2020 Spending Thread

[Zikoris]

Come one, come all, nerds unite, please post your 2020 spending numbers once compiled.

Mine:

Household of 2 + cat, Vancouver.

$10,341 - Housing. Small studio in Vancouver, plus renter's insurance.
$4,805 - Food. 86% groceries, the rest restaurants and snacks.
$2,517 - Health, skewed towards dental but also some physio for injuries, and various other stuff.
$1,861 - Entertainment. We partly replaced the loss of travel with bungee jumping and whitewater rafting, plus so so many video games and books.
$1,356 - Travel. Mostly from a winter trip last December/January pre-covid, plus a summer local getaway (cases were low at the time and it was completely allowed).
$1,013 - Bills. Two cell phones + internet.
$2,580 - Everything else. Biggest category here is "cat", followed by personal care and transportation, and then all the little things like underwear and kitchen stuff.

Total = $24,429.

[rantk81]

Total 2020 Spending (Includes property tax, HOA fees, all living expenses and utilities.  Does not include income or payroll taxes):  About 38K

[American GenX]

Single working adult household - home owner - no pets

$4872  Housing (tax and insurance)
$2700 Food
$1162 Medical & dental premiums/deduct/co-pay
$0 Entertainment
$0 Travel
$2924  electricity, natural gas, water, internet, cell
$850 gasoline, car insurance, registration
$2162  other, misc, charity, and discretionary

Total = $14,670

Not tracked to the exact dollar, so I'm going off my most recent 2020 budget revisions and adding in discretionary items to get the most accurate estimate of money that I actually spent this year, so it doesn't include imaginary sinking funds for long term home maintenance or future car purchases, which are included in my budget, but not here, because I didn't actually spend that money this year.

Savings rate = 80.2% (using MMM calculation method)

Edit: Updated some figures for discretionary and saving rate calculation.  Also found there is a separate thread for 2020 savings rate:

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/share-your-2020-savings-rate!/

MMM Savings rate calculation method:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/share-your-2020-savings-rate!/msg2763690/#msg2763690

[TheContinentalOp]

I'll play. I live by myself.

$12,179 -  Rent + utilities in one of the cheapest 1 bedroom apts, in a pricey Philadelphia suburb 2.5 miles from my place of employment
$4,115 - Groceries
$920 - Entertainment: Movies and Books. (Mostly books)
$829 - Bike repairs and maintenance. (Have to get better at DIY)
$758 - Guns/Ammo/Range Fees/CCW Renewal (Ammo is expensive)
$738 - Health/Dental/Vision/Gym Membership. (This is mostly glasses and contacts)
$750 - Car (Legal Stuff) - Insurance/Registration/Emissions/Inspection/DL Renewal
$576 - Gifts/Cards/Charitable Contributions
$395 - Gas/Tolls
$186 - Travel (Pretty much stayed home in 2020)
$174 - Phone (Ting)
$121 - Laundromat/Detergent/Dry Cleaning
$104 - Car Maintenance (2013 Ford Fiesta)
$101 - Haircuts/Grooming
$98 - Home Goods/TP/Kleenex/Soap/Trash Bags/Etc.
$81 - Dining Out
$22 - Postage/Stamps
$12 - Clothes

Total U$22,111 which looks to be about 2% of my stache if I stay on target and retire in March of this year.

[Morning Glory]

Spent 41k for family of 4. Rural property near midwest MCOL city. Pdf is attached. I saved every receipt to categorize expenses. Accurate, but time consuming. This year I'm just gonna use Mint and hope for the best 😉.

No travel this year other than a road trip to visit parents before school started, which is itemized under gas and auto expenses. We even brought our own food and had picnics!! This year I want to do a lot more travel. Plan to spend less on alcohol and hopefully less on medical bills too.

[lazycow]

Small town in Victoria, Australia. Family of 3 adults, 1 teen (18), 2 dogs. Mortgage-free. We cook almost all meals at home, a couple of local weekends away, kids pay for own entertainment, snacks, clothes, toiletries, some groceries.

Monthly expenses $4,611 AUD ($3,578 USD), so $55,332 AUD ($42,042 USD) for the year. Sounds better when I convert it to USD!

This doesn't include my husband's business expenses (self-employed).

[jehovasfitness23]

2 DINKs + 3 large dogs in HCOL area.

$66k

Savings $48k (not including company matches)

[amberfocus]

Two adult Mustachians + 3 cats in eastern Connecticut. Total spending was $23K and change.



Approximate itemization breakdowns for each broad category are as follows --

Auto/Transport - two older cars

- $800 gasoline
- $332 DMV
- $731 insurance
- $680 maintenance/repair
- $202 taxes
- $405 tolls (pre-pandemic)
- $104 carpool (pre-pandemic)

Medical/Dental

- $973 + $2378 medical premiums (me + SO)
- $115 + $250 dental premiums (me + SO)
- $291 LTD
- remainder meds, glasses, first-aid supplies, etc.

Housing (excluding mortgage principle, which I catalog as a cashflow but not an expense)

- $4800 roof replacement
- $600 insurance
- $1863 mortgage interest
- $3093 property tax
- remainder miscellaneous

Goods & Services

- $2291 groceries
- $1441 utilities (water/electricity/internet/phone)
- $518 pets
- $463 entertainment/hobbies
- $365 gifts
- remainder miscellaneous

Overall expenses in 2020 were a few grand lower than normal due to nixed (or substantially reduced) commuting and travel, although groceries and utilities edged up. Net savings rate was 89.57%.

[Malum Prohibitum]

Net savings rate was 89.57%.

WOW!

[NotJen]

1 human and 1 cat living in a paid-off home, $17,920 broken down as follows:

$4,880  Food - Groceries dining out, alcohol   
$3,970  Home - Prop tax, insurance, utilities   
$2,290  Misc, household, leisure categories   
$1,470  Pet Care   
$1,190  Healthcare/Dental
$1,080  Auto - Insurance, gas, maintenance, prop tax, registration   
$1,000  Gifts and Donations
$   760  Cell/Internet   
$   740  Vacation
$   540  Personal Care + Gym   
$       0  Clothing   
$       0  Taxes - Income

[Kazyan]

Total spending for this one-person household is about $17,380, which includes $1,003 of a sinking fund to repair the home (except that I'll actually just sell some VTI or cashflow it when the time comes to do so). This is a 63% savings rate if mortgage and student loan principal are counted as expenses; it goes to something like 66%-67% if they aren't, but I don't actually know how much of each payment is principal. The exact spending total is vague around the tens digit, because I'm not sure which business expenses of the occasional mystery shop should count as spending.

Total expenses over the year:

Health Insurance	$2279.40
Mortgage	$4341.81
Condo Association Fees	$1080.00
Condo Repair Fund	$1002.97
Utilities	$1548.88
Student Loan	$1510.20
Phone/Internet/Website	$402.35
Gas	$112.04
Car Misc.	$32.64
Car Repair	$88.69
New Tires	$453.56
Restaurants/Delivery	$226.76
Groceries	$1715.56
Bike Parts + Repair	$164.31
Clothing	$48.75
Medical Costs	$900.32
Self-Publishing	$570.00
Uncategorized	$902.03

It's kind of wild that housing, including utilities, accounts for nearly half (46%) of this. It comes out to $7974, which...is a lot of money. I'm sure I could cut expenses with a better housing arrangement, since I don't even have a pet.

[2Birds1Stone]

My half of the expenses.

2020 Spending Review

$1,143   Housing - we were very fortunate wrt accommodations in NY and Poland this year. The only time we paid rent was through AirBnB in Portugal for 3 months.
$1,457   Grocery - a bit higher than my average grocery spending over the past 5 years, but I chalk it off to more convenience foods and prepared foods due to Covid induced restaurant shutdowns.
$290   Transportation - this includes all local transportation (metro, bus, train) in Europe for 7 months, and gasoline during the 5 months we were in the USA
$1,960   Entertainment - a lot of outdoor dining in Poland, alcohol for home and out, aquarium tickets, depreciation of bicycle purchased/resold in Portugal, WoW subscription, Spotify premium, etc
$1,305   Travel - major flights to/from the EU, travel between Portugal and Poland, AirBnB for 16 nights in the Polish Tatras, 3 nights in Beskids, and overnight sailing trip.
$453   Insurance - Travel/Health insurance for 2 months in the USA and 7 months in EU.
$380   Health/Hygiene - gym memberships, toiletries, sunscreen, misc
$584   Misc - BT speaker, BT headphones, bicycle in Poland, bicycle accessories, cell phone plan in 3 countries
$778   Gifting - birthday gifts, charity, picking up the tab when going out with family in Poland, host/hostess gifts when seeing friends, etc.
$8,350   Total Spent

[seattlecyclone]

Here's ours (two adults, two kids, and an au pair):

Housing:
$845 Homeowners and umbrella insurance
$5,722 Mortgage interest. Nuked the mortgage in 2020, no more!
$9,126 Property tax
$4,122 Utilities
$1,939 Home maintenance

Eating:
$7,458 Groceries. Includes booze and soap and whatever else we might typically buy at a supermarket.
$874 Restaurants/takeout

Transportation:
$7,080 Car. Most of this was repairs. We've had a string of years where no major repairs were required. 2020 was the year that a bunch of original parts from our 2004 vehicle (brakes, struts, catalytic converter, wheel bearings) needed replacement one after the other, plus a new set of tires and an oil change.
$36 Public transit. Not much bus usage during pandemic times.

Kids:
$9,580 Child care
$5,017 Education. Mostly preschool tuition.

Other:
$5,400 Charity
$221 Clothing
$333 Computer stuff
$567 Entertainment
$374 Gifts
$447 Misc
$1,562 Travel

Total: $60,723. Higher than I hope in a typical year in some categories, but well below 4% overall. I'll take it!

[mizzourah2006]

2 adults, 2 kids in daycare, and 2 dogs.

Total was $77,400. ~ $21k of that was daycare, slightly less expensive this year due to about 6-7 weeks of closures.

Our big expenses were covering about ~$3k of our new roof that the insurance didn't cover and repainting most of the interior of the house. Buying 4 bikes, 2 gravel for us and 2 for the kiddos ~$3.5k and $2k on re-landscaping the front and back yard.

[Much Fishing to Do]

A lot for our family of 5.  Holy crap a lot.  $120k? That's more than twice what we spent a decade ago.

But less than 4% of my LNW (including the college tuition), so I'm not gonna think about it any further as it'll just drive me nuts....

[paideuma]

Finances are separate, but I do split rent/utilities and food (roughly) with SO. Total came to $27,633.

Rent - $9,913
General Merch - $7,672 (spendy this year - new laptop, quarantine exercise equipment, desk/chair for home office set up)
Groceries - $3,132
Restaurants - $1,650
Clothing - $1,464
Utilities/Internet - $1,130
Automotive Insurance/Taxes/Repairs - $890
Travel - $691
Gifts/Cash - $527
Rental Insurance - $174
Entertainment - $174 (streaming services)
Gasoline - $155 (! usually ~$400)
Personal Care - $40 (used to be haircuts/gym category)
Healthcare - $21 (one doctors bill for a standard physical where I didn't feel like calling the insurance company... oh well)