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2019 Spending

January 5th, 2020 at 03:15 pm

I skipped the last couple of years, but will revisit our Top 5 and Lowest 5 expenses for 2019.

{I keep track of all our spending/accounts using software, so I still have meticulous records even if I have mostly put it on ignore the past couple of years}.



2016 Commentary:
I highlighted the vacation spending because we aren't big vacation spenders and these are very one-off type expenses. Our annual budget is only $2,000 for vacation, and is more in the realm of what I foresee spending the next several years.

On the mortgage, we made an extra payment (or two?) versus last year. We should be under the $7,000 mark on mortgage interest in the future. This is one of those expenses that is snowballing downward very rapidly.

Auto expenses include repairs/maintenance, insurance, registration, fuel. (We pay cash for cars; no car payments).

{I do have details on the autos, and I also track expenses per vehicle. For 2016: $1944 fuel, $1800 insurance, $278 registration, $803 repairs/maintenance}.

Medical expenses are insane, but our insurance has covered almost seven figures in medical procedures for my husband (before age 40). So, at least I know we get our money's worth, and it's very important for us to have high quality insurance. I am sure given different circumstances we would have just gone "cheap". It's been our biggest expense for several years, so is nothing new. It's been our biggest challenge with *one income* living, but we live so far below our means that we have been able to deal with it. But I know it's so glaring that I should address.

**I have not included income taxes because is not a large expense for us.**

The interesting thing about our lowest expenses is that it tends to be our more luxury spending. I am sure I have said it a million times before, but will say it again. We don't do without. We just are careful and rein in costs, and shop around. & prioritize what is the most important. So most of our "luxury" type spending ends up towards the bottom.

I expect our total expenses to be about the same for the next couple of years. We have some home maintenance ($$$$) to tend to. Starting to talk braces for both kids. So stuff like that will probably replace our recent vacation spending. These are things we also want to take care of while our income is high and before our kids start college.


2019 Commentary:
Not much has changed but we did bump "Vacation" off of our list, as expected. Travel is not something we highly value and I don't expect it to be a priority in the near future (if ever). I can't even imagine why we'd spend $9k on vacation. 2016 was a ridiculous year of over-paying for just a couple of domestic trips to D.C. Very one-off.

Medical tops the list as always, but was bumped up with the Orthodontia expenses. (It's a medical tax deduction, so I lumped ortho with our other medical expenses).

Groceries bumped up significantly with MM(16) doing track this school year. So that bump up is mostly adding track for 6 months, though may include a couple of years of increasing appetites (in between). 2020 will be interesting with the full year of track. I had bumped up my grocery budget to $850 monthly ($10k annually) in 2020 but I wouldn't be surprised if I have to bump it up more mid-year.

I think where we are at with this is we give up and only have to feed that kid for another 18 months at home. There was some talk of revisiting Costco at some point, but we keep coming back to that it's just not convenient whatsoever. (It doesn't help that everyone we know personally who raves about Costco spends a bajillion dollars on food). We would probably be smart to ask our parents to pick up a few things here and there. We had some $9 pizza on Christmas and I wouldn't mind having a few of those around, but then again we don't have any freezer space and we just don't feel like re-inventing the wheel for 18 months. Meh.

P.S. We did offer MM(16) to reimburse him 50% (in cash) of any "employee discount" grocery savings he can earn us if he can get a job at the grocery store we frequent. It's actually walking distance from our house and a very strong job contender. Depends how many hours he can get there. If he wasn't doing track, it would probably be a done deal.

Mortgage interest is snowballing downwards, as expected.

Without any big vacation expenses, Auto takes it place back at #5. It was our first year with three cars.

Haircuts bumped up because my kids are interested in hair cuts now. MM(16) actually took himself for a haircut the other day. & I don't have to drag DL(14) kicking and screaming any more. Phew!

We mostly make it a rule not to buy any subscriptions and are pretty conscience about refusing to be nickel and dimed for anything. (Man those little things add up!) But... MH needed to sign up for a newspaper subscription (online for $20?) in order to continue to participate in the newspaper rewards program. He always gets free movie tickets and show tickets. This was $20 well spent. He won several movie and concert tickets in 2019 and he won another Kindle Fire? He easily won $500 worth of prizes last year. Sadly, they ended their rewards program (last month?) so there is no more of that. He did not renew this subscription, accordingly.

This last item didn't make the Bottom 5 list but is worth mentioning. MH signed up for a movie pass type deal with a regional theater (the one closest to our home) and pays $20/month for unlimited movies. Truly unlimited. Talk about luxury spending (what is a very high priority for him) taking up very little of our budget. That's been awesome. Just like movie pass, he is still running up reward points with every movies he sees, so this deal also comes with a lot of free movie passes so I can tag along (about as often as I would want to, which is not a lot).

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Some 2018 versus 2019 notes:

Car expenses went down by $1,200, though we added a third car. Some of it was MM(16) taking over the "third car" expenses when he turned 16 (mid-year). Most of it is switching to electric vehicle/fuel for my new/longer commute. & of course, we no longer have to pay for all that fuel to shuttle MM(16) around, so we had some cost savings there.

Grocery spending +$1,300 over last year.

Medical +$7,500 (+orthodontia) - clearly a one-off expense.

Professional Dues -$2,000. My employer (very unexpectedly) offered to pay and also reimbursed me for some 2018 expenses.

Misc. -$3,000
Not entirely sure what that is about, but we did consciously scale back on the show tickets and so on with my job change and salary reduction. Then again, I was making so much side income we had some "what the heck?" moments.

In 2018 we did replace our cell phones (ahead of expected job change and salary reduction) and bought a new washer and dryer. We did also buy a charger for the new car (an auto expense, I suppose). We did spend $2,300 on concerts and events: A few symphony shows, Iron Maiden, Weird Al, Sketchfest, Robot Wars, a musical, a book signing, and various smaller concerts and events.

In 2019 we did buy a (used) elliptical for almost $1,000 and a new TV and sound bar. But... LOL, we spent $70 on concerts and events. I suppose we took that very seriously that was the thing to go with my pay cut. I am actually surprised because I feel like we were pretty lax with all the side income I Was earning. This is also not completely fair because we spent $200 but it's offset by a $120 reimbursement from MH's friend for some concert tickets we bought (the year before).😁 We clearly had less bigger purchases and significantly cut down on the concert/event spending. It's just nothing I would have remembered, without seeing it in such glaring black and white.

I don't know that anything will change in 2020. My budget is pretty tight by the time I factored our actual grocery spending, tax increases, health insurance increases, etc. If we had some extra money I would like to go to the Symphony more, but the Symphony is expensive. It might be mostly on hold until our kids are done with college. Our art museum does some pretty amazing concerts for $10 or $20, so we will be creative and figure it out. We also do go to a lot of concerts and musicals (professional level) at the art school which is maybe why I don't *feel* much difference between the two years. & duh, we probably bought a lot of tickets in 2018 that we used in 2019.

1 Responses to “2019 Spending”

  1. rob62521 Says:
    1578253142

    The movie pass sounds wonderful. I'd say that was money well spent.

    Although most things went up in three years, they weren't drastic increased like groceries and such. You are careful with money and it shows.

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