What I Spent In 2020

I’ve never had a budget.  Ever.  I’m not against them and I actually think they’re probably necessary for those who overspend or who have a bad relationship with debt and money. 

But I wasn’t one of those folks thankfully. 

If you’re not familiar with my story I reached financial independence in my mid 40’s “accidentally” by having a good relationship with money.  I had a strong desire to save which for good or for bad came from a scarcity mindset. 

Saving massively on the big three expenses in life and religiously stashing those savings in the stock market starting at an early age got me to financial independence.  It works, I can attest. 

Since I never had or needed a budget, I never tracked my spending.  Sure I’ve always had a rough idea of what I spent in a given year.  It’s not hard to just tally up my mortgage and other big bills like utilities and car insurance and get a rough number. 

But I never tracked things like eating out, entertainment, etc.  I just always mentally registered purchases and knew when to apply the brakes if I had been going overboard.  My system is about as loosey-goosey as you can get, but it worked for me.

Last week I saw my final utility bills from 2020 get posted and it occurred to me that I might have spent way less than average.  Once COVID got serious in late March my life like most was changed and my spending habits did as well. 

So for the first time ever I tallied them up and I’m gonna deliver the goods!

 

The Books

In 2020 I literally spent no cash.  Zero, none, not once.  Normally I spend very little cash as I put most things on my credit cards to max out my points.  But in 2020 I didn’t use cash once, not even before COVID started. 

Using my two credit cards I was able to pull annual reports and voila, there it is, all of my spending for the year.  The two reports use completely different formats and classify purchases differently.  So this report is not down to the gnats ass by category like a lot of bloggers do as I couldn’t classify everything properly.  But the overall total here is pretty darn accurate.

 

Grand Total – $34,763.  To be honest, it’s not that much lower than a normal year.  I probably come in between $38,000 – $45,000 most years.

That big “other” category is all the stuff that between the two credit card reports would take far too much time to sort out.  I ride bikes a lot, so bike tires, tubes, and replacement chains are in there. 

My charitable contributions are in there, and I need to do better on that front.  Medical copays, my Amazon Prime fee, blog hosting fees, my annual National Parks Pass and dues to the American Alpine Club are all in that category. 

And yes I bought one or two unnecessary items because I’m human.  My favorite purchase in that category was a new backpacking stove (<–affiliate link) as my old one is on the fritz.  Whatever the price says now I didn’t pay, camelcamelcamel helped me get it on sale at $32 with an email alert.

 

About That Health Insurance Bill…

The “big three” for most are housing, transportation, and food.  For me it’s housing, health insurance, and food as you can see above.

I semi-retired and went to 20 hours a week at my government job in 2017.  Part time status as a Federal employee allows me to keep my benefits, but contrary to popular opinion us Federal workers do not have the best benefits in the world. 

For full time Federal employees the government covers 72% of the cost of the healthcare plan, and the employee pays the remaining 28%.  Since I’m half-time I have to pay for half of the governments share, meaning another 36%.  So I’m now paying 64% of the cost of my plan, while Uncle Sam is picking up the remaining 36%. 

If $5,301 is 64% of the cost of my plan, that means it’s an $8,282 plan.  Granted, I could pay less on the ACA exchange if I just retired fully, but I’d get a massively crappier plan with a high deductible.  My plan with the government is pretty good with no deductible, and if I want to switch I have a lot to choose from.

 

Dave You’re A Gluttonous Pig

Keen observers may look at my grocery total for the year and raise an eyebrow.  I spent $4,689 on food which comes to $391 a month.  For a single guy that might seem high.  My blogging buddy Mr. Tako for instance spent $425 for his family of 4 in December.  Granted, he said that he typically spends $500 but I’m barley more than $100 behind his normal, and he’s feeding four people.  What gives?

For another reference, Joe at Retire By 40 averaged $461 a month in 2020 for a family of three.

Regular readers might be saying “See, I knew it, Dave picks on Whole Foods but I bet he shops there because there’s no way he should be spending that much for one person.”  But regular readers should also know I rode my bikes 5,463 miles last year, ran 411 miles, and I workout a lot. 

The simple laws of energy require me to put those calories back in or I’d wilt away.  Yes it’s true, when you’re more active and workout a lot you can eat more.  Who knew?  This isn’t rocket surgery. 

Bottom line, I eat a lot.  When I’m really hitting the training hard in mid-season for cycling I’m probably going through 3500-4000 calories a day.  No, my metabolism isn’t naturally high, it’s quite the opposite.  I was obese in my 20’s, been there done that.  Not going back.  Health first, always. 

This Basal Metabolic Rate calculator claims a guy my size burns about 1,770 calories a day just existing.  Tack on a little movement (what most Americans get) and maybe I’d get to 2000 a day. 

I don’t count calories, but my guess is that I burn and eat an average of more like 3000 a day overall.  Those extra 1000 calories a day cost money, and are reflected in my grocery bill.

Please don’t think you can start a light or even moderate workout 2 or 3 times a week and then eat a ton more food.  It doesn’t work that way.  If you want to eat more you have to work out hard, pretty much every day.  With pain.  Lots of pain.  There are no shortcuts. 

But the reward of eating 3000 calories a day and not gaining weight is worth it 🙂

 

Tunage

Another thing I spend money on is music.  As I’ve blogged about before, I still buy .mp3’s because I want to have music to keep forever. 

Using a monthly subscription to Spotify for your music is okay until Spotify goes away one day, and they will.  After that you will have given them thousands of dollars and you’ll have no music to show for it.  It’s no different than leasing a car. 

But music doesn’t depreciate and eventually break like a car, once you buy it you have it forever.

I’m a music junkie so my music spending is not trivial (to me) but worth it.  In this case I did dig into my credit card and PayPal data to get a total.  Between Amazon, eMusic, and Bandcamp I spent $271.45 in 2020 on music. 

That’s $22.62 a month on average. 

This is more than normal for me, but as COVID dragged on and I kept reading about how devastating it’s been to artists and performers, I started to buy more of their stuff to support them. 

Kathleen Edwards made her much celebrated comeback in 2020, have a listen and support her.

And Bandcamp quickly became my favorite because in March they started waiving their revenue share on the first Friday of every month to help artists and labels impacted by COVID.  Plus their site is elegant and fun to explore. 

So that’s it folks, my first ever spending report.  Will it also be my last? 

I have to admit once I had the idea to do this post I was kind of excited to see what the final number would be.  Now the stupid type-A competitor in me has a warped desire to beat that number, because me.  Ugh. 

We’ll see 🙂