2020 spending from a non-budgeting person!

[2021aespending]

poof

[ohgillian]

Good timing b/c I was meaning to read and comment on the other one this weekend too. Props for your charts. It's all so indepth that these take a lot for me to digest. I'm impressed by how relatively low your food spending is for 2 people in a HCOL area. I know that with covid it was a weird year all around. Maybe I just have an inflated idea of what HCOL areas actually cost. I don't know.

If I'm following you, you started the year with various consumer/medical debt and now have none of that type of debt? That's awesome.

[dr.girlfriend]

Great job paying off debt! Aren't you guys eligible for Roths? I would fund 401k up to any match, and then fund Roths. I funded a Roth when I was in grad school even though it was all the money I had at the time, and it's increased about 4-fold tax-free (of course I went to grad school during the recession). Where do you put little purchases of "things" in your budgeting? I feel like was spend a ton at Amazon/Target that's not clothes but wouldn't fit in your other categories, but maybe you're doing a better job of that.

[jwright]

Despite the pandemic, I think your groceries and eating out are pretty solidly in hand! Great job!

[2021aespending]

poof@ohgillian

[ohgillian]

Jan 11, 2021 11:56:38 GMT -5 2021aespending said:

ohgillian , sorry I thought I replied to you already but I must not have submitted it. Yes, I paid off $28k in debt.

Thanks for the comments on groceries & eating out. I feel like we spend too much there but maybe not? As for groceries, I do try to shop at one local chain that is much cheaper than Kroger or the bigger chains. I also buy a lot in bulk at Costco.

dr.girlfriend , thanks, I haven't really thought about a Roth. I know I have one and used to contribute to it but stopped. As for the little things, I think most ended up in groceries or home maintenance categories. Amazingly I only spent $156 at Target this year and it was all clothes. That's fully due to the pandemic and my local target doesn't do curbside. My Amazon purchases are all grocery items or house stuff like light bulbs.

I don't do a great job of categorizing like this, but still, the bolded is true for me. I get a lot of my groceries at Target, but also non-grocery stuff there too like masking tape or toothpaste or a replacement spatula -- there's no way I'm going to separate all that out off each receipt. 

[dr.girlfriend]

Jan 11, 2021 11:56:38 GMT -5 2021aespending said:

 As for the little things, I think most ended up in groceries or home maintenance categories. Amazingly I only spent $156 at Target this year and it was all clothes. That's fully due to the pandemic and my local target doesn't do curbside. My Amazon purchases are all grocery items or house stuff like light bulbs.

I'm impressed!  I expect we spend way too much on Amazon stuff, and some of it might be clothing and/or grocery items (trash bags, dog food, etc.) but a lot of it is probably books, small computer stuff, etc.