How much has your spending decreased?

[mlkgls]

Not by much.

I’m still commuting to work daily, but saving a little due to lower gas prices. I’ve made significantly fewer grocery trips, but prices seem higher so it feels like a bit of a wash. Travel and outside entertainment weren’t huge budget line items anyway. I am assuming summer care prices will increase due to lower enrollment, but that is only a guess. 

Edit: Healthcare costs have gone down due to DS not having his weekly OT appointments, but that’s temporary pending virtual visits starting up.

[waverly]

Saved $1000 from cancelling our spring break trip (house rental), probably saved in eating out and activities as well.

Saved $165 a week in aftercare. And money in gas and tolls. Saved in school lunches.

We have spent the same in food. Our only purchases are basically food and house stuff, some clothes.

Paid more money in home repairs, trapped a raccoon, fence fixed, screens and windows fixed, landscape spring clean up.

Saved money by washing windows ourselves since they would have had to come inside to take out storms and screens.


I don’t know if sleep away camp will be cancelled. We had paid half of that maybe. We hadn’t paid for day camp yet, and are hiring a nanny instead for the same price (less hours).

[bdubs419]

We are spending less on some things (no daycare) but spending a lot more on other things (mainly food). We have been doing grocery deliveries and between inflated costs, delivery and tip it can be super expensive. We are also going through so much more food having the kids home all day everyday. We also ordered a Peleton which offset the daycare benefit. So I’d say overall we are actually spending more!

[ellipses84]

I need to check to get a true number. We are saving about $750 on daycare and $200 discount on rent since none of our amenities are available. We are hardly getting takeout so that expense has gone way down, but our grocery bill has gone up. I’ve spent quite a bit online for entertainment, face masks, Easter, and at home bdays, but it’s way less than if we’d have a real bday party (nevermind 3). We’re spending way less on gas and our car insurance is being reduced 10 or 15%.

I got laid off, but I also got severance, vacation payout, stimulus, etc. so our bank account has way more money than typical. Also with the extra federal unemployment with DH being furloughed, we are basically bringing home the same as we normally do through July 31. We have to save as much as possible though in case I don’t find a job for a few months. Health insurance is going to be less with better coverage under ACA than Cobra (and probably less than my old work premiums).

[sadlebred]

Has anyone noticed not being able to save on groceries? I coupon, stack coupons (not extreme coupon--just on things I buy anyway), and shop Publix BOGOs. In the last 6 weeks I've barely been able to do that. I think it's one reason my grocery bill has gone up.

[clairebear]

May 3, 2020 16:24:45 GMT -5 sadlebred said:

Has anyone noticed not being able to save on groceries? I coupon, stack coupons (not extreme coupon--just on things I buy anyway), and shop Publix BOGOs. In the last 6 weeks I've barely been able to do that. I think it's one reason my grocery bill has gone up.

It seems like Publix has cut way back on their BOGOs. I've moved over to Walmart curbside pickup. Publix is too expensive if I can't get the BOGOs I need. 

[Cappy]

Daycare and before/after care savings of $1800/month, Gas savings of $250/month, Hair savings $80/month. Food spending has gone up (as has alcohol). If I had to guess without opening up a spreadsheet I'd say about a 30-35% decrease in our total monthly expenses.

[egishere]

I don’t think we are saving a whole lot other than gas and tolls for me. DH has a company car so those are paid by his company. No other shopping trips to Target etc but that probably saves about $150 a month.

Food probably about the same. We get takeout 2-3 times a week. I’m still being charged $150 a month for my gym which I’m ok with for now but if it’s closed another month or two I’ll need to work something out. They are doing online workouts but I’m not participating in those because I don’t like a bunch of body weight exercises and the whole logging on at a certain time. They only opened in dec so I really feel for the owner. I walk or bike outside or workout in our basement.

We don’t have much in child care expenses during the school year since I work PT. Not paying for DDs gymnastics right now. They are prorating for what we had prepaid whenever they reopen. And my other two kids soccer we were out about $800 (one rec, one competitive $$) but they are going to give a credit of 90% we can use thru 2022 which I’m good with.

We have spent some money for things for the house-new bike for DS $100, new chrome book and printer for school stuff $400, treadmill $700 and a Blackstone griddle $270 - which was an awesome purchase by the way! We have used it almost daily to cook on.

We had no trips or anything booked so nothing lost or gained there.

[kadams767]

May 3, 2020 16:24:45 GMT -5 sadlebred said:

Has anyone noticed not being able to save on groceries? I coupon, stack coupons (not extreme coupon--just on things I buy anyway), and shop Publix BOGOs. In the last 6 weeks I've barely been able to do that. I think it's one reason my grocery bill has gone up.

I think it is close to impossible for grocery stores to have traditional sales right now due to the inventory issues.  At least here, my store has some totally random brand items that they normally don’t stock, and are out of tons of the regular brands.  They are also out of random items entirely from week to week (usually not the same items, either) due to supply chain issues and demand.  

[simpsongal]

May 3, 2020 16:24:45 GMT -5 sadlebred said:

Has anyone noticed not being able to save on groceries? I coupon, stack coupons (not extreme coupon--just on things I buy anyway), and shop Publix BOGOs. In the last 6 weeks I've barely been able to do that. I think it's one reason my grocery bill has gone up.

ours has doubled if not more. I think we’re saving some but it’s not as much as I would have hoped. Half price daycare now, but extra costs for things to keep them occupied.

[Pilsy]

I need to review our statements to put a dollar figure on it, but we're saving quite a bit.

My electric bill is up! And my grocery bills have increased significantly, but that's a trade-off for no longer having all our coffee (which is complimentary) and lunches at work. We're also used to dining out at least twice/week, whereas we've had takeout a total of three times in 6 weeks now. I've bought a few things for entertainment at home I might not have were we not in captivity, but the total for that stuff - mostly games and art supplies for the kids - is <$200.

We're only paying our cleaner 1/2 what we normally pay while she doesn't come, we're no longer filling our gas tanks weekly (for 40-minute commutes), and daycare and after-school care are no longer charging us. We don't go out a ton, anyway, but we happened to have three nights out planned for late March and early April, so we missed all those babysitting costs, too.

My H and I are both on reduced hours and pay, so we're very cost-conscious. I am really grateful our daycare isn't charging anyone while they're not open.

[raangoli]

@@@@@ mentions below @@@@@

We’re saving on daycare (reduced rate) and gas. Other than that we’re probably spending more on food since I’ve been relying on Instacart heavily and we do a Costco run for food more often.

Add in the additional money I’ve been spending on clothes for BB (she needs new spring/summer) clothes and random stuff to keep her occupied it adds up. I’ve also bought some clothes for myself which were also needed. I feel like I’ve spent a lot more of things than I would have otherwise. 😬

[illgetthere]

Total monthly spend is about the same. I normally spend about $70/month on gas, and I didn't get any gas in April. I also didn't get any lunches out like I did before, so another $80 there plus the $50 for school lunches. Groceries went up by a couple hundred though and take out was about the same (4 or 5x over 6 weeks). I'm sure utilities are up compared to normal. The only cost savings is from cancelling vacations and getting prepaids back from those two trips
I've done a small target drive up order plus snagged some amazing deals from Loft ($4 sweaters!) and DSW plus a wallflowers order from BBW, so general spending is about the same

Edit: $100/month savings between the gym and tanning, and $15/month on car insurance. I guess that's probably my total savings

[just]

Overall - an embarrassing amount

And it's all eating out - even with takeout (once a week), and a much higher than average grocery/liquor store bill, we're saving so much money.

I usually walk or bike to work, and my DH has an EV so not saving on gas

Slight increase in heat since we usually keep the house at 64 when we're at work, and March and April were cold.

[melmel48]

May 3, 2020 16:24:45 GMT -5 sadlebred said:

Has anyone noticed not being able to save on groceries? I coupon, stack coupons (not extreme coupon--just on things I buy anyway), and shop Publix BOGOs. In the last 6 weeks I've barely been able to do that. I think it's one reason my grocery bill has gone up.

Yes, along with not being able to do price comparison. Often I have to purchase what is available. 

[ssmjlm]

I know we're saving on before/after care and not eating out as much, but I feel like it's being spent on other stuff. DH is still going to work, so we're not seeing a huge gas savings except weekend driving.

I don't think our grocery bill has gone up a ton, definitely not shopping at costco like we used to. Even if we did go, our store is not being re-stocked well at all the 2x we've gone in the last 6 weeks.

I've bought a few clothing items, but not much, mostly because I don't have a lot of "lounge" clothes since I work in an office.

I've probably spent a bit more on target delivery since we can't just run to target for stuff and amazon didn't have it in stock.

Add me to the "bought clothes for work and now they're sitting in the closet" group.

[simpsongal]

Fuller response since I'm on my laptop now....

Savings:
DH and I used to eat lunch out at work, I'd eat breakfast too. That's probably saving us ~$100/week.
I'm saving ~$68/month on metro parking. Metro was free, and almost no gas cost. DH probably saved a couple tanks of gas, so that's something.
Daycare was full price in March and 50% now, so that's $750/savings per month for April & May.
Swim lessons savings of $200/month

(rough tally ~$2100)

Spending:
Groceries are hard to tally b/c we're eating a lot of our pantry stuff I already had from Costco runs. We're spending $250-300 at the regular grocery store b/c everything costs more, plus delivery fees. We used to spend more like $120/week, but I'd do a $400 Costco run every 6-8 weeks....so I'm guessing we're spending an extra $150/week on groceries if not more.  I'm probably going to drop $800 at Costco when I finally go back.

Takeout costs are probably a wash.

Amazon & Target costs....hard to say what they *would* have been....but it's been a lot since this hit, probably several hundred dollars in extra spending

We subscribed to Disney Plus, so that's an extra cost.

Coffee table ($450)?  We bought one for our living room b/c we play games there.  We would have bought one eventually, but we bought it now b/c of the SIP order.

We upped our charitable giving and gave extra money to our cleaners, so that's more spending too.

Overall, we're definitely saving money. We had a $2000 furnace repair last month, that's probably why it doesn't feel like much.
  

[froggy76]

I don't think we're saving much. Lots of online shopping, takeout, grocery delivery, and sending gifts to family and friends. We're still paying daycare, gym, house cleaner. When we do takeout/delivery and grocery delivery, we are tipping extra, so it's very expensive!

We're saving on aftercare for DD, doggie daycare, slight savings on gas (I WFH before and H's commute is short).

[madringal]

Despite a 50% increase in groceries, our spending plummeted. We normally spend $300 a month in gas, in April it was $15. Eating out is virtually $0 (we ordered take out for Easter, that was it). No sports, no child care, no lunches, no coffees, no entertainment, nothing. The past two months have been great for savings.

ETA: And between three cancelled vacations we had planned - we saved an additional $5500.

[keweenawlove]

We're paying about what we paid in daycare to a babysitter but for less hours.

Gas is way down. I normally commute to Chicago twice a week. H is still in the office so those costs have been normal but driving around elsewhere has been almost non-existant.

Travel (at least before DD) was huge so that's down to zero.

We've been getting takeout about as often as we'd eat out but not getting drinks out saves a ton. Although we've been working hard at matching that costs experimenting with new cocktails.

We have saved a ton on entertainment but might have also matched that spending trying to get new toys to keep DD busy.

I also went on a buying spree early in this getting new "work clothes" and fun leggings/loungewear make it a little fun to get dressed in the morning.

[lolalolalola]

We are spending much less overall because we have had three trips cancelled. However we are spending a LOT more on grocers as I do one weekly shop vs sale shopping across multiple stores. I haven’t been to cosbtxo in 2 months either which impacts our grocery bill.

my grocery bill is up 40%

[hurricanedrunk]

Groceries are down but not by much. Car expenses are down. I got a letter from our auto insurance we're getting a $50 rate decrease for the year and we didn't spend any money on gas last month.

Eating out spending has been moved over to pick up/delivery orders. Spending less on this without the alcohol purchases. We've shifted that over to getting a growler or two filled from local breweries instead. Even with that overall it's down.

The biggest decrease is with entertainment and having bigger events like concerts/parties/a wedding cancelled. These should (hopefully) happen later this year so it's more deferred spending.

Home repairs & misc things for the house are up. Spending more time at home makes one want to do all the projects.

[tacokick]

May 3, 2020 16:24:45 GMT -5 sadlebred said:

Has anyone noticed not being able to save on groceries? I coupon, stack coupons (not extreme coupon--just on things I buy anyway), and shop Publix BOGOs. In the last 6 weeks I've barely been able to do that. I think it's one reason my grocery bill has gone up.

I’ve noticed some sales but nothing crazy like BOGO. The sale ads now all say “limited availability” now. I will say that BOGO sales were never the norm here to begin with.

[Susie]

We're not saving all that much.  The big things we're saving on (gas, food out) has been replaced by what we're spending on activities for the kids at home.  I've also been ordering seeds, plants, etc. for the yard.  We just got a quote to have a tree removed.  I'm also buying stuff for the basement workout room that I'm trying to decorate (already have a treadmill and bikes down there but it's a crappy hole in the house kind of place and I'm trying to make it nicer).  I've offset a little of that by selling baby stuff that my kids have outgrown, but not all of it.

I'm saving on my cancelled haircuts, but I was already cutting the rest of the family's hair and grooming the dog myself so no savings there.  I stopped going for massages about a year ago and I DIY my nails (when they're done at all), so again no savings there.

Plus we're still paying our housekeeper (but doing the cleaning myself), paying for the gym even though it's closed (it's now considered a donation to the Y) and May is the first month that we're not paying 100% for daycare (while watching our kids ourselves).  Our lives look totally different but the finances aren't showing it.

I guess the biggest savings is that our summer vacation to Colorado was cancelled.  Sigh.

[gt7301b]

Our grocery bill is out of control. We added milk and egg delivery from a local creamery and we get grocery delivery every other week. I used to plan our meals around sales and shop at Aldi every couple weeks for staples. That has all gone out the window right now.

We aren't paying for daycare, gas, or travel so even with increased groceries we have been saving a fair amount. I hope to be able to send DS back to daycare soon.

[scout8]

May 4, 2020 6:42:03 GMT -5 melmel48 said:

May 3, 2020 16:24:45 GMT -5 sadlebred said:

Has anyone noticed not being able to save on groceries? I coupon, stack coupons (not extreme coupon--just on things I buy anyway), and shop Publix BOGOs. In the last 6 weeks I've barely been able to do that. I think it's one reason my grocery bill has gone up.

Yes, along with not being able to do price comparison. Often I have to purchase what is available. 

Even when there are options, I don't want to spend too much time comparing. Going to the store feels a little like going into battle. I'm uncomfortable in my mask and I want to get out before anyone gets close to me. I'm much more efficient than I used to be. 

[wildrice]

I think we came in around $600 or so under budget last month. It would have been more but I had to spend $330 fixing our stove. It seems like anytime that we have extra money, ever, something weird like that comes up though.

We just moved so I doubt we'll be spending any less this month. I spent $450 today between groceries and Home Depot, lol.

We are not spending money on gas or entertainment - last gas fillup was around March 11th. We are eating takeout about as often as we'd eat out normally, but it is generally cheaper because usually if we go out we get drinks too. Since we pack lunches and eat most meals at home, I don't think our grocery bill has really changed much.

[sometimesrunner]

Ours hasn't really. DD's birthday was just over a week ago, and DS's is in just over ten days from now, so this time of year is always pricey. But this year I bought more presents than usual. Also more crafts/activities to keep them occupied. I've been decorating a bit because I've finally had the mental bandwidth to make decisions, and we've also been paying a nanny rather than sending DD to preschool. I'm done with bday gifts and I think the home goods buying will slow down so I bet this month will be better.

[winnied]

We're spending more but almost intentionally so. With our (thankfully) very stable jobs we feel a duty to spend money on gifts for friends, meals for friends, supporting local businesses.

We also live someone low cost lives - we already worked from home, we don't have kids, aren't big shoppers, etc.

[Velar Fricative]

Our grocery expenses are through the roof (mostly delivery plus sizable tips) so it doesn’t feel like we’ve seen of ton of savings, but I’ll have to crunch numbers. Daycare savings has so far mostly gone towards buying some home gym equipment. We really wanted to avoid spending that money but we really need the physical activity and NYC won’t reopen gyms anytime soon. I think even if we haven’t saved money now, as the summer goes by, we will.