Here is every dollar I spent in 2020:
Housing – $9,659 total // $805 per month (down from $10,621 in 2019, a $962 decrease)
Includes rent, utilities and any moving expenses. This was my second full year of living in downtown Dallas so expenses stayed roughly the same. The ~$1,000 decrease came from a sweet deal we got on a new apartment mid-pandemic when everyone was moving out of downtown, combined with no laundry expenses after purchasing a washer/dryer set in 2019.
This category will be the biggest wildcard for 2021. My lovely roommate who has lived with me for the last 2.5 years is unfortunately getting married in March. I am confident we’ll be able to find a replacement for him, but if not I could either be on the hook for a 2 bedroom apartment for a few months or break my lease. While I’d love to continue living with a roommate, there is a possibility I may move into a 1 bedroom place by myself which would increase the housing expenses quite a bit. We’ll see what the new year brings!
Cell Phone – $109 total // $9 per month (down from $274 in 2019, a $165 decrease)
Likely the most boring category this year. My refurbished 2017 iPhone SE still works like a champ, and I’m still rocking the crazy cheap service provided by my friends at Tello. My $9/month plan gets me unlimited texts, unlimited calls and 500MB of data (which I hardly ever use since I’m on wifi 99% of the time). If you’re looking for more data, they’ve got low cost plans for you too! This is one of the easiest categories to optimize, and a lot of folks could benefit from exploring other cell service providers.
Groceries – $1,420 total // $118 per month (up from $1,286 in 2019, a $134 increase)
2020 was the first year since 2016 that my grocery costs increased from the previous year. There have been no changes to the staples of my diet (rice, beans, lentils, veggies, nuts and copious amounts of natural creamy peanut butter and coconut oil). However, I explored some new recipes during the first few months of quarantining, and made a lot of meals for my quarantine buddies. There were at least 4 pesto pasta and garlic bread dinners early on, and my vegan cheesecakes were seen more frequently than in previous years.
Additionally, the Monday lunches, fancy dinners and regular travel for work dried up almost completely for the majority of the year. This likely added a bit more to my grocery bills.
Dine Out – $293 total // $24 per month (down from $458 in 2019, a $166 decrease)
You know why. While I still put effort into supporting some local restaurants by getting takeout, the lack of friends’ birthday dinners, casual stops by Roti walking home from Klyde Warren Park on a Saturday, and the cancellation of the second annual Chipotle burrito fest led to the ~30% decline here. I’m looking forward to spending more time with friends in real life and spending more dollars at restaurants in 2021.
Travel – $1,203 total // $100 per month (up from $1,108 in 2019, a $95 increase)
As one would expect, I took maybe 20% of the flights I typically do in a non-global-pandemic year, so why was this higher than 2019? About half of the total was buying gear in preparation for a backpacking trip in Arkansas. After spending the night trying to survive a monsoon, we had to hitchhike twice to get back to our car – if you haven’t heard the story yet, it’s a good one. Most of that backpacking gear will be used on future trips, thereby reducing some travel expenses in the future.
The balance of the spending was made up of trips to MN to close on my first rental house and visit the fam for the holidays, as well as the annual pilgrimage to the promised land in Colorado.
Transportation – $69 // $6 per month (down from $114 in 2019, a $45 decrease)
This is likely the biggest difference between my spending and that of the average American. I have intentionally designed my life to so that 95% of my transportation is less than 2 miles away from my apartment, allowing me to walk most of the time and ride my bike when needed for longer trips 5 – 25 miles away (shoutout to my Plano friends who are worth a 25 mile bike ride to hang out with).
Even if you would rather give up a limb or two before you ditched your car, I would encourage anyone and everyone to shorten their commute to work if possible. Not only will it save you money, but it’s been shown to increase your overall wellbeing as well.
My transportation spending this year included Lyft/Uber rides to/from social gatherings in January/February (and often split with friends), a few rides on public transportation (all of those $3 months) and one Lyft home from the airport when my flight got in too late for me to reasonably ask any friends to pick me up.
Other – $1,692 // $141 per month (up from $1,411 in 2019, a $281 increase)
Gifts/donations totaled ~$800 this year, and I’m thinking I should make this its own category for next year. It would be a great way to get myself to give more generously as I’ll be trying to convince you I’m a decent person 🙂
The remaining half of my miscellaneous expenses included paying for another 3 years of blog hosting ($350), health care expenses ($300) and a bunch of random other stuff. Funniest transaction of the year goes to the $20 my coworkers convinced me to spend on a Love is Blind-style virtual speed dating event. It ended up being a blast, so even though I’m still single it was worth the 20 bucks!
TOTAL – $14,445 // $1,204 per month (down from $15,269 in 2019, an $824 decrease)
This is the first time since I started publishing my yearly spending that the total has gone down, which is mostly attributable to the $962 decrease in housing costs. All other categories stayed roughly the same give or take 100ish dollars.
While I can’t complain about saving more, I wish this number would have been higher. I missed out on a ton of fun adventures, such as a trip to Europe I had tentatively planned in the summer of 2020 and countless outings with friends. I still had 11 of my 15 allotted vacation days left by November 1st this year, and will be making a point to have that not be the case next year. If you’re trying to go somewhere or do something in 2021, hit me up!
Which brings us to my forecast for next year. I’m going to aim high, and say that 2021’s spending will land in the range of $17,000 – $20,000 as I ball out on travel and experiences. I will be attending at least 5 weddings and will be in the wedding party for 3 of them. There has also been talk of hitting Kilimanjaro or Machu Picchu at some point, so it could wind up being an expensive year. I’m assuming I’ll find a replacement for my roommate, but if not that could add a couple thousand dollars more to the total.
All that said, if 2020 has taught us anything it is that we have no idea what will be coming down the pipe in the next 12 months. So strap in for another year, and we’ll check in again next January. Happy New Year!
Questions, comments, criticisms and love letters can be sent to hashtagmoneygoals@gmail.com.
Related Reading:
My Personal Spending Report for 2019