Wow, I'm surprised by all the people saying expenses went up.
I'm 2 years into ER, and our expenses have gone down in a
very significant way. But I'm counting income taxes, payroll taxes, college and other expenses for 2 kids, and no more mortgage payment. Perhaps those weren't entirely relevant to the EBRI study, but they are very real and significant reductions for us.
Even excluding those
huge reductions, we're still down about 15-20% on other items. Some of this came from the obvious: commuting, clothes, dry cleaning, expensive work lunches. The rest came from DIY services/repairs and simply having time to pay attention to details (cable, phones, energy use, groceries, cash-back CCs, and many others). Also, we still live in a monstrous house, which will be downsized at some point, reducing expenses even further.
I concede that there was a lot of wasteful outflow last several years of working. For example, we lacked the time and energy to cook at home during the week, so we ate out quite a bit. We also paid for lots of services just due to lack of time. It was relatively easy to reel that stuff in and it now keeps me entertained.
Also, DW decided to keep working for a while, so we're not traveling as much as planned. That will certainly change the landscape a bit. Also her health insurance will go up quite a bit more than mine did at retirement. There's also some pent-up demand for hobby-related toys, like upgrading some of the woodworking machines. And we need a new car. So maybe there's hope for me yet.