to buy it than why not.

 

[CaptTom]

Commuting costs were a big one. Moving to a lower tax bracket significantly decreased my income tax expenditure. But basically I was living on 40% of my salary anyway, so when I had the opportunity to retire with a 40% pension, I took it.

 

[Gumby]

Commuting costs were a big one. Moving to a lower tax bracket significantly decreased my income tax expenditure. But basically I was living on 40% of my salary anyway, so when I had the opportunity to retire with a 40% pension, I took it.

Yes, I neglected to mention the commuting costs. For the 11 years prior to retirement, I was commuting 100 miles per day by car, which is a lot of gas and attendant maintenance. I also no longer needed to go to the dry cleaners once a week.

 

[W2R]

I spend very little on clothing in retirement. I wear the usual "retiree uniform", shorts and a t-shirt, and sandals, because dressing that way is so comfortable for me.

We have never been travel enthusiasts, but before retirement we'd drive to Missouri or other states maybe once or twice a year when we could get a week off. For me a big part of the motivation for doing that, was to put a lot of miles between me and my workplace (and work stresses). Now that I'm not working, that isn't necessary.

Commuting to and from work was never much of an expense for me, since I only lived five minutes from work (by car). That was intentional.

No need to save for retirement any more!

 

[Fermion]

401K contributions were a big expense we cut out. Also SS contributions and Medicare tax.

 

[RobbieB]

Have not cut any costs. Only added. But cutting some soon -

 

[Teacher Terry]

Before retirement I had a house cleaner once a month. I stopped after I retired and we ate out less. Now single for the past year with my income cut in half I cut everything that didn’t affect my quality of life such as cable tv and getting my hair colored at a salon.

 

[Alan]

We immediately sold one of our 2 cars.

Overall our expenses went up because we then started doing a lot of travel.

 

[Dtail]

Less food costs and cut down on cable costs.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Fuel.



I was pretty lean before and with the market and inflation my first year, I am not looking to BTD yet. In fact, I've been struggling to manufacture spending. I like taking advantage of credit card bonuses (last was using Apple Pay with one of my CC and spend $100 in the next month to get a $10 credit) and have trouble finding legit spending... I'm not going to buy something I wouldn't have anyway and occasionally will buy gift cards to make up the difference when it's an option. Most of my spending goes to property taxes and insurance (home/auto/health). Health insurance actually went down slightly as the ACA with subsidy is cheaper than my contribution to my employer's plan.


I'll eventually travel more but hope that is mitigated by being able to travel when deals present themselves and not when I can get away from work. I've been on several short trips this year but mostly visiting family.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

We did not cut anything, in fact we added some. But our clothing costs, individual lunch out costs, commuting costs and other W*rk related costs went down.

We did cut one car, but that is a blip in the grand scheme of things after almost 15 years.

Covid cut our overall costs more, mainly travel.

 

[Midpack]

Dry cleaning! But our spending went up, deliberately.

Medicare is a bargain but our medical expenses have increased, since we lost the Megacorp subsidies. We eat out 3 times/week, used be 2/week. We bought a larger home in a state with higher income taxes. Travel has stayed about the same for us. OTOH after 25 years owning sailboats, when we sold our last one our medical increase was offset by the reduction in boating costs. Everything else stayed about the same, but more than a third of our spending is discretionary - we can cut that instantly should it become necessary, that was always part of our plan.

 

[aja8888]

Commuting costs (gas, maintenance, lunches, etc).

Also cut up DW's credit card!

 

[dm]

401K contributions were a big expense we cut out. Also SS contributions and Medicare tax.

That is only thing I can think of.

But I decided to try flying, and bought a plane, then I moved to Florida and since I live on a canal, bought a boat. So expenses are way up.

But I don’t want to burden my kids with worrying about sudden wealth after the wife and I are gone.

 

[Dawg52]

Dry cleaning! But our spending went up, deliberately.

Dry cleaning as well. Don't purchase dress clothes anymore just golf and beach attire. Most daily expenses remained the same with the exception of travel to my condo and expenses associated with it.

 

[CaptTom]

401K contributions were a big expense we cut out. Also SS contributions and Medicare tax.

Good one, I'd forgotten about the 401k contributions. That, all the taxes, and commuting costs were the biggest parts of the 60% of my gross income which was never part of my spending.

I will say that I was fortunate to work in a field where dry cleaning was never an expense. Going to the "retiree uniform" wasn't a huge change for me. About the only thing I don't buy as many of any more are socks. If anything, I go through more clothes now, working around the house and boat.

 

[Surewhitey]

A little different here. Started coasting in Feb of 2019 as DW didn't want to stop her j*b...

My largest reduction was commuting (70 miles round trip) and lunch every day. $6-8k annually right there. I do still work a little, but I only take jobs that are 5 miles or less from the casa. Eat way more healthy and never go out to lunch any more (quality food is hard to find now anyway).

I expect the car to last twice as long now too... New "office attire is t-shirts and shorts, so savings there along with dry cleaning.

Already reduced cable to HULU no ad. Cut out Prime lately with prime books to save another $25-30/mo. Amazon isn't as inexpensive as they used to be.

We locked in a 3 year electric plan a year ago with <$.10/kwh. This was dumb luck and now people are paying minimum $.14. I'm always looking for a good way to hedge my expenses.

I also do all the grunt work (lawn/repairs) when it makes sense for repairs, saving the hiring out and adding value in the process.

 

[WhenIsItTime]

Nothing deliberate. Fortunate to have FI before RE.

 

[MichaelB]

The first change in expense after quitting work was we sharply reduced eating out. While working we had little time for family meals and made up for that by going out. Once unemployed, free time was no longer an obstacle and there was no need to go out.

 

[brucethebroker]

We immediately sold one of our 2 cars.

Overall our expenses went up because we then started doing a lot of travel.

+1 Yeah, the 1 car thing really reduces our expenses. Plus, we now seem more inclined to combine trips instead of just jumping into a car for a single errand. We make a game out of having No Car Days a few times each week.

We are also buying more take out rather than dining in. Started with Covid related dining room shutdowns, but we soon began enjoying not having the expenses of dine in beverages and tips (seems like 20-25% is now the expected norm). Our fave take outs are only a mile or two away, which makes a short drive, and usually not out of the way when running other errands.

 

[lawman]

No, I wish there were. Plenty I'd like to cut but my wife is hellbent on leaving as small an inheritance as possible..

 

[COcheesehead]

We moved to a lower cost of living area so property taxes went down along with home, auto and umbrella insurance.
Our gas consumption went down. We have days we’re neither car leaves the garage.
Lunch expenses went down.
Clothing expenses just switched from professional to outdoor/athletic.
We eat out less because we have more time to cook.
We no longer save, but I never considered that an expense, but that alone cut out 50% of our cashflow needs.
In our first year of retirement we were right on budget at about $140k, but we bought stuff for the new house, had some hangover taxation from a real estate sale and had some unexpected medical expenses. This year even with inflation we are about $25k below that assuming we spend our entire travel budget, which we may not.