Couple weeks early, but I’ve prorated the relevant categories, so I think this is a reasonable reflection of what we’re expecting for 2022.
Code: Select all
2022 2021 2019
ADMINISTRATA $817.31 $495.07 $4,187.86
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Business Misc. $494.19 $151.00 $276.51
Estate Planning $0.00 $0.00 $3,558.32
Life Insurance $324.12 $324.12 $243.09
Office Supplies $0.00 $12.00 $8.49
Postage & Shipping $0.00 $7.95 $101.45
EXPERIENCES $1,912.27 $9,320.25 $3,605.99
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Entertainment $473.63 $2,851.55 $822.90
Travel $1,439.27 $6,468.70 $2,783.09
FOOD $16,751.23 $17,057.47 $7,487.67
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Groceries $7,879.34 $5,182.21 $5,935.66
Restaurants $8,881.89 $11,875.26 $1,552.01
HEALTHCARE/MEDICAL $7,832.88 $11,233.18 $7,584.15
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Dental $97.63 $598.00 $275.00
Health & Dental Insurance $3,473.02 $5,135.29 $3,367.44
Medical Spending $4,262.23 $1,908.89 $319.41
Therapy $0.00 $3,750.00 $3,622.30
HOME $27,981.30 $17,114.33 $23,722.33
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Home Insurance $1,914.50 $1,796.50 $1,500.00
Home Maintenance $8,709.07 $633.50 $1,609.28
Mortgages $14,990.21 $13,741.42 $19,100.00
Property Taxes $1,867.52 $942.91 $1,513.05
PERSONAL CARE $2,984.79 $2,246.70 $2,890.71
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Home Cleanings $1,900.00 $1,252.50 $0.00
Gym Membership $0.00 $0.00 $1,308.00
Personal Care & Toiletries $1,084.79 $994.20 $1,582.71
SHOPPING $4,855.97 $4,753.17 $1,084.74
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Clothing/Shoes $259.93 $944.72 $601.59
Home Furnishings $1,817.37 $2,922.87 $403.50
Electronics $1,508.69 $237.93 $0.00
Other Shopping $1,269.98 $542.65 $79.65
TRANSPORTATION $2,373.27 $2,789.59 $7,580.52
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Car Insurance $1,321.00 $1,539.90 $3,685.00
Car Maintenance $53.00 $124.82 $1,140.32
Car Registration & Admin $75.00 $135.00 $110.00
Gasoline/Fuel $143.25 $343.50 $975.69
Parking $210.25 $169.84 $261.25
Parking Tickets $429.00 $428.24 $350.24
Public Transportation $62.20 $49.00 $644.00
Taxi $79.57 $0.00 $414.02
UTILITIES $2,552.25 $2,334.93 $2,325.62
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Electric $111.51 $110.84 $101.97
Internet $704.12 $558.06 $678.44
Natural Gas $693.64 $674.02 $505.52
Telephone $262.98 $284.94 $329.81
Water $780.00 $707.07 $709.88
OTHER DISCRETIONARY $11,600.00 $7,200.00 $9,492.00
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GRAND TOTAL $79,691.27 $74,439.66 $69,961.59
- As usual, I’m not including what we throw toward either charity or income taxes.
- Breakdown from highest spend category to lowest.
- Grades based on expenditure vs. average for Boston metro/New England area: A >50% less, B 25-50% less, C 0-25% less, D 0-25% more, F >25% more
- We spent a lot on home repairs and maintenance this year. This included: de-leading the building for baby ($6000 after state tax incentive for the work to be done and for inspection/certificates of remediation), rerouting backyard gutters away from foundation ($1000), replacing the thermostat on our hot water tank ($400), washing an impacted HVAC condenser ($300), replacing burnt out wiring ($275), fixing broken solar microinverter ($250), gutter cleaning ($200), and various little supplies (HVAC filters, water filters, etc.). While the de-leading won’t be repeated, our house is over a hundred years old, so there’s always something that needs fixing or replacing.
- Home insurance is gradually getting more expensive.
- On the bright side, we’re still spending about $3K+ less on housing stuff than equivalent rent, even with all the house maintenance. And that’s not even including the additional tax benefits and throwing money into mortgage principle (~$10K). So still doing OK in this category and probably in line with what is to be expected barring a major change like moving or bringing in a roommate, neither of which we are interested in.
- My husband has taken over the cooking, which has generally meant the amount we order out has dropped down quite a bit. We probably average 3x per week at this point. That said, delivery fees have gotten ridiculous. Really, even if we just force ourselves to go pick up food instead of getting it on our doorstep, we could probably save on the order of thousands at this point.
- Also, husband has taken over grocery shopping, but hates going to the cheaper grocer, and instead goes to the expensive-but-middling-quality grocer. Moving forward, I want to shift our meat purchases to local services which have moderate pricing but high-quality, pasture raised meats. (I’ve already shifted us over for back half of December). In terms of produce, the biggest bang for buck while maintaining high quality would be to eat more seasonally, so I might try to tweak our meal plan in that direction even though it’s not normally what I’d prefer to eat.
- This is personal slush fund spending, i.e. money that goes into my and my husband’s individual accounts that we can use on whatever we want without asking each other. I’m sure this line item masks spending that would otherwise be accounted for in other areas, experiences and shopping in particular. In general, I feel like I could reduce my portion pretty easily. I know my husband struggles with staying under their limit sometimes though.
- Husband is no longer in therapy, which brought that expense down. We’re both doing well mental health-wise, which is great.
- Premiums were down since I didn’t switch jobs and go on COBRA.
- Lots of money thrown at fertility and pregnancy expenses. Fun fact: even though ultrasounds and bloodwork at certain checkpoints are part of the standard practice of care for pregnant women, they are not considered preventative (and therefore, we paid $$$ on copays). In addition, my husband tried to get their tinnitus and some sleep issues treated, and after a series of specialist visits, neither ended up going anywhere, wheee.
- Unfortunately, this line item is definitely going up next year, when I’m expecting to hit our OOP max with baby’s birth. On top of that, because I’m likely to leave my job next year, we’ll either be paying out the nose for COBRA or have our OOP “reset” when we go onto a plan on the exchange. Honestly, at our level of income, I have no idea how to get this number down barring leaving the United States.
- Got a new laptop to replace my 6 year old one. We’re likely good on new electronics for a few years.
- Did a minor revamp of our living space, adding Hue lights around the house, upgrading our storage, and replacing the TV stand I inherited from a college roommate to a nice restored vintage piece. It’s a lot cozier now and I think the Hue lights in particular helped me a lot with my seasonal affective disorder that usually sets in during winter. Altogether it was pure luxury and cost us a couple thousand dollars, but it is what it is.
- Lastly, we stocked up on baby gear. I think we’ll recoup a lot of what we spent here— or at the very least we have high quality enough stuff that I think it’ll last us through two kids. Obviously, I expect we’ll continue to spend at least some amount on kid stuff year to year, but we’re lucky in that we have other parent friends from which we can get various hand-me-downs.
- Had a cleaner come in once monthly for the whole year. Big quality of life improvement in my opinion, so I’m fine keeping the expense on regardless of the cost.
- No increase in usage, just in rates.
- If you take into account the profit we get from selling our net metering credits and SRECs, this line item is less than $1K.
- Continued to not really use the car much outside of grocery trips and regional travel.
- My husband keeps forgetting to move the car for street cleaning day. (I put this on them since I don’t drive.)
- Churning really paid off as we were able to do some posh traveling at significant discounts.
- In terms of entertainment, we were largely homebodies. A lot of this was due to the pregnancy. I imagine having a newborn will likely nudge us the same way.
- Crypto transactions meant our taxes were more complicated this year, which meant more $$$ on crypto-specific tax prep software.
Tagging improvements with the following impact bands: High >$2500, Medium $500-2500, Low <$500. Tagging improvements with difficulty bands based on gut feeling. These are not commitments, just ideas.
- [High impact, medium difficulty] No more food delivery. Either do takeout or keep more easy or even pre-made meals on hand for nights we are feeling too lazy to do cooking.
- [High impact, high difficulty] Insource home repair and maintenance, making one attempt to fix problems ourselves before hiring out.
- [Medium impact, low difficulty] Churn for family round-trip flights to the West Coast in case do the holidays with my folks next year.
- [Medium impact, low difficulty] Reduce my own personal slush fund/allowance.
- [Medium impact, medium/high difficulty] Go through with husband their spending of their personal slush fund/allowance, cutting out subscription services they are no longer using or addressing other areas of optimization for their “fun” spending.
- [Medium impact, medium difficulty] More seasonal meal planning.
- [Low impact, low difficulty] Call home insurance agent to push on negotiating better terms/rates next cycle.
- [Low impact, low difficulty] Call internet service provider to get us back to introductory rates.
- [Low impact, medium difficulty] Come up with system to remind husband to move car on street cleaning days so we stop getting tickets once a month.