I LOVE venison. Deer jerky tops my list of “Things I miss from living in the country”
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I bought some backup sock needles and some specific for sock yarn which was on sale and wasn’t super special skeins that I felt precious about.
I spent more on food (1kg of walnuts) and we did one round of takeout to support a local place we would like to see survive.
I am planning to make the donation to my local arts thing, but that was scheduled for March anyway. I panic bought a potential desk 2nd hand.
I want to buy some lounge pants, and a better chair for wfh. I am looking at a couple of blazers that are on sale because eventually I will be back in an office?
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I don’t really buy booze for home and don’t drink much at all anymore (I will if someone makes a drink for me; I have weird rules about gifts) – but I totally just had booze delivered.
Mostly for nerve pain that doesn’t respond to anything else and I’m at that point in cyclical pain, but it was SUCH an impulse buy, like I probably said out loud “do it now before you’re broke”
It did not occur to me that I CAN reduce my retirement contributions. Heck yeah. Also my HSA if my paycheck ends up being less than those contributions, which it will within the next month if we observe the same lockdown practices.
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I have been spending a little more on food, simply because I’ve been ordering delivery from Whole Foods (literally the only store with fresh produce) instead of my normal super frugal shopping at 5 stores to get the best price.
I also bought a pair of madewell jeans this weekend that have been on my to-buy list for 5 months, and they were on sale at Nordstrom so I jumped on it. I’ll return them if my job situation starts to look dicey, but since I’ve been waiting to buy them for months I went ahead with it.
So far there has been no talk at my job of cut backs/closures or anything like that. Our offices in Europe are fully functioning, so it is really not look awful at the moment for us. Who knows what is to come in April. My budget will probably be super tight moving forward because I want to be prepared for anything.
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Oh, also, I was getting frustrated a couple weeks ago by the Tribune’s paywall so I finally ponied up for a subscription… and now of course they’ve dropped the paywall for all things corona. Whatever, it was like $6 for 3 months, I think? Still, I swore I’d never do this.
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I’m saving money! Earlier in mat leave I was buying something every day. Just because. Now it’s just essentials plus a little mini stockpile and a treat once a week
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It’s been about 3 weeks of mostly isolating here at ground zero of WA state pandemic.
Food Spending
So far, I have been spending less on food overall because I’m making far fewer grocery trips & eating down my pantry in Chopped: Coronavirus Edition. (Victory for the otherwise sad toor dal - the split yellow lentils. They are the neglected and leftover legumes I never want to cook under non-pandemic conditions).
When I go to re-stock (in the next few days), I’ll probably have a much higher than typical spend because:
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I’ll aim to limit the # of stores I visit (likely only 1), instead of hitting up discount stores like Grocery Outlet that don’t have everything I need
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I want to stock up more than usual: to limit future trips, in case I get sick or need to “officially” self-quarantine, or in case supply chains of food get further disrupted
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I’m spending more time cooking and with food prep, so my ingredient wish list has grown (the Bon Appetit youtube channel is my pandemic tv comfort food)
I haven’t ordered any takeout and usually don’t. But I’d like to start ordering takeout from local businesses about once a week or so moving forward.
Not Food Spending
I’ve spent a little more money on things that will allow me to care for Muppet at home, especially with regards to grooming. I was already doing this slowly, and this pushed me to pull the trigger on one or two big ticket items.
I’ve otherwise delayed ordering anything for delivery, because I especially want to group purchases together to cut down on how many deliveries I get (for the health of all involved and so as not to strain a system for non-essentials). There are are one or two things I do need (like replacement inserts for my hiking boots) that I now can’t easily get in store, so I plan to order them soon. Trying to figure out everything I might want for the next month or two of neighborhood based activity. I’m probably going to order spare chargers for key electronics in my life, as I’m worried about having only 1 (or slightly damaged cords) & replacement supplies coming from China may eventually get delayed.
I purchased a used van in Feb. I had been working through the list of repairs, recalls, maintenance. I had a goal of doing a few short day and then overnight camping trips in spring with an eye toward bigger summer travel. This was a big project that I had JUST decided to pull the trigger on before news of coronavirus spread. That is obviously all on hold now.
2 weeks ago, I stopped working through my list. The van still needs about $1500 of “stuff” (tires, windshield) for me to be confident using it for more than an occasional neighborhood drive. I want to figure out my cash flow strategy given current pandemic situation, though I expect I’ll still get these things done on the vehicle this spring. I also didn’t want to contribute to workers having to go to mechanic/repair/tire shops for non-essential needs during this critical time in our area. (The van is not currently my daily driver, though I had been debating whether it eventually would be.) This is a giant question mark in my life right now. This brings up swirling thoughts about where I live, how much I want to travel or incorporate nomadic/snowbirding, and whether I should have better “disaster prepping” components built into a van.
Otherwise, I haven’t dug in yet to entertainment subscriptions or donations or other spending stuff. These things are typically on auto-pilot. I plan to sit down at the end of the month and figure that out.
I think my general instinct when faced with anxiety and uncertainty is to stop, not buy, and wait for more info. That’s more or less what’s happening for me right now.
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SAME. Also elk jerky.
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I haven’t been spending any differently in the last few weeks, but I also feel like my spending was already pretty self-restricted. I do find we are doing more things around the house to keep busy with projects.
I am not worried with getting laid off at this point, but instead of putting extra money weekly against my mortgage I am holding back the extra $2-300 a week for whatever may be needed. I also took my birthday money ($500) and added it to Questtrade to make a purchase. The bid hasn’t gone through because I’m waiting for the shares to drop a bit more in price, so hopefully by the end of this week I will own another 25 shares. I’m going to continue to make my regular bi-weekly purchases off my pay to all of my plans.
I am grateful that I have paid extra towards the mortgage, and that if I do nothing more it will still be paid off next year. And I feel comfortable because I also have enough that I could sell stock to pay off the balance if was needed. All the efforts of paying down and saving is coming to fruition by having peace of mind during this time.
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Partner is about to spend $300 on lego. 
So apparently yes.
I’ve been enjoying buying shitty $0.99 games on the Switch as my window shopping experience.
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Ugh, one of my best friends back in CO made some amazing elk breakfast sausage and elk pastrami from an elk she hunted last year. I will miss having that now that I don’t live in elk country…
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Probably the best quarantine spending tbh.
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We spent $1000 yesterday ordering a fancy coffee machine, so yes. It’s a purchase we’ve been thinking about for over a year but we probably wouldn’t have made it except for the current climate. Mr Pancakes purchased a new computer monitor that he had been talking about for years, since he is now sitting in front of it all day.
Also I’ve been using up gift cards on things like Lego and toys to keep the toddler occupied while we are home.
We had a bunch of planned purchases that we won’t bother with now though. I was going to buy a bunch of clothes to fit while I’m pregnant but since I’m going to be home, I’ll make do with what I have that fits (mostly pajamas haha).
I regret not having purchased a new sofa before all this happened. It’s been on our to-do list since we moved last year. We have a hand me down old two seater which doesn’t really fit two people let alone two people plus a toddler, but I’m not willing to visit furniture showrooms now so it is what it is.
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This is me. I got a $20 unexpected tip and spent $10 of it on fancy vegan snacks at the independent specialty grocery store by work. Otherwise it’s been spend as little as humanly possible. I really want to support more local businesses or assistance funds for people out of work, but this has brought into stark relief how paltry my savings are. If things stay bad a while or my “essential” job becomes not essential, I won’t be able to last long without help from my parents, and I feel obligated to only spend on essentials as long as there’s a decent chance they’re going to be paying my rent. I’ve been leaving my wallet at home and taking like $2 with me to work so I can buy a soft pretzel if I need emergency rations.
I’m going to feel stingy if I come out of this ok, but right now I just feel too guilty that my consumer debt makes me such a liability.
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Oh yeah, and I decreased my HSA contribution because I have enough in there to pay off my active medical bill plus a little.
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Food spending is about half again what I normally spend for a month, mostly because I generally do the buy-produce-every-couple-days thing, and given what’s going on I’ve done a couple unusually large bulk buys instead and filled up the freezer along with putting several long-storing items (squash, potatoes) in the garage where they’ll stay reasonably cold just in case. And had a couple take-out meals with extra tips, although this is a case where I don’t go out to eat that often normally so it’s still not a particularly high amount. I’d actually be willing to spend more here to support local places if I knew what places were available to support.
On the non-food side I ended up buying a sit-stand desk since taking over the kitchen table for the duration didn’t thrill me, both from a crappy ergonomics perspective and a lack-of-kitchen-table perspective, and then I also did a major stock-up on cat litter although that would have happened crisis or not since I generally do a major stock up when the price of the 40lb boxes drops below my limit.
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I’m not concerned about my income, but I’ve basically been spending nothing but thinking about it a lot. No walking to the nearby shops, less grocery spending. I’m thinking about getting a lamp for the kitchen since the light stopped working and we don’t want to get an electrician in the house, but haven’t bought. I would love to make some extra purchases to help out our favorite small businesses but it just isn’t in the budget right now. I am considering breaking my “budget only at the beginning of the month” rule once our tax refund comes in so we can do that.
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If my online grocery getting continues like yesterday I will be spending a lot more on food!
Also I am a big tipper. That might be something I need to work on.
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I keep remembering more things - I bought a cheap printer since mine died and I needed a means of printing labels for any Etsy or Amazon orders I might get. Normally, I’d print those at work or at the library, or worst case go to the post office and stand in line… yeah.
I got an Etsy sale yesterday so I’m grateful that I did this! 3 or 4 more sales and I will have paid for it.
I found out this morning that layoffs are coming by end of the week, though, so I’ve got to clamp down on all spending now.
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Update: Partner is not buying the lego. She said “I already have more toys than I play with. I’m gonna go build a mad science laboratory in the basement instead.”
So far it involves shelves.
Will update further.
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