Anyone else spending way less money?

[soccerdad72]

Well, we're getting 50% of our son's room and board back from college this semester, so I guess so!

I'm sure we're spending less on not going out (and two cancelled vacations), but I've spent a little more money lately on things to keep our boys busy around the house (like a dart board for the basement and disc golf for the backyard).

 

[dish rag]

No doubt. Cancelled some trips. Have a big one planned this fall. If this isn’t done by then cancelling that will be the least of my worries.

 

[disneychrista]

Overall yes. But I did spend an entire months worth of $ on grocery & household supplies on Saturday. But that also means I won't be shopping for the next 3 weeks or longer.

 

[spiders]

Dining out has obviously decreased significantly.

I also refinanced last week and that was a big drop.

 

[superme80]

Our grocery bill has gone up, and we are buying less. It is super frustrating. We are making a point to only eat out once or twice a week. We are only going out for coffee/smoothies once a week too. I filled up my gas tank 2 weeks ago. I still have half a tank.

 

[morgan98]

I am spending a bit less on day to day costs and I have not even done one bit of online shopping. There are no commuting or work related costs like lunches out, drinks after work, etc. I also cancelled the together portion of our Italian vacation which saved $$$.

However, we have also had new pine straw spread in the landscaping, have to have someone out to fix an issue on our garage doors, bought several large plants that my husband has planted so we have not completely stopped spending. However, we were able to direct funds to those projects much easier than if the entire COVID event had not occurred.

 

[tinkerhon]

We’re spending much more. Take out is expensive.
But we’re not complaining if it helps to keep local businesses open and people employed.

I
Same here, plus, taking care of my 83 year old mom, and making sure we have plenty of food and cleaner, soap, sanitizer, etc -- water- so, ordering online -

Also, making sure the kids don't go nuts, so when they break from homeschooling, bought some dvds , books, and Nintendo switch games

 

[amcnj]

So far probably not drastically different. But I think now that the weather is breaking around here it might become more noticeable.

 

[mom2rtk]

We've spent a lot more recently. But that's because we live close to lots of stores and never felt the need to stock up on anything. Over the last few weeks, we've been beefing up supplies on lots of stuff.

Since it appears summer vacation is off, we'll be spending a lot less in the near future.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I've said this before but I can't believe how much some of you spend eating out!

 

[soccerdad72]

I've said this before but I can't believe how much some of you spend eating out!

Your point is?

 

[EveDallas]

We are (were? will one day again?) a big eat out family. Eating out 50-60% of our meals a week on average. Since the great lock down we have been exclusively eating at home. Sure we have spent more on groceries and on natural gas and electricity cooking but no where near as much as we have saved by not eating out $50-$75 once or twice a day.

We have also not made any trips to the store where we end up buying stuff just to buy stuff.

No impulse buys when we do get groceries.

No Amazon purchases.

We were not ones that had a lot of activities and thus far I have continued to pay the gym since I figure they need the money to pay their employees so not a lot of savings that way.

I wonder if we will be smart enough to continue our eat out home routine months from now when this all ends? Nah.

I'm spending a lot more. Getting take out about 2x weekly - doing my part to help businesses.

 

[EveDallas]

I've said this before but I can't believe how much some of you spend eating out!

Getting take out is one of the few enjoyable things I have left.

 

[easyas123]

I also refinanced last week and that was a big drop.

I can't get ANYONE to call me back about getting a mortgage. We would like some property from a family member, and no one is in a rush and I can understand not having settlement right away (and have left that in all my messaged!) but I can't even get anyone to call me back to get the ball rolling -

 

[PollyannaMom]

I initially spent a bit more stocking up to avoid my normal “stop on the way home a couple of times a week” grocery pattern.

Now I’m spending less on:
gas
restaurants
”recreational” shopping

Sadly, we also had to cancel a trip, so that’s a big chunk back in the budget as well.

 

[spiders]

I can't get ANYONE to call me back about getting a mortgage. We would like some property from a family member, and no one is in a rush and I can understand not having settlement right away (and have left that in all my messaged!) but I can't even get anyone to call me back to get the ball rolling -

I began the process about two days after Disney said they were shutting down. We closed last week - so it was about 2 weeks start to finish. We have enough equity so no appraisal was required.

For closing, one person came to the house and we met at the patio table to sign everything. We had our own pens.

 

[MamaLema]

Spent a lot of money stockpiling.
Hoping this paycheck I’ll see some savings.

 

[tvguy]

Spending less.
1) Digging in the freezer and pantry and eating stuff we forgot we had.
2) I'm working from home, that will save me $60 a month in gasoline
3) My wife still has to go into work, but gasoline prices have dropped 60 cents a gallon in the last two weeks,
4) Eating take out once a week, instead of restaurant food twice a week.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Yes we are saving a lot. We are completely shutdown here.

I did do a massive grocery trip (we didn't hoard) but just made sure we had one of everything we like instead of making constant trips to the store for odds and ends. Since I bought all this food I figure I'll cook it.

I have a college student who would ask for money weekly and a middle schooler who liked to have a padded lunch account at school. Also my middle schooler would like to do things with her friends weekly and also hit the mall for clothes often. Those things add up. Since there's no where to go and everything is closed there's no money to spend. I told her I'm not buying clothes that she can't wear anywhere. LOL Once this is over we can go shopping. (She prefers in store shopping anyway)

We also have very active social lives with our friends. My SO cancelled his guys trip to Florida two weeks ago, we cancelled a weekend in Atlantic City for April with friends and we would do happy hour once a week at a specific place with friends. Along with that we would probably go out to eat here and there, do date nights and hang out with our friends weekly whether it was out somewhere or gathering at someone's home doing BYOB.

Also there's no beauty salon, waxing, haircuts, nail salon, etc. That's saving us a chunk. My SO and DS get haircuts every two weeks. I did a mani/pedi every 2-3 weeks plus waxing.

My SO is working from home right now so we are saving a bunch on tolls ($5 a day) and gas for him. I'm still working but since we aren't going anywhere else I'm saving on gas. I'm on half a tank and I filled up almost two weeks ago. I only work 10 minutes from my home.

 

[kdonnel]

I can't get ANYONE to call me back about getting a mortgage. We would like some property from a family member, and no one is in a rush and I can understand not having settlement right away (and have left that in all my messaged!) but I can't even get anyone to call me back to get the ball rolling -

They have enough business already to keep them busy for some time. My neighbor is in commercial lending but said so many started the ball rolling a few weeks back when rates dropped that he doesn't expect the residential lending side of the bank he works at to catch up for a few months.